Aloysius's review
A Boy's Own Story (Vintage International)
by Edmund White
Aloysius's review
A Boy's Own Story (Vintage International) by Edmund White
Aloysius's review
rating:
This book starts out well, giving an interesting evokation of a gay man's youth in the Midwest, small town America, but when the main character enters boarding school, it veers off course and I lost interest. In the end, White's story supposedly autobiographical comes off as a bit difficult to believe, as though halfway into the composition he decided his goal was not to write a realist rendering of his life, but to shock and be sensationalist. Perhaps in the time it was written, there was some point to this, but reading it in 2008, it has a rather ridiculous effect.
Another problem I had with this was the prose style. For some reason American writers of this period (Philip Roth, John Updike, etc) tend to all sound the same to me, use the same voice, have the same opinions, and stylistically I find it dull. It's almost like they were taught there is only one definitive way to write and that's it. This book reminded me of Goodbye Columbus. If you're into that kind of thing you'll en...more
Another problem I had with this was the prose style. For some reason American writers of this period (Philip Roth, John Updike, etc) tend to all sound the same to me, use the same voice, have the same opinions, and stylistically I find it dull. It's almost like they were taught there is only one definitive way to write and that's it. This book reminded me of Goodbye Columbus. If you're into that kind of thing you'll en...more
