The Best Little Boy in the World by John Reid / Andrew Tobias
Posted by Jon at Monday, September 01, 2008
Here's one delightful book that I have just completed reading. The Best Little Boy in the World novel, which is supposed to be a memoir of the author, Andrew Tobias, who wrote as John Reid. Actually, to be honest, whether it was John Reid or Andrew Tobias, the change of the name did not do so much influence on me as I explored the book. When I was reading this book, it was more like Andrew-who? Not that I am really fond, or knowledgable, of the financial world, where Tobias is famous in.
This book is about the supposingly Best Little Boy in the world. A boy who does not do things he believes the society is not approved of. So, he does not fart. Nor does he talk dirty words. And he gets the best results in classes. And in sports. He does not lie. Nor does he masturbate. The Best Little Boy does what Best Little Boys are expected to do.
However, Best Little Boy notices that he likes boys. He likes to imagine his cute male friends as cowboys he wants to play cowboys with. No kissing, no touching, no hanky panky, but just cowboys. And that makes him a loner in the world where boys grow up to become young men who date girls, who want to have sex with girls, who have sex.
Best Little Boy grows up slower. But when he does, he explores his world and leaves his suppressed life behind, and begins to feel that happiness he longs for. Not that it comes easy. There is Eric, who fails to keep him interested for long. There is Chris, whom he has gone into a relationship with, although he is eyeing Golden Boy, Chris's best friend. And there is Freddie, whom he admires, but cannot have.
I enjoy this book. It tells me of an American boy who grows up in an American society where gay is the background. There is much to learn from his life. But what I do like as well is the honesty projected by the author.
The author said that his friends commented that the earlier part of the book was interesting, and the other half was a drag (a bit). I sawit differently. I thought the earlier part was draggy, although still interesting enough, and the otehr half was the fun part when he explored his sexual world.
0 Comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
