The “extraordinary novel” (The New York Times Book Review) about one boy’s coming-of-age during the 1950s—and one of the most groundbreaking portrayals of gay life in American fiction
“The best American narrative of sexual awakening since Catcher in the Rye.” —Chicago Sun-Times
Ridiculed by his classmates and beset by aloof parents and a cruel sister, the unnamed narrator of Edmund White’s first autobiographical novel finds solace in literature, works of art, and his own fantastic imagination. But as he strives to forge new friendships, his yearning to be loved by the men in his life evokes a crushing sense of shame and a struggle to accept who he is. Lyrical and poignant, A Boy’s Own Story—the first of a trilogy, followed by The Beautiful Room Is Empty and The Farewell Symphony—is an American literary treasure that became an instant classic upon publication for its pioneering portrayal of homosexuality.
About the Author
Edmund White is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the novels Fanny: A Fiction, The Farewell Symphony, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, and The Married Man, and the memoirs Inside a Pearl and The Unpunished Vice. He has received many awards and fellowships, including the National Book Foundation's 2019 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters; a Guggenheim Fellowship; the France-Ameriques Award; the PEN/Saul Bellow Award; the Mondello Prize; and the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Genet: A Biography. A former official author for the state of New York, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and an officer in the French Order of Arts and Letters, he lives in New York City.
Praise For…
By the Winner of the National Book Foundation’s 2019 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
“Every so often a novel comes along that is so ambitious in its intention and so confident of its voice that it reminds us what a singular and potent thing a novel can be. One of these is A Boy’s Own Story.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“With A Boy’s Own Story, American literature is larger by one classic novel.”—The Washington Post
“The story Edmund White tells is spellbinding—by turns incisively satiric, goldenly nostalgic, calmly voluptuous, and throbbing. . . . No reader, straight or gay . . can fail to experience shock after shock of recognition in these pages.”—The Washington Post Book World
“It is any boy’s story. . . . For all I know, it may be any girl’s story as well. . . . It is one of the two or three best novels I’ve read this season.”—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
“Enchanted, dreamy, elegant and exotic . . . The book touches universal bases with smashing success.”—Publishers Weekly
“White writes with shimmering sensuousness. . . . Balancing the banal and the savage, the funny and the lovely, he achieves a wonderfully poised fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review
“The best American narrative of sexual awakening since Catcher in the Rye.”—Chicago Sun-Times
