Boys of Life

Tony Blair, an uncomplicated sixteen year old lad living with his brother Owen and his mother in a trailer in Kentucky, is seduced by Andy Warhol like filmmaker Carlos Reichart, who is filming locally. Carlos then takes Tony to New York as his lover and star to be, ultimately featuring him homoerotic and sadistic films. Eventually Tony meets Monica, they move away to Memphis together and Tony tries to build a new life, however things go wrong when he encounters a Carlos Reichart film showing locally which has a shocking revelation for him. The story is related by Tony from prison.. This is a riveting, complex and imaginative story, beautifully and movingly told, and the sex, sometimes shocking is never gratuitous, never beyond what is essential to the narrative. A very moving account told with great boldness, openness and insight.

I have no qualms about saying that this is one of the most moving and convincing narratives I have ever read. I've read it about a dozen times in the past eight years, and every time I am further astonished at how believable the narrator's voice is. This novel is the story of an extraordinary life -- the narrator, a teenage boy, is seduced by an older man, and ends up leaving his sheltered existence in Kentucky to live in a bizarre combination of fame and squalor in New York City -- but the characters (outrageous and eccentric as most of them are)are portrayed with such love and humanity that it is next to impossible to believe that they are works of fiction. Not that it's exactly a happy book -- in fact it's pretty terrifying -- but I defy any reader to come away from it unmoved. I can't recommend it strongly enough!

When most authors make an artist the hero of a story, they write a self-indulgent parable about how "art" is so noble that the people who make it should not be held to the same moral standard as the rest of us, and damn the consequences. Russell, in a refreshing contrast, exposes the wretchedness that artists can create in thier own lives and those of other people when they value art over morality. I have never encountered a better depiction of nihilism among the avant--garde than this astounding novel. Many readers would find the voilence and explicit gay sex too strong, but those who delight in ugly beauty will love Boys of Life.

Wow! This book was really good though it was really graphic, sexually. But besides that, Paul Russell's "Boys of Life" is exteremly packed with character development, suspense, symbolism, and irony. This book is about the minipulaton between two gay men and it's consequences. I reccomend this powerhouse novel to anyone but I caution you on the amount of sexual content that this book upholds.

Paul Russell is an absolutly amazing story teller. "Boys of Life" is primary example of that. The character development in this book is really something that has been missing in many other books over the years. Once you read this masterpeice you'll be more and more intriged with Paul Russell's other great novels. And that's a good thing. All of his novels are deep, dark, and haunting, just the way I like it. If you want to read a book that won't be disappointing to you, then dont miss reading Paul Russell's "Boys of Life".