Product Description

"Would you come home, Walter? Please?" With these desperate words from the mysterious, distant mother he hasn't seen in ten years, Wally Day finds his carefully constructed world falling in on itself. For years, the handsome actor has made denial his own particular art form - from his stalled career to his emotionless embrace of the hard-edged boys who regularly traipse through his bedroom. But now, faced with this sudden intrusion from his past, Wally must confront the reasons he left his hometown of Brown's Mill in a cloud of anger, shame, and guilt. He must look face-to-face upon the ghosts of his past: his mother, who he once loved more than anyone else in the world; his abusive father, who never looked at Wally without contempt and suspicion; the life-affirming Miss Aletha, whose love had given Wally refuge; and most of all, Zandy - the man whose memory still haunts him, whose love for Wally had been called a crime - a crime that sent Zandy to jail. But Wally isn't the only one who's confronting ghosts. His mother Regina had dreams too once, dreams corrupted by fate and circumstance. With her own world unravelling, with strange, confusing memories of a murder that may or may not have occurred, she turns to the son she barely knows for help. As Wally unravels the dark side of his All-American family, he has a chance to make peace with the boy he was in order to become the man he needs to be. He is once more the 14-year-old living at Miss Aletha's house on the wrong side of town, the music of Saturday Night Fever providing the charged, erotic soundtrack to his life. The world was on the exuberant edge of change in those days, and Wally relives the thrill of discovery, the promise of forbidden sex - and the mistake that cost him everything. It's a journey that will take both Wally and his mother back to their pasts - to a time when Regina was a starry-eyed girl and Wally the good son, the smartest boy in his class, the shining picture of the "All-American Boy". It's a journey, too, that takes a chance on the future - for now, mirroring his own involvement with Zandy twenty years before, Wally finds he may have something to teach about love and self to a sixteen-year-old boy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #772980 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 242 pages

Customer Reviews

The secret is in the apples...
This is the first novel I have read by William J Mann, and it is a superb addition to my collection. As well as being intriguing on the most basic level (small town scandals, hidden family secrets) it is also highly accomplished (adeptly employing techniques such as fluid notions of time to both portray the characters' states of mind and to reveal incidents that created the people they have become).

Although Walter is ostensibly the primary focus of this novel, all the characters are well-developed and vividly portrayed - and moreover, are intensely human, with their own quirks and three-dimensional personalities. Walter's mother, for example, is a masterly creation in her own right. And that's really the point of this review - to stress that this is unquestionably not a `typical' coming of age novel; it reaches far beyond such simple categorisation. Similar in vein to the excellent works of Bart Yates and D Travers Scott, `All American Boy' is expertly crafted and multi-layered, incorporating far broader themes that apply to individuals of any sexuality: the point at which innocence is lost and it's significance; the role of family and extended families; the consequences for the future of closing one's eyes to the past.

One of the most appealing aspects of this work is that the author avoids the temptation to play god and pass moral judgment over his creations, but recognises that the subjectivity of morality mandates that the reader must be left to draw their own conclusions. This is, in part, achieved by the technique of allowing us only to view events through the eyes of the characters themselves; an admirably Nietzschian stance recognising that `reality' only exists from an individual perspective. Hence as there is no overseeing eye that reveals what `really' happened, many elements remain unanswered and ambiguous. This is heightened (as in Travers Scott's `One of These Things') by the occasional hint of mysticism. Those who desire fairy-tale simplicity may be frustrated; those seeking a thought-provoking read with which they can actively engage, and which may present previously unconsidered realms of introspection, will be in their absolute element.

This excellent work has a great deal to offer: powerfully authentic characters, page-turning plot lines, and - above all - a tantalising glimpse into human nature. Read this book; you will not be disappointed.

Gripping
The book is absolutely gripping. I could not put it down and read it twice. William J Mann's style is so precise and so musical. The characters come alive and it seems as if the reader has known them forever. All the characters sound true to nature and all are, in their own way, very moving. I recommend the book very warmly indeed. I am sure that you will be tempted to read it again and again as I have.

Self-indulgent nonsense
What can I say?

I had high hopes for this book - the overview was exciting, setting the scene for a (potentially) great story and the other reviews gave high ratings.

In reality though, the book was confusing, poorly written, difficult to read (not due to content) and badly paced. The author states in his 'letter to fans' at the end of the book that it was 'a book he'd long wanted to write' - which explains the self-indulgence of the story, characters and content.

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't actually finish the book - I was two-thirds of way though when I gave up. I didn't understand and couldn't be bothered trying to anymore. This also explains why I'm not talking specifics here with regard to the story (what story) - I just don't know what it was on about!!

Future readers - buy at your own peril.....