Solo Para Chicos

by Matthew Rettenmund

X a wily hustler, has a dilemma. The object of his affections is his roommate Andrew, who is confused about his sexuality. Meanwhile, X's other roommate-a seventeen-year-old precocious partyboy-is falling for X in a big way. The result is an old-fashioned (well, sort of) love triangle peppered with savage one-liners-a touching portrait of love and lust among three very different gay men

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, Gay, Gay Fiction, M M Romance, Queer, Romance

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Author of:

BOY CULTURE
BLIND ITEMS: A (LOVE) STORY
ENCYCLOPEDIA MADONNICA
TOTALLY AWESOME '80S
YOUNG AND HORNY
+ many more

Blogger at BoyCulture.com

Reviews

[Mirvan. Ereon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much! It hurts me so much to finish it. I fell in love with it totally. This is so delightful.

I love books about prostitutes and intense sex, and unrequited love. This book covered all of that so exquisitely and so erotically. I also love the honesty of the main character.

I have the lovely menage-a-trois book cover movie-tie in edition of the book. It seems so dirty in my shelf and I so love it. A definite great read. The movie is also very good. I would love to read this again soon and I cannot wait =P

[Don Bradshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a new author for me so my knowledge of his other books in non-existent. I wasn't particularly fond of X. His insecurities got a little way out at times. The ending was kind of sweet though at times it seemed like it was never going to come. The triad story line was good and thought out well.

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. X tells himself he's only in the hustling business because the money is good, but the few repeat customers he's retained over the years each help showcase a different aspect of X's personality, giving three dimensions to a character who might have easily been portrayed as just another gay stereotype. His affection for his roommates is heart-felt, and I really felt his frustration with wanting to go farther with Andrew while fending off the advances of other his underage roomie, Joe.

But perhaps the most memorable character for me was one of X's customers, an older gentleman content to pay X for his company more than his body. Between the scenes with him and the flashbacks to X's first gay experiences with his cousin, I found myself really fascinated with the characters. They were well drawn out and likeable, and there was a gritty edginess to the book that made it real to me. I even went so far as to write Mr. Rettenmund a letter thanking him for writing this book, though I never got a response.

If you like contemporary gay fiction with an erotic, street-hip edge, and wounded characters who struggle to keep their emotions under tight rein, definitely check this book out. I think you might be surprised.

[Amber Jackson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Im going to get my bad faith comments out of the way. I know it is harsh and mean but this author does not deserve the decency to a fully good faith review. This is the worst book i've ever read. Both in story, characters, tone, and writing. The fact multiple people read and approved this story actually hurts my soul in indescribale ways. Outside of its cowardly approach to a taboo confessional, it is extremely evident Matthew was a teen mag editorialist. The writing is so deeply juvinile i would go as far to say it reads as YA. Which is so deeply odd and uncomfortable when used for such controversial (i'll get there) topics. But it also at times made me laugh. Not in the way the author seems to wish though. In attempts to be serious or "real, to expose some sort of dark gross parts of the lgbt life style, I found myself laughing at how stupid the language was. Along with that the errors in this book are plentiful. Im amazed this has any editors at all. Im also amazed this has an almost 4 star average, that people say they thought this book was funny or insightful or uplifting. If you thought that, im genuinly concerned for you. Especially the person who said they read it when they are sad. Please get better coping mechanisms

At worst, Matthew is a weirdo pedophile using this book to write out his taboo porn. Or he is a deeply traumtized individual who is moralizing things that have happened to him. Which, would give me some empathy, if not for the contents of the book itself. You can feel the shame he has for being gay stick to your fingers on every page. Despite being abhorrent, it is also so painfully boring and cowardly. Constantly breaking the 4th wall to justify its awful writing choices and disgusting character actions. Maybe I could give this book the benefit of the doubt, if it had any ounce of self awarness of its predatory language. But it does not. Shown with the description of it being a touching portrait. Oh its touching alright, call the police.

And it still somehow bored the fuck out of me. Nothing happens in this book and we (very very literally) end in the same place we started. After awhile you just stopped being shocked and just wanted him to shut up about sex for two seconds but then when he did it would be a 2 fucking page description of a madonna cut out (Matthew is obsessed with madonna in a way that almost seems like he sees like her as a sign or requirement of being gay.) The only reason i finished it was because it was short and quick and i was in disbelief. both cause i cant believe i was given it so young. And because I really was for some reason hoping that it would be like "suprise actually hes a bad person" the book would still be bad but at least it wouldnt borderline offend me for trying to be some piece on gay culture

Okay. thats out of the way. ill try to be give a real review. Full spoilers ahead although theres not all that much to spoil plot wize. but, content wize. Jesus christ. Ill list them via trigger warning cause i genuinly think its needed

Tw: Stachitory rape, incest (multiple times), racism/racial fetiziation (multiple times), freudian level nonsense, and damn near every sex scene being of minors (mostly with adults)

I want to start with saying I dont think writing about any of this makes you a bad person. You can write from the perspective of a bad person and not be bad yourself. Yet I dont think this book considers its narrator a bad person. Or at least not as bad of a person as I do. The tone wants to be funny and "real" and vunerable but it just comes off as a massive self report. But ANYWAY

The short of it is we follow X telling us about his many sexual encouters as a prostitue and his obsession with his roomates Andrew and Joe (who is 17 btw and the book never lets you forget it. Narrator calls him kiddo all the time). Its sort of hard to lay out the plot cause we flashback constantly and its transitions happen so suddenly i had to go back and see if i missed something. I usually didnt. But i will. Fucking try to lay it out in a coherent way

The long summary is X feels his sexuality is defined by an sexual encounter he had with his cousin at age 12 (his cousin being 16). This leads him to fixate on Andrew (whos only shown as a parrel to his cousin cause they have similar names), a sexually confused guy who just wants to figure things out. X cannot stand this and constantly preys on him in moments of vunerablity. Joe is their 17 year old roomate who is attracted to X. During all this he recalls many clients but the only important one to the story is Gregory who is much older and has this "romance and sex are inhernetly interlinked" mentality. He has a very similar story to X in his youth. Gregory was obsessed with a boy seemingly because he is the only non white guy he was consistently around. Then said boy comes in randomly in the middle of the night and takes advantage of him. Gregory says they ended up being partners. X sees this as a sign of him and Andrew eventual partnership. At some point in this Andrew invites him to his ex girlfriends wedding. X pushes for sex in this emotional time despite Andrews hesitance. Following the outward sentiment "ill be here" with the chilling inner thought of I will never give up. This wedding goes fine to their upset. Andrew says something about fucking him after and X is upset because now Andrew is "the hunter". They get into a fight because for a reason unknown to me Andrew loves X and wants him to drop prostitution to be with him. Andrew has a lot of issues with sexual repression but the root of his concern is getting aids. Which is Dropped when the conclusion of the story is that X and Andrew have unsafe sex to?? Show their bond? Joe gets with his brother out of nowhere. Gregory gets exposed as a liar and X drops him as a client. This is supposed to be a big moment and leads up to him stopping sex work. Then the next chapter goes lol jk i didnt stop for andrew im going fuck the pediatrician i fucked in the first chapter. Such a nothing ending for a story where insane shit was happening. Mostly unlisted cause it wasnt plot relevant

I have. So many issues with this but. Ill do the writing itself first. Before our first chapter we get a cheesy at best and cowardly at worst depiction of the kind of confessional X is about to give us. Stating the story has no real moral and that you can try to find it if you want or just skip to the porn and masturbate (books words not mine). Which feels like a massive co-out when the end of the book tries to do this grand moralizing about how gay men are just little boys who are defined by their underage sexual experiences and become men when nonsexual things happen in their adulthood.

The book never once shows you these characters interacting in way that shows what they say about each other. Andrew has such a connection to this guy who only talks about fucking him and i simply am never seeing that "your my rock" side of things. We just know this guys has two roommates who are enamored with him cause…theyre gay? Thinking on it the only traits i can remember of these characters are fleeting mentions. Because to this narrator the people in his life are not as important as his sexual desires. And thats supposed to be relatable i suppose. That being gay is to be consumed by want and lust and comes with an inherent level of disgust.

Its even worse for joe. Hes written simply to be the infantalized object of forsaken attraction to X. I know nothing about him other than hes 17 and sleeps around alot. He hardly does anything in the story accept admit he likes x, trauma dump suddenly about his house burning down to give x a internal dilema, and getting kissed by his brother out of nowhere cause the author forgot he was writing a love triangle there for a second.

Theres constant repetition and lake of cohesion. Lines are repeated back to back with slight changes and suddenly in the middle of pages we jump locations with 0 ease. Its both so simplistic yet hard to keep up with. And sex scenes felt like listening to a child who just learned the terms for genitals.

Speaking of the sex. It is at its most detailed when it is about minors sleeping with each other or with an adult. When the book gets to what its been leading up to (sleeping with andrew) there are no specifics. And in its last page it cowards out and tries to moralize the underage writing. Breaking the fourth wall to address it directly and connect it to that whole gay men are little boys at heart thing. Matthew knows he has written something with no actual merit and with nothing to say but can't just admit it.

As for its tone on lgbt issues it might as well be a demolised piano, youd get better tone banging your head into the floor. I can at least appreciate that the only really aware part of this book is awarness of his hatred towards being gay. Saying hes not a good cheerleader cause there are in his words a lot of disgusting things about being gay. Which brings me to how badly matthew wants this book to be a tell of the "bad side of gay culture" but his view on his sexuality feels deeply seated in sex. Actually ONLY seated in sex. Gregory gets more gentle scenes than andrew does. And when Aids gets mentioned its ethier thrown to the side or the highlight of dialoug for like 2 pages only to not really care about it after that.

There are very VERY brief moments in the book i liked. But they were quickly ruined everytime. I enjoyed Gregory at first cause he was less sex focused than very quickly he starts rambling about objectifying someone. The part of the side character pouring his heart out about the deaths in his life from aids felt genuine until the wrap up treats aids like a risk that is fun to take.

Lastly. When i say we ended where we started. I mean it. We start with him having sex with a pediatric doctor whos into age play (which. X says since the doctor plays a child in their fantasy, it proves he is safe to work with kids. Not because gay people arnt pedos. But because theyre "one in the same". Which wraps into the whole "all gay men are little boys at heart" narrative in a really really gross way

Honorable mentions of things that pissed me off

- him sleeping with a man while underaged for money and saying "it was pay back for all the predators that took it for free". Which could say something about something but it dosent cause its in a drawn out underage sex scene

- the narrator constantly sexualizing the 17 year old. It for a moment acknowledges his "worry" for joe is actually caused from his attraction and dosent go into that at all

- the EXTREMELY sudden incest with joe and his brother that the narrator decided to add "i still jerk off about it to this day"

- the small chapter simply dedicated to how much he likes masterbating

- him dropping prostitution to get with andrew and in the next chapter is like "lol actually no i didnt"

- where he says he stopped being attracted to his dad the day he caught him masterbating(oddly they try to make this a big character moment but like. In the present? But hes like 8 or something and just yells "GET OUT OF HERE ILL KILL YOU" and its written like it was so badass like im laughing but not for the reason the author wants)

- the narrator thinking a cat is gay for watching him jerk off and describing a time the cat clawed is leg while doing it one time

- the constant use of the word spunk

- random racism that happened every few chapters (kfc eating drag queens being the worst offender)

- so much underage porn i literally think the only written out one between adults was X and Gregory

- WHEN HE FINALLY FUCKS ANDREW EVEN THO I DIDNT WANT IT TO HAPPEN HE DOSENT DESCRIBE IT?? BUT I GOT TO HEAR IM DEPTH ABOUT YOUR COUSIN AND PEDO DENTIST AHHHH

- Madonna

Madonna? You may be saying. This is what you end your review on? His constant remarks about madonna

Maybe its stupid. But yes. Its by no means my biggest problem. But its my best piece of evidence that this was not an analytical piece and was just porn (or moralizing of trauma). Matthew before writing fiction as stated before wrote teen mags about celebraties, along with writing a book entirely about madonna. His wiki mentions his "mania" for her. There is a entire. 2. Page. Long. Section. About a Madonna carboard cut out. Served 0 purpse and was written with such a different tone. As if looking at this cut out made him realize he was gay? Not to mention how stupidly prentious he sounds about it. "I followed the curve of her breasts and stared into the space between them, trying to enter her soul via the unseen left nipple" what the FUCK are you saying. Knowing his obsession and how often its brough up i can tell how self inserty it is. It borders on religious ferver. I may not know jack shit about the characters but i know all the gay ones like madonna. Everytime i said woah we havent mentioned her in a bit. Boom. She came up like insantly. Its like he knew he was driving me insane. It has no reason to be there other than author seeming to literally not be able to help it. He still tweets about her daily. shes NOT EVEN GAY.

Anyways bad book. Dont try to be like Dennis Cooper if your only experience in writing is manic life logging and teen editorial nonsense..wish i could give it negative stars

[Onjei · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect book to start my post academia reading stint. Short, sharp, and witty. So many good lines that you couldn't even appreciate them all, you just had to keep reading. Character motivations where a little opaque, with little input it seemed from the plot - more so for convenience. That could've been a reader fault rather that a writers, however - I did read it in two days.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Normally I like to read the book before I watch the movie, I think when I first saw this movie I didn't know it was a book. In any case I decided to wait a long time after watching the film before reading the book, I even chose to not re-watch the film in order to give myself as much space between the movie and the book as I could. Now, having finally gotten enough time since reading the book, I decided it was time to read the book.

My first reaction was that the book was nothing like the movie, but that isn't exactly the truth. While there was a lot that was different, the film is actually a pretty good adaptation of the novel.

[Bryan Ball · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some very good parts that almost save the story as a whole in the end, simply, cannot overcome the annoying and immature characters. What I liked about the novel the destroyed in the film adaptation, and what I hated about the novel they improved upon, making an uneven companion piece.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loves spreading hateful propaganda as long as it’s against republicans, white men, conservatives and anyone with opposing opinions. The name (boy culture)screams Chester. Is it for boys or men, hint it’s for men yet a name like boy culture? Entire blog is nothing but ranting, bias rhetoric, close minded thoughts, the hatred is literally palpable. He often is condescending and condemning to anyone who doesn’t believe exactly what he believes. Very tacky, tasteless and unauthentic. Can read many thoughts like his on many blogs online. Nothing special or intriguing. At least others like myself in the community are not so close minded and not borderline pedo like Matthew comes off. He gives men in our community a bad name.

[Terry Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

X is a hustler in Chicago. He makes a good living at what he does, but he's falling love with someone. The writing is snappy, the book is a quick read, and the story is straight-forward. Author Matthew Rettenmund has a knack for capturing what it's like to be gay. Here's a paraphrase: "If I knew I was gay instead of straight, I also knew I had to keep quiet about it. How do kids really know this? Few parents actually say: Here's what being gay is. Now don't do it. Instead, there is this subliminal cultural law out there that told me to keep quiet about [liking male genitalia] until I found someone who looked like he was keeping quiet about it, too."

[Molli B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good! Lots of differences from the movie, but that didn't bug me too much. I love the movie, it's one of my favorites, and maybe if I'd read the book first and then seen the movie, I'd be annoyed, but I actually think the movie handles a few things better than the book does, and it's all fine. I like both versions! (And apparently there's a Kickstarted TV series coming, too?! With Darryl Stephens! ♥)

(That's one good change from the book to the movie: Andrew is black in the movie but wasn't in the book. Another difference is that the movie takes place in Seattle but the book was originally set in Chicago—I love Chicago stories, so I was happy to see the city in the book.)

Quick, very enjoyable read. X's voice is good, feels authentic.

Good stuff! Glad I finally read it.

[Elija · Rating 2 out of 5]

Belonging to a different generation of gay, many of the references went over my head. Google helped. Overall, the story is alright. I don’t think I’ll be re-reading though.

[William Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another one of those books I cannot put a definite finger on what bugged me about it. The writing was OK but the characters could have benn a little more developed

[Vin · Rating 3 out of 5]

can you say magnetic?
charismatic?

[Idle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish it had a better cover but this is my great American novel.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Happy Hooker, Gay version, until he goes to a wedding with one of his roommates and decides love means something that hustling doesn't.

[Elisa Rolle]

It's always an hard task to write a good novel from a very good movie, and I think that most of the time you like one of them, the novel or the movie, but not both. So I was hesitant to read "Boy Culture" since I think the movie is one of the most wonderful gay romance movie out there. But the book is even better! Maybe since it's not an adaptation, but it was a novel way before it was made into a movie?

I think that the novel is better since the main hero, "X", has an innocence that was lost in the movie; the movie was also more "Hollywood" style, in the break and following declaration of forever love (wonderful scene with the two actors making out on the stairs), that X and Andrew actually don't have: their love story is more intimate, and it evolves nicely, there is no dramatic event that pushes X to take his decision to retire from being an hustler, he does it since he loves Andrew and I prefer this reason, for me it's a real proof that his love his sincere, he doesn't change who he is to "please" Andrew, he changes since he wants to be a better man "for" Andrew.

A thing I didn't like of the book is the output of X's relationship with Gregory, the octogenarian trick who tells X stories, and who helps him to realize he is in love with Andrew. Like in the movie, Gregory lies to X, but in the novel X is not able to forgive him... I feel sad for Gregory, I think it's not his fault if he was like that, it was a generation gap. But probably X has to break with Gregory since of all his tricks, he is the only one with whom X really betrays Andrew.

For being an hustler, X has a strange concept of betrayal and fidelity, something I'm not sure it came out from the movie. X's first love was a cousin of him, the boy who took his virginity when he was 13 years old and who broke his heart soon after. From this very bad first experience X learned two things: to associate true love with being a bottom, it's like you give yourself totally to another person, it's a so intimate act that it's scaring, and second that having sex without love is simple and better if done with an older man, less chance to fall in love. So X as an hustler tops only, and in a way, he remains pure and innocent, he is not selling love, he is selling something (being a bottom) that he will not share with his real lover, so it's not important. When X starts to think that it would be nice to have a boyfriend, to find Mr Right, he falls for his roommate Andrew, a man that in the book is stronger than X, both in body that in morality. It's so tender to hear X's thoughts when he said that he is no longer a virgin, he did everything with his body, but he is still virgin in one thing, no one ever really loved him. Only for this thoughts I think he is a lot stronger than what he thinks.

The book closes in a nice way, in a way that makes me think if there is not something of the author himself in X... All in all, thinking that this is a novel published in the '90, I'm surprise of how much a romance it's (there is even a reference to Fabio, the romance cover model...): I'm used to find gay romance good like this one now, but I didn't expect it in this one.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/031237271X/?...

[R. Montemayor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy Culture by Matthew Rettenmund or as I will now refer to it: A Nostalgic Reread That Didn’t Age as Well as I Did 💅🏼
This was a reread for me, and let me tell you, the first time I picked up Boy Culture was many moons ago, back when I thought my 20s would last forever and gay novels were like rare unicorns. I remember loving it so much that I practically shoved my hardcopy into my friend’s hands and demanded he read it. To be fair, I think he liked it, or maybe my over-the-top enthusiasm just wore him down. Either way, we were both buzzing with excitement when we heard it was being adapted into a movie.
And then… disappointment. Classic story: we hated the casting, hated the adaptation, hated all the things they left out. Basically, we walked out of the theater feeling like someone had taken our precious book and run it through a shredder. But hey, at least back then, we were starving for any gay representation in books or movies, so we took what we could get and called it “great.” Desperation does funny things to your standards. But enough about my love life.
Now fast forward to today: older 😑, wiser 🧐, and definitely grumpier😤. I decided to also reread Blind Items for nostalgia’s sake, and… yikes. Let’s just say that time hasn’t been kind to this book. or maybe time hasn’t been kind to me? The book hasn’t changed, but I sure have. My taste has evolved, my perspective on society has shifted, and society’s perception of us has changed too. All of that combined didn’t exactly do Mr. Rettenmund any favors.
Take X, the main character. Yes, that is his name. 🙄 Back in my 20s, I thought X was this gorgeous, mysterious hooker with a heart of gold. Now? He reads like a hooker with Daddy issues and superiority complex. Plain and simple. Cheese and crackers! Age has turned me into a total Judgmental Judy. And don’t even get me started on the other characters, they might as well be named Simple and Vapid because that’s about as much depth as they have.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still something charming about revisiting a book that meant so much to me back in the day. It’s like flipping through an old photo album: you cringe at your hair and outfit choices but can’t help smiling at the memories. For that alone, I bumped my rating from two stars to three. But if you’re looking for something timeless or groundbreaking, this isn’t it.

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Usually I’m happy to disparage any novel that fails to set my heart alight with its storytelling power, but actually, Boy Culture is a pretty apt example of how you can be a decent writer with some intelligent, pithy things to say… and you can still end up writing a crappy novel.

Boy Culture is a light-hearted, gay-themed rom-com with an inoffensively dumb premise: a hustler who’s only ever had sex for money falls in love with a starry-eyed virgin who has aggrandized sex as a loving act to the point where it’s never been ‘the right time’. It should be a fun romp as they each deal with their respective baggage and finally consummate their relationship, but… it’s not.

Matthew Rettenmund’s style is so digressive that it drifts into unplanned stream-of-consciousness. It’s hard to follow even the fairly simple storyline, because every couple of pages, the narrator starts talking about something that happened a few days, weeks or years ago. The lack of structure really began to drive me crazy by the novel’s end.

Rettenmund has a tin ear for dialogue, which wouldn’t matter so much if the narrator weren’t set up as a witty, cynical guy who can (apparently) take down anyone with a cutting one-liner. Despite the novel being fairly apolitical as a whole, there are some cringe-worthy ‘soapbox’ moments, when suddenly a character spouts an essay about an ‘issue’.

To reiterate, Rettenmund is not a bad writer – there are the seeds of a smart, modern romance here – but the poor plotting and feeble characterization make Boy Culture a complete non-starter.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't realise when I bought this book that it was a 'phenomena' or that it had been turned into a film (which I haven't seen) but in the process of actually reading the book I discovered not simply that I hated it, but a desire almost to die it was so awful and depressing to discover that this twaddle could be on the NY Times best seller list (I don't know if the NY Times gave it a good review but I almost wished the homophobic days of yore which Gore Vidal wrote so amusingly about when the NYT had refused to mention, review or acknowledge any type of book with a homosexual theme was still going so as to deny this rubbish the plentiful publicity it was receiving). Everything about the story and the mediocre writing left me cold - I'll be honest I'm not a twenty something gay man ( I am an 60 something queer man which I add only to avoid accusations of Homophobia) - but not being the same as the characters in a novel, or familiar with where they live or the particulars of their time and place hasn't stopped me from enjoying a whole range of wonderful novels and writers who write about things I've never heard of or experienced. If to like this book one needs to be familiar with particular milieu or age group or city it only confirms me in the belief that this book is worthless. I would never recommend it and, I hate too say it the book offended me with its meretricious awfulness. But hey loads of people loved it and my opinion ain't gonna have any affect.

[Jordan Lombard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Series/Standalone: stand alone
Genre/sub-genre: humor/sorta romance
Book Format: print
HEA/HFN: yes
Relatable characters: yes
Abuse/Rape: no
Violence: no
Ratio of sex/plot: even-ish
Well written/editor needed: well written
Would I re-read?: yes
Personal thoughts: This is not a traditional romance, but the main character, X, does fall in love and seems to think he's going to be happy for the rest of his life. I really enjoyed this. I liked how the chapters were little insights to his life, and how each one was labeled as a confession about himself. It was also humorous at times. I was afraid of the sexual index in the back, thinking this would have a TON of sex in it. But it doesn't. It's tastefully written, sometimes fade-to-black even, so even when X suggests that the reader should go back and masturbate to specific scenes once they're done reading, I didn't think it was that kind of book. I saw the movie before I realized this was a book first. The movie was very good, and after reading the book, I think the movie follows the book pretty closely.

[Nico · Rating 2 out of 5]

-"Lo que ves es lo que hay" supongo que sería una buena forma de definir el libro, escrito como una serie de confesiones, cuenta la vida de "X" como prostituto (¿Alguien usa en la vida real el término "chapero"?) sus aventuras y desencuentros amorosos, el triángulo amoroso con Joe y Andrew. Obviamente el narrador no se reprime de analizar y criticar su entorno y la "Escena Gay" (¿Así se dice?) de Chicago de los 90'; hacia al final con la historia de Gregory se insinúa cierto intento de hacer "una caja china" y hablar sobre la subjetividad del relato y el embellecimiento romántico, pero es sólo una insinuación. Lo qué mas me gustó de todo el libro fue la historia del cliente militar y la historia de Gregory, las dos.Eso.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

X’s exploits are titillating yet lighter on the vulgarity than you would imagine. After years of building a tough carapace around himself, the idea that he could be falling in love is startling to him and the reader. In spite of cynicism, in spite of an ending that is a literal wink, this is actually a love story, a growing romance between X and Andrew.

Incisive, ribald, bitter, cruel, trenchant, funny, this naughty anonymous romp through one gay hustler’s life is pitched as a series of confessions á la Penthouse but with a philosophical pensiveness and thoroughness that indicates a maturity greater than that found in your average 25-year-old lad.

Hook with a heart of gold? Not quite. Raconteur with a glib tongue? Absolutely.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another of those, 'the cover, oh dear god, the cover!' books. However, what it contained inside was remarkably good. Rettenmund is an author after my own heart, citing such wonders as E. M. Forster (comparing his narrative to such - heathen!) and Maggie Smith ('the Maggie Smith of cinemas'). He whipped up some surprisingly genius phrases for the subject matter. His defense of prostitution, however, was a little thick. But, the ending was good, so what can I say. I recently saw the movie they made of this, and, while decent on its own, it was no match for the book. They made a lot of meaningless changes to the story and the actors were sort of retarded. Oh well.

[Nan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of money and time! If I had known that this was about a movie a watched long time ago (which was better than this book, by the way), I would definitely not bought it. What can I say? Boy culture is a boring, old, outdated (the gay scene has changed a lot from then to now, that the guys and their lives in this book sound prehistorical), predictable, stupid, ridiculous story. The "erotic" descriptions are everything but erotic. His prose is so cheap and still tries so hard to be fun that it ruins it all. PS. The Spanish translation is terrible >.< Gosh I hated it, I'm sorry...

[Dara Lebrun · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a woman, there's almost nothing more fun than reading witty gay male fiction. Talk about "fly on the wall." Talk about relief from self-aggrandizing straight guy fetishes. Much more fun to read about men lusting after men. I'd take it any day over Fifty Shades of Puke.

Boy Culture cracked me up and showed me another side of life. Published in the 90s, it has that pre-Bush era levity and grit. Yet the characters were simpatico, and they changed by the story's end.

Would that life could remain so playful.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been better named Hustler Culture. What happens when a hustler falls in love. The narrator is a fussy prostitute; fussy because he is very selective about his “dates”. He also has two room mates. Joe lusts after him. He lusts for Andrew. Andrew is interested in the narrator but doesn’t like the hustling. But selling his body is all that he knows.

Boy has many funny parts, especially the “sexual index” at the back of the book.

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[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has a good point and has really helped me by letting me know that i shouldnt be ashamed of my sexuality and that it is ok to be different plus this book also has the true meaning of love behind it and no matter what sexuality you are their is always someone out their for you if you are just patient and wait fir the rightg person

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is always better than the movie and this is no exception. While the movie is great on it's own, there's so much more in the book, more depth. I wanted X to get his man at the end and to see how it happens in the book is much more heartfelt than the film.

[Daniel Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought it was good, liked that it was set in Boys Town in Chicago, but you couldn't quite tell if you were supposed to like/respect/root for X or not. I don't always enjoy a first person novel where the protagonist is unlikeable or unredeemable. Call me shallow.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Fast read. I really enjoyed the author voice and the main character’s unique perspective. I saw the movie first, years ago and think both the book and the movie were very entertaining. Makes me want to see the movie again now.