Boyhood

by David Keenan

Boyhood opens in 1979 with the abduction of a young boy outside a Glasgow football ground. Nine years later, the boy's brother, Aaron Murray, is on the cusp of that moment when adolescence becomes adulthood. His own journey of grief and recovery has been guided by an angel, 'The Precious Gift' - perhaps imagined, perhaps real - who has blessed Aaron with redemptive, messianic powers. These have enabled him to see through the past and present, joining the dots between a vast array of characters; ballerinas, soldiers, poets, burlesque dancers, East End gangsters and the Vampire of Derry over five decades, all tied up in each other's fate.

As Aaron's visions span cities and decades, from wartime Paris to the Troubles in the 1970s, Mexico City in the 1980s to - of course - Glasgow, Boyhood builds to an extraordinary, intense, climactic moment of redemption.

A book of great joy, of laughter in the face of horror and delight in storytelling by the beloved and critically acclaimed author of This Is Memorial Device, Boyhood is a hymn to the resilience of youth, to the brave dreams of artists and lovers and a love letter to Glasgow - a city where magic happens.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature

342 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 9, 2026

About the author

David Keenan is an author and critic based in Glasgow, Scotland. He has been a regular contributor to The Wire magazine for the past twenty years. His debut novel, This Is Memorial Device, was published by Faber in 2017.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea what I have just read! I can’t say it’s enjoyable but definitely an interesting read. Drifting into the surreal at times, this book delves on themes of PTSD, grief, friendship as it tracks the journeys of the multiple characters through various times. I can’t tell you how it ended, or what it’s about but can say it was well written and very graphic at times and has given me lots to mull over in its aftermath!

[Don McKinlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Keenan’s books leave me exhausted
Which is a VERY GOOD THING
Boyhood is a deeply wonderful book with so many threads that it’s hard to imagine one brain pulling it all together, and it leaves me with the feeling that I might’ve missed a few connections along the way so I feel that one day I’ll need to go back and check all over again

[Joe Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where to even start with this novel?

A talking horse. The oldest tree on the planet. Gypsy gangsters. A French ballerina in the 1930s. Mexico City nightclubs. Cathedrals. Anabasis. A semi-legal funfair. The Undertones. A sofa-surfing burlesque dancer. The Nazi occupation of Paris. The Vampire of Derry. Pagodas. Letter bomb. Maya glyph scholars. Ex-con creative writing classes.

.........and the list could go on and on and on.

Spent the entirety of the book feeling equally enthralled and confused. What a unique and enjoyable reading experience.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keenan is a genius.

[Jonathan Pool · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read multiple articles reflecting on the nature of the novel, and of experimental writing, and pushing the form. The Goldsmiths College in London has an annual prize celebrating literary pioneers, mavericks, and one-offs.

Then there’s David Keenan.

Boyhood is the third (fourth if you include the Towers) of his that I’ve read. The style is inimitable. The onrush of subject matter covered, the raw energy. He really is a force of nature, and I believe his writing style is getting better as he produces more work. And he’s not a man who needs time to hone his craft over years, or even months. The outpouring of ideas, and multiplicity of narrative tangents is breathtaking, and exhausting.

I’m cautious about writing a review which sets out to explain this writer’s intent. Keenan is big on immersion in the immediate moment of reading rather than cerebral unpacking.

That said,

• Mindy Sparrow is the most wonderful portrayal of innocence, and naivete. Attractive looking, attractive personality; game for unplanned adventures and driven by the laudable desire to astonish. I love the idea of young people travelling across the world freed from the shackles of convention. Would I be relaxed if my daughter took Mindy’s bohemian approach literally… no.

• The Ruffs, the Bollands, Andrew Lethal (Thomas Pynchon would approve of Keenan’s names). These local gangsters are funny rather than frightening. Its stylistically Guy Ritchie’s Snatch and Lock Stock. Allotments, horses, sledgehammers

• Joseph Noth. For all Keenan’s knockabout malarky, and cast of unconventional characters, he also writes with great feel for history, poetry, and literature. The Noth storyline, from 1938, provides a hard core bringing together the disparate strands of the novel. Keenan is fascinated by the idea of “anabasis” - A journey to the interior, and back again. Keenan also never misses the chance to introduce “diorama” (even in his online name tag). Anabasis, and diorama. Somewhere in the mix I have to believe that keenan wants to present his own view of how everything connects. Other people choose religion; so each to their own.

Keenan is always a scream to read.
I laughed out loud “You could have shampooed a buffalo” . No context provided by me here (its on page 75)

I’m due to hear Keenan speak about Boyhood soon. Can’t wait. It will be like storm chasing. Do I dare ask him about AI?
I think not. Keenan is an unabashedly sexual writer, and this AI is an acronym for a type of pleasure taking that seems to appeal to a significant number of Keenan’s characters!

Terrific read to shake up my rather more conventional reading tastes.

Addendum
In conversation with Andrew O’Hagen. LRB 6.5.26

• DK discovers where he will go as he is writing

• Cited Carlos Williams (poet, died 1963) as an influence. (Williams sought to renew language through the fresh, raw American idiom that freeing it from what he saw as the worn-out language of British and European culture.)

• Cited Arthur C. Clarke Rendezvous with Rama (1973 hard science-fiction novel famous for its grand sense of scale, realistic scientific exploration, and the eerie mystery of encountering advanced technology that remains completely unexplained). This is DK’s Moby Dick

• Cited Donald Antrim (novelist born 1963)

• Be in the presence of things. In the highest prose words are invisible.

• Abandon simile and metaphor

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A disparate cast of characters. Who is dreaming whom? Is boyhood eternal or is it coming to an end? Do we have guardian angels watching over us? What's all that got to do with a Georgian air hostess? And are we journeying to the interior, or back again, or going up? And what can we see from the view at the top of the pagoda? And is it a good idea to feed horses microdoses of LSD?

And why is Andrew Lethal, who works for Glasgow Council, obsessing about Mayan hieroglyphs when he should be approving planning applications!?

I think part of the genius of David Keenan is that the book retains mystery and yet just enough of its internal logic is revealed so that you think you understand enough to keep on going, that something is being revealed to you, personally, by the author.

[Tyler Cutting Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written with every character place and time frame being enjoyable to read. His descriptions of the different places from around the world are very impressive, giving the reader a real sense of the place he is describing. All of the stories were also linked together in a really satisfying way and I thought that the ending was perfect, which I find when writing stories or anything I always find it difficult to leave them in a good place but this was a great ending.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book are amazing, insightful and hilarious. I kept finding myself using the phrase “make no bones about it” in daily life. It is definitely the most comical and laugh out loud funny Keenan. I like the part about letting the Gypsy community do what they do best and endanger the public’s life with poorly maintained fairground equipment. He’s got a great ear for real life, every day language and banter.

Other parts are embarrassingly shit. There is something unapologetically masculine about Keenan and his writing, and that’s part of his appeal. It’s sort of Hemmingway or Bellow-like. However a woman photographing cathedrals and putting the photos in a box with her panties, Latvian air hostesses - it’s pretty one dimensional insipid shit. All the women in this book are soulless, one dimensional wank fuel with no interior life.

‘For the Good Times’ is one of my all time favourite novels, and I keep hoping Keenan would write another one like it. I guess he never will. I just felt that in the Provisional IRA, and the troubles era Keenan had a cohesive subject - external to himself - and that gave the book a sense of progression and sense of cohesion. FTGT is such an awesome masterpiece. Every other book from him has just been a collection of disconnected brain farts - 16 different characters- 4 different time periods. You could call it postmodern, or you could call it lazy, repetitive and boring to read. I feel like this cat is just writing the same book over and over now with different titles.

[Simon Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hard book to begin to define. Unquestionably well written and suffused with ideas, it’s the kind of book that seeps into you and you respond to emotionally rather than being able to able to fully rationalise or make sense of.

[Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s doing a lot , there’s so many different story lines and I feel some of them kind of get lost throughout. The ending also felt rushed and didn’t really conclude anything… BUT Keenan is, as always, so compelling, so good at what he does that it’s hard not to be sucked into this crazy world.

[David Peat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable book - lots of threads - some loosely (and other closely) related. Amazing stories wrapped into an a starburst of ideas and a unique world view. Loved every word!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't read a better novel this year.

[Glen Pinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding