What do you think?
Rate this book
Boys of Life
In this powerful novel, the acclaimed author of The Salt Point portrays a coming of age overshadowed by an ominous infatuation with a dangerous man. Owen, Kentucky, just isn't big enough for Tony Blair. Bored with small-town life, already a problem drinker at 17, Tony is restless--ideal prey for Carlos Reichart, a Warhol-esque filmmaker.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
12 people are currently reading
442 people want to read
About the author
Paul Russell
46 books135 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Paul Russell received his doctorate from Cornell in 1983 for a dissertation on the novelist Vladimir Nabokov and is currently a Professor in the English Department at Vassar College.
His fourth novel, The Coming Storm won the 2000 Ferro-Grumley Award for Gay Male Fiction.
His short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, and Carolina Quarterly.
Paul Russell received his doctorate from Cornell in 1983 for a dissertation on the novelist Vladimir Nabokov and is currently a Professor in the English Department at Vassar College.
His fourth novel, The Coming Storm won the 2000 Ferro-Grumley Award for Gay Male Fiction.
His short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, and Carolina Quarterly.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
March 16, 2023
A dark disturbing gay novel written in the 1990s — at a time when gay fiction attracted primarily gay readers, and was not being prettied up to attract a wider audience. In this novel a teenager is picked up and led astray by an avant garde filmmaker . . . or is this the story of a not-so-innocent youth having his eyes opened to the beauty of a complex world?
Have a vague memory of reading this when it first came out and not liking it. I was too young, would have identified too much with the younger characters, didn’t much care for 40 year old men, and knew nothing about the New York art scene or underground films. The age gap, all these years later, remains disturbing.
This time around, it took a long time to finish this book because it was not an easy read. It flows, but is disturbing—I could only manage a couple of short chapters at a sitting. The material is too raw, too real, too believable, too much of everything to be easily consumed. Yet such an observation is not really a criticism.
Sex and death and loss, and the price of art somehow being the price of life; self-destruction is self-discovery; the bitterness here is heartfelt and realistic. The ugliness of life in the U.S. in the 1980s is shocking and a modern reader, rendered uncomfortable, might pause to wonder what it was really like—is this harsh narrative an honest reflection of the times? If so, what might I learn by reading such a work of historical fiction?
The “Boys of Life” is the name of the movie that initiates the destruction, the implosion, of one young man’s constructed world.
I waffled between 4 and 5 stars. I'm still waffling. I'll probably waffle more later.
Have a vague memory of reading this when it first came out and not liking it. I was too young, would have identified too much with the younger characters, didn’t much care for 40 year old men, and knew nothing about the New York art scene or underground films. The age gap, all these years later, remains disturbing.
This time around, it took a long time to finish this book because it was not an easy read. It flows, but is disturbing—I could only manage a couple of short chapters at a sitting. The material is too raw, too real, too believable, too much of everything to be easily consumed. Yet such an observation is not really a criticism.
Sex and death and loss, and the price of art somehow being the price of life; self-destruction is self-discovery; the bitterness here is heartfelt and realistic. The ugliness of life in the U.S. in the 1980s is shocking and a modern reader, rendered uncomfortable, might pause to wonder what it was really like—is this harsh narrative an honest reflection of the times? If so, what might I learn by reading such a work of historical fiction?
The “Boys of Life” is the name of the movie that initiates the destruction, the implosion, of one young man’s constructed world.
I waffled between 4 and 5 stars. I'm still waffling. I'll probably waffle more later.
February 8, 2024
A brilliant, mesmerizing and edgy 'gay' novel which knocked my socks off when I first read it. A compelling read, beautifully written and to quote author Dorothy Allison: " ... risky, honest, horrifying and insightful."
This dark, intense depiction of the turbulent relationship between avant-garde filmmaker Carlos and the teenage country boy Tony as described by the latter's narration is a stunning tour de force by Paul Russell.
One of my favorite novels and a must for readers interested in different and challenging aspects of gay relationships.
Paul Russell, a brilliant writer as displayed by such excellent later works as 'The Coming Storm,' 'War Against the Animals' and 'The Unreal Life of Sergei Nabokov.'
This dark, intense depiction of the turbulent relationship between avant-garde filmmaker Carlos and the teenage country boy Tony as described by the latter's narration is a stunning tour de force by Paul Russell.
One of my favorite novels and a must for readers interested in different and challenging aspects of gay relationships.
Paul Russell, a brilliant writer as displayed by such excellent later works as 'The Coming Storm,' 'War Against the Animals' and 'The Unreal Life of Sergei Nabokov.'
May 1, 2022
An arty and intricate novel that explores and takes you to the limits and edges of gay sexuality. As enthralling and entrancing as it is disturbing and disruptive.
January 10, 2011
One of the best books i've ever read.
hunting, dark and beautiful.
hunting, dark and beautiful.
March 18, 2020
Dark, beautiful and powerful. I'm absolutely mind-blown.
July 9, 2021
This novel may have been published in 1991, but with the passing of time it certainly hasn't aged and if anything is even more powerful now as it was then. Boys of Life is incredibly engrossing, it's hard to not be swept away by the vivid writing, the narration, the character(s), the sex, and the heart and soul in between. Above all, it's wise, it's resilient in its darkness and shock value. Novels like this won't define every gay male experience - it's only one of many - but it's not surprising that this has a special place in so many readers, especially gay male readers, to this day because clearly, it wasn't written for a hetero/heteronormative audience, this is very much a novel of its time, a novel for gay men, written by a gay man, and for that to be published in the early 90's and by a mainstream publisher like Plume to boot, that's pretty inspiring, extraordinary, and very special. The whole thing feels like a fever dream, a gripping page-turner at its finest, one that will leave you breathless long after the last page.
March 8, 2016
Book Review: 5 stars
As much as I love my romance and erotic with HEA kinda books, I’ve been craving for some diversity in my book wormlife, hence, Boys of Life. This book is not romance, and definitely doesn't have a happy ending—the main character is telling his story from prison, so you might know from the beginning it doesn't have a happy ending, and despite all of this, I LOVED every page of it.
In this book, Tony tells his story, how was his relationship with his family, how his life was affected when his dad abandoned him and his siblings, how he became an alcoholic at such young age and how easily he discovered his homosexuality. Later he meets Carlos, a filmmaker who seduced him, and also represented the “father figure” Tony was missing. Their relationship was toxic from the beginning, but since Tony had huge daddy-issues, it felt good for him until it didn’t. As I said before, Tony tells this story when he was in prison, because he murdered Carlos. Nobody ever cared for what he felt about everything he went through, or why he did what he did, but now he has the chance to tell the truth about everything.
This book had a great plot—I’m sure it’d make an Academy Winning Award Movie, with complex characters, and complex circumstances—the story is set and narrated in the 80’s. A time in which homosexuality wasn’t respected, and instead was assaulted physically and psychologically. And because Boys of Life was written by a man, I found the writing style raw but enticing, which was one of the things I enjoyed the most about it.
Paul Russell’s book was one book I never thought I would read, but I’m happy I did. By recommendation of my blogger partner Lucas, I did a little research about the author, which I found very informative. This quote from his website bio is a very accurate description of this book: “ His novels might best be described as dreamy reconstructions of half-recalled nightmares. “
This book made me cry, laugh and I was on edge most of the time, wanting to know what happened between Tony and Carlos that would cause something as strong and dread as a murder.
I recommend this book 120%
Warning : This book features a relationship between a 16 year old boy and a 40 year old man. It’s really not a hard limit for me, but it might be for you. TBH, it added more drama to the story, so I loved it even more.
As much as I love my romance and erotic with HEA kinda books, I’ve been craving for some diversity in my book wormlife, hence, Boys of Life. This book is not romance, and definitely doesn't have a happy ending—the main character is telling his story from prison, so you might know from the beginning it doesn't have a happy ending, and despite all of this, I LOVED every page of it.
In this book, Tony tells his story, how was his relationship with his family, how his life was affected when his dad abandoned him and his siblings, how he became an alcoholic at such young age and how easily he discovered his homosexuality. Later he meets Carlos, a filmmaker who seduced him, and also represented the “father figure” Tony was missing. Their relationship was toxic from the beginning, but since Tony had huge daddy-issues, it felt good for him until it didn’t. As I said before, Tony tells this story when he was in prison, because he murdered Carlos. Nobody ever cared for what he felt about everything he went through, or why he did what he did, but now he has the chance to tell the truth about everything.
This book had a great plot—I’m sure it’d make an Academy Winning Award Movie, with complex characters, and complex circumstances—the story is set and narrated in the 80’s. A time in which homosexuality wasn’t respected, and instead was assaulted physically and psychologically. And because Boys of Life was written by a man, I found the writing style raw but enticing, which was one of the things I enjoyed the most about it.
Paul Russell’s book was one book I never thought I would read, but I’m happy I did. By recommendation of my blogger partner Lucas, I did a little research about the author, which I found very informative. This quote from his website bio is a very accurate description of this book: “ His novels might best be described as dreamy reconstructions of half-recalled nightmares. “
This book made me cry, laugh and I was on edge most of the time, wanting to know what happened between Tony and Carlos that would cause something as strong and dread as a murder.
I recommend this book 120%
Warning : This book features a relationship between a 16 year old boy and a 40 year old man. It’s really not a hard limit for me, but it might be for you. TBH, it added more drama to the story, so I loved it even more.
September 28, 2010
To begin with, this is a very difficult book to read. The subject matter is very controversial and gritty. Following the main character, Tony Blair, a teenager who is fustrated with his small town life in Kentucky, he runs away with a movie crew to New York City. Falling in love with the leader of the group, Carlos, Tony soons finds himself in a world of masochistc & self destrution. Trying to understand where he fits in the world, Tony begins a journey of discovery. Although he loves Carlos, he also realizes Carlos is his downfall. Escaping NYC only leads to more trouble and then a tragic event brings him back with deadly results. The relationship between Carlos and Tony is very difficult to understand, but the author does a masterful job of making it readable. A very gritty book, but still tells an interesting story.
September 29, 2014
Strangely compelling, obsessive and poetic, this is a story of art and sex and film. Yes, it's a bit creepy. The filmmaker is a voyeur. Yes, the boy's exploited. But the lines between art and sacrifice are as thin as a strip of celluloid.
February 8, 2024
Gorgeously dark and surprisingly twisted.
August 20, 2024
An amazing, powerful novel which I have read more than once but not for over fifteen or more years. Although many see the novel as dark and transgressive it should be remembered that when it was published in 1991 it didn't read that way because the world of Carlos Reichart because, although fast disappearing and changing, the New York it was set in and the attitudes described were commonplace.
"Like a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph Boys of Life explores the unsettling tension between artistry and purience, aesthetics and morality..." San Francisco Chronicle.
The above is a brilliant dissection of the essence of the novel, as is the original publisher's blurb for the novel:
"This powerful novel tells the story of gay seduction as seen through the eyes of a bored teenager with the face of an angel and a drinking problem. Tony Blair (please see my footnote *1 below) is ripe for any kind of adventure. So when the avant-garde, Warhol-esque filmmaker Carlos Reichart comes to his small Kentucky town with a bizarre troupe of actors and technicians, Tony is easily by Carlos and...falls deeply in love...with the man and his extraordinary style...But as glamour turns to tawdriness Tony Discovers...the dangers inherent in sharing Carlos' life on the edge...Tony's desperate need to free himself from Carlos...pushes him into a final, irrevocable act of rage and maybe redemption."
Dorothy Allinson, author of Bastard Out of Carolina described the novel as "Simply great writing - risky, honest, horrifying and insightful" and The Detroit News said, "One hellish, utterly compelling surprise package. Read it and weep."
This novel should be read with Junkie by Bruce Benderson and Saul's Book by Paul Roger because it is a portrait of a lost time and world. That poor boys like Tony Blair were consumed by the unquenchable appetites of New York's Moloch-like-denizens was accepted with less thought then 'Maiden Tribute' paid to Victorian London was (see my footnote *2 below). It is extraordinary, brilliant and one of the best novels about New York I have read.
*1 That Paul Russell had given his narrator the name as the future British PM (1997-2007) and subservient bitch to US president George Bush was coincidence but gave the novel an extra frisson when I read in 1998 and on subsequent readings. Please be clear that the Tony Blair of the novel is a million times more sympathetic than his real life counterpart.
*2 Articles by William Stead in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885 see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mai...
"Like a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph Boys of Life explores the unsettling tension between artistry and purience, aesthetics and morality..." San Francisco Chronicle.
The above is a brilliant dissection of the essence of the novel, as is the original publisher's blurb for the novel:
"This powerful novel tells the story of gay seduction as seen through the eyes of a bored teenager with the face of an angel and a drinking problem. Tony Blair (please see my footnote *1 below) is ripe for any kind of adventure. So when the avant-garde, Warhol-esque filmmaker Carlos Reichart comes to his small Kentucky town with a bizarre troupe of actors and technicians, Tony is easily by Carlos and...falls deeply in love...with the man and his extraordinary style...But as glamour turns to tawdriness Tony Discovers...the dangers inherent in sharing Carlos' life on the edge...Tony's desperate need to free himself from Carlos...pushes him into a final, irrevocable act of rage and maybe redemption."
Dorothy Allinson, author of Bastard Out of Carolina described the novel as "Simply great writing - risky, honest, horrifying and insightful" and The Detroit News said, "One hellish, utterly compelling surprise package. Read it and weep."
This novel should be read with Junkie by Bruce Benderson and Saul's Book by Paul Roger because it is a portrait of a lost time and world. That poor boys like Tony Blair were consumed by the unquenchable appetites of New York's Moloch-like-denizens was accepted with less thought then 'Maiden Tribute' paid to Victorian London was (see my footnote *2 below). It is extraordinary, brilliant and one of the best novels about New York I have read.
*1 That Paul Russell had given his narrator the name as the future British PM (1997-2007) and subservient bitch to US president George Bush was coincidence but gave the novel an extra frisson when I read in 1998 and on subsequent readings. Please be clear that the Tony Blair of the novel is a million times more sympathetic than his real life counterpart.
*2 Articles by William Stead in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885 see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mai...
October 9, 2019
Reviewed by Lori
Book provided by the publisher for review
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book
This book, wow this book, I don’t know how to begin. Ok, I know, this is a M/M book, for any readers out there that enjoys some man lovin’. However, I need to warn the readers that this book is… it leaves me without words. It stayed with me, and I keep thinking about it. It left me sad, but it made me feel something, and that in my opinion is the mark of a good book.
The author deals with uncomfortable topics but nothing is in your face, this is just too much. The reader will carry around this book in their head for a long time.
I knew when I read the blurb that this would be a difficult read, and it was. Have any of the readers out there saw Boogie Nights? This book has a lot of Boogie Nights themes in them. I wanted to have something that the reader could connect with, without giving away the story.
This book is not for everyone. It’s dark, and dangerous, and there is no happy endings. It’s powerful (for a lack of a better word), it’s edgy, it’s sad. This book touches on a lot of sensitive subjects, but the author does so with compassion, and empathy.
Carlos, I didn’t like him when I was first introduced to him in the beginning, and I just couldn’t like him. He was scary, and quite not right in the head. Tony, I felt sorry for him. He was young and impressionable, and was seduced by Carlos and traveled down a dark road with him.
This book was wonderfully written, and the author knows how to tell a story so that the reader is hanging off the edge of their seats. This book will not appeal to everyone. I’m more of a happily go off together and live a wonderful life kind of book reader, but variety is the spice of life. I have to admit that the book gripped me by the throat and kept me there, entertained.
Book provided by the publisher for review
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book
This book, wow this book, I don’t know how to begin. Ok, I know, this is a M/M book, for any readers out there that enjoys some man lovin’. However, I need to warn the readers that this book is… it leaves me without words. It stayed with me, and I keep thinking about it. It left me sad, but it made me feel something, and that in my opinion is the mark of a good book.
The author deals with uncomfortable topics but nothing is in your face, this is just too much. The reader will carry around this book in their head for a long time.
I knew when I read the blurb that this would be a difficult read, and it was. Have any of the readers out there saw Boogie Nights? This book has a lot of Boogie Nights themes in them. I wanted to have something that the reader could connect with, without giving away the story.
This book is not for everyone. It’s dark, and dangerous, and there is no happy endings. It’s powerful (for a lack of a better word), it’s edgy, it’s sad. This book touches on a lot of sensitive subjects, but the author does so with compassion, and empathy.
Carlos, I didn’t like him when I was first introduced to him in the beginning, and I just couldn’t like him. He was scary, and quite not right in the head. Tony, I felt sorry for him. He was young and impressionable, and was seduced by Carlos and traveled down a dark road with him.
This book was wonderfully written, and the author knows how to tell a story so that the reader is hanging off the edge of their seats. This book will not appeal to everyone. I’m more of a happily go off together and live a wonderful life kind of book reader, but variety is the spice of life. I have to admit that the book gripped me by the throat and kept me there, entertained.
March 22, 2016
First I am going to warn you. If you do not wish to go down a very dark path this book isn’t for you. Having said that I also need to say that this book even when you want to put it down from some of the depressing moments and some of the depraved moments you can’t because Paul Russell writes in such a way that you can’t set it down you need to know you have to know what happens to this poor kid next. What caused him to go down this path and what did he do to end up where he was and why? this is all in the back of your head and it has you needing to go on..urging you to go one. You feel for Tony you really do the kid had a sad existence even before Carlos but after it was not just sad but depraved and depressing at times. There were moments of clarity and happiness but seriously Carlos just twisted everything and left you feeling like a freakin Twizzler sort of like Tony and the other boys did...that is the power of Paul Russell’s writing and words..he evokes everything in you and you can’t stop reading the train wreck that is Tony’s life.
This is the sad story of Tony Blair and in a way Carlos. How they met and what Tony learned from him. Their years together and apart and what drove Tony to do something he couldn’t turn back from. We get an insight into a twisted mind and a mind that was manipulated and used. We see the boy tony was and what Carlos turned him into. We see him escape only to be a moth to flame because Carlos manipulated it so and he ends up back in the vortex of hell and it takes away his future...
We get some depravity that will make you squirm but again Paul Russell has you riveted you can’t pull away for you need to know if Tony escapes and makes it...you know it doesn’t end well but you still have that hope that Tony gets some sort of life before it all goes away...
Carlos is a filmmaker that he says films reality. His mind is skewered and he is truly a manipulative little man. He preys on young boys and uses them for his own purposes...The boys of life film and Ted was just horrific and so so sad but also the breaking point for tony... What Carlos does is prey on fears and insecurities and than exploits them by having them be worked out on camera in a way. He takes some of the most dangerous thoughts and depraved acts and captures them for people to see. Not all his films were like this though some were thought provoking so you really don’t see the true Carlos only layers of him until the end. He was a monster...a monster that in some ways helps some of the boys while destroying them at the same time.
Not everything is as it seems in this book. there are layers to the complexity just as there are layers to the depravity Carlos had performed and had others perform. Each life is intertwined and all hope is to see the boys escape but some do not. Some get lost in the moments and never come back. Tony got out only to be sucked back in...
We are riveted to the story of tony, his life and time with Carlos and his insights. No matter who sad it is or depraved it is eye opening and just so much that can’t be explained. This is the power of words that Paul russell gives us..we can’t step away even when you want to because you need to know what happens to Tony and why he stayed so long. You need to see some silver lining but also what Tony learned from his time with Carlos if anything. You want to see if he escaped relatively unharmed at some point.
There is no explanation really to say what the story tells us because each person will come away with something different in the story. Everyone will agree it is the story of Tony’s life with Carlos and what he sees and learns. His perception once he is away and looking at it without being in the moment and how he know has gained a different perspective once out of the time it occurred. It is Tony’s new look at his life and how he perceived the moments with Carlos and without. His thoughts and actions in this time and what they did to change his life...We gain access to Tony the Tony not under anyone’s eye but one who is coming to terms with his past and giving us the unvarnished version of what that past was. A past that was manipulated by a man that manipulated many boys and what he did with those boys..A riveting look at this young man’s world before Carlos, during Carlos in his life, after escaping Carlos and what drew him back in and had him change his life forever...
This is the sad story of Tony Blair and in a way Carlos. How they met and what Tony learned from him. Their years together and apart and what drove Tony to do something he couldn’t turn back from. We get an insight into a twisted mind and a mind that was manipulated and used. We see the boy tony was and what Carlos turned him into. We see him escape only to be a moth to flame because Carlos manipulated it so and he ends up back in the vortex of hell and it takes away his future...
We get some depravity that will make you squirm but again Paul Russell has you riveted you can’t pull away for you need to know if Tony escapes and makes it...you know it doesn’t end well but you still have that hope that Tony gets some sort of life before it all goes away...
Carlos is a filmmaker that he says films reality. His mind is skewered and he is truly a manipulative little man. He preys on young boys and uses them for his own purposes...The boys of life film and Ted was just horrific and so so sad but also the breaking point for tony... What Carlos does is prey on fears and insecurities and than exploits them by having them be worked out on camera in a way. He takes some of the most dangerous thoughts and depraved acts and captures them for people to see. Not all his films were like this though some were thought provoking so you really don’t see the true Carlos only layers of him until the end. He was a monster...a monster that in some ways helps some of the boys while destroying them at the same time.
Not everything is as it seems in this book. there are layers to the complexity just as there are layers to the depravity Carlos had performed and had others perform. Each life is intertwined and all hope is to see the boys escape but some do not. Some get lost in the moments and never come back. Tony got out only to be sucked back in...
We are riveted to the story of tony, his life and time with Carlos and his insights. No matter who sad it is or depraved it is eye opening and just so much that can’t be explained. This is the power of words that Paul russell gives us..we can’t step away even when you want to because you need to know what happens to Tony and why he stayed so long. You need to see some silver lining but also what Tony learned from his time with Carlos if anything. You want to see if he escaped relatively unharmed at some point.
There is no explanation really to say what the story tells us because each person will come away with something different in the story. Everyone will agree it is the story of Tony’s life with Carlos and what he sees and learns. His perception once he is away and looking at it without being in the moment and how he know has gained a different perspective once out of the time it occurred. It is Tony’s new look at his life and how he perceived the moments with Carlos and without. His thoughts and actions in this time and what they did to change his life...We gain access to Tony the Tony not under anyone’s eye but one who is coming to terms with his past and giving us the unvarnished version of what that past was. A past that was manipulated by a man that manipulated many boys and what he did with those boys..A riveting look at this young man’s world before Carlos, during Carlos in his life, after escaping Carlos and what drew him back in and had him change his life forever...
October 20, 2017
I love Paul Russell's writing, but I enjoyed some of his other books more than this one. I don't regret reading it. Reading all the works by a favorite author helps me understand them better. What I enjoyed about this book was the plot device of knowing something bad happened to the narrator, but not knowing until the end what that was. What I didn't enjoy was not being able to relate to any of the characters. That doesn't make it a bad book, but I most enjoy reading books that allow me to relate to something in at least one of the characters. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a graphic description of people who have no boundaries; people who disregard societal rules about child abuse, and inflict physical and emotional pain on each other in the name of love and art. If that intrigues you, you will enjoy this book.
May 12, 2024
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Critical Score: A
Personal Score: A
I really don’t want to write this review. I just want to take the notes I wrote while reading and stitch them together and be done with it. My feelings for this book are challenging and complicated and vague in the way that this novel is all of those things, and those things are its beauty. Boys of Life (despite that boring, if eventually meaningful, title) is a work of true art, the product of a real writer.
Russel delivers painfully complex emotions, characterization, and reflections on the human condition with an accessible contemporary voice. He touches on things about growing up and the experience of living and having relationships with other humans that are so very hard to put into words or realize you are experiencing in the first place. I try again and again to summarize what this book is about thematically, to even put together so much as a list of big ideas: transgressive art, art as living, sex and art, desire and aging, control and lust, apathy amidst transcendence, intelligence and class, connection…I feel like I’m losing my sense of the book the more I try to pin down what it is about.
Let me go back to the basics.
Pace. Ok, the pace is slow, in a way that I enjoyed, like watching a long movie some night under a heavy blanket when you know you can sleep in the next day.
Tone. Ok, the tone is drab, always profound, sometimes sexy. I could have used more sex scenes, but that’s neither here nor there, because this book really isn’t even about sex.
The narrator is so conflicting. He’s unlikeable for his apathy and weak character, but then again, he’s got a very strong will, and he makes bold decisions, and he isn’t dumb like he comes across to nearly everyone around him. And because this is the mind we’re inside, the book is sometimes hard to follow. It’s so interior and mystifying.
All the characters are conflicting, because they are all a bit too real, complicated to the point of being convoluted, and it becomes such a headache trying to keep up with how the relationships are evolving and how your understanding of the characters is evolving. They feel challengingly real, to a point where they start to untangle from that reality, because in real life the more you get to know someone, the less you can pin them down, because all of us contain multitudes, blah blah blah, and so basically the more you know someone, the less you know them, and this book really painted that out for me. People are more elusive the more you know them, otherwise you’re lying to yourself, or they’re lying to you, and it makes you realize how little we know ourselves, because we all have this delusion that we know who we are, but if that were true, it can only be the lie that stands in front of everything we don’t know.
I was going to take a stab at how this book deals with grooming, Stockholm syndrome, is it a problematic portrayal of a victim or is it something deeper, words and words and more words, but I actually don’t feel like getting into it more than I just did.
Russel imperfectly handles race but in a way that feels realistic for the narrator, who’s an uneducated white male baby boomer (or just about) raised in rural Kentucky. I mean, in some ways the BIPOC here are progressively portrayed, and then some lines feel harmful. Just wanted to make a note of that.
Last thing before I wrap this up. All the blurbs talk about how shocking this book is, and it’s kind of sold as this super edgy gay novel that presumably has a bunch of graphic sex and violence in it. Which should mean what? Perfect! Bring it on. I love that stuff, even if it feels like nothing fazes me anymore. But the explicit scenes in Boys of Life are very brief and minimally described. This isn’t some wild, appalling book—except in its poetics? Just not in the sex and violence department. So that could disappoint some readers; this is definitely literary fiction, not horror. But the writing is so strong and the characters so rich and the themes so evocative that I didn’t even care about the minimal sex and violence.
This is one of those books that makes me realize how my reviews tend to write around the stories, and I suspect I’ll read back on this in a few years or whenever and ne unable to gauge literally anything specific or concrete about this book from my review. I’m just talking around everything that happens. I don’t have some point to this, other than saying it.
I’ll conclude now.
I’m so used to only giving myself permission to rate a book 5 stars if it wows me in an energetic sort of way. Boys of Life is kind of sleepily brilliant. I wasn’t enthralled while reading it, and while some lines or scenes did blow me away kind of, for the most part the writing is quietly profound. It’s not a jarring prose (or story, for the most part, despite the folks who will be scandalized by one or two brief lines about scat) like Dennis Cooper or Chuck Palahniuk or Alex Kazemi. Because it’s so quiet, I kept forgetting what I’d just read. I’d come back to the book and try to recall the previous chapters, try to hold them because I knew they were so beautiful, but here I was struggling to remember beyond a basic plot summary and the emotions it left me reeling with. It’s that kind of writing, where you struggle to internalize it enough to hold onto it. No, it’s probably more of a me problem.
All to say, this is the kind of book I want to read two times to feel like I’ve truly read it one time. Its characters are that complex, its style that deceptively straight-forward.
Now I have a sense of having said a whole lot of nothing. I’m not so happy with what I’ve just pieced together. But whatever, my point is that this book is great.
Critical Score: A
Personal Score: A
I really don’t want to write this review. I just want to take the notes I wrote while reading and stitch them together and be done with it. My feelings for this book are challenging and complicated and vague in the way that this novel is all of those things, and those things are its beauty. Boys of Life (despite that boring, if eventually meaningful, title) is a work of true art, the product of a real writer.
Russel delivers painfully complex emotions, characterization, and reflections on the human condition with an accessible contemporary voice. He touches on things about growing up and the experience of living and having relationships with other humans that are so very hard to put into words or realize you are experiencing in the first place. I try again and again to summarize what this book is about thematically, to even put together so much as a list of big ideas: transgressive art, art as living, sex and art, desire and aging, control and lust, apathy amidst transcendence, intelligence and class, connection…I feel like I’m losing my sense of the book the more I try to pin down what it is about.
Let me go back to the basics.
Pace. Ok, the pace is slow, in a way that I enjoyed, like watching a long movie some night under a heavy blanket when you know you can sleep in the next day.
Tone. Ok, the tone is drab, always profound, sometimes sexy. I could have used more sex scenes, but that’s neither here nor there, because this book really isn’t even about sex.
The narrator is so conflicting. He’s unlikeable for his apathy and weak character, but then again, he’s got a very strong will, and he makes bold decisions, and he isn’t dumb like he comes across to nearly everyone around him. And because this is the mind we’re inside, the book is sometimes hard to follow. It’s so interior and mystifying.
All the characters are conflicting, because they are all a bit too real, complicated to the point of being convoluted, and it becomes such a headache trying to keep up with how the relationships are evolving and how your understanding of the characters is evolving. They feel challengingly real, to a point where they start to untangle from that reality, because in real life the more you get to know someone, the less you can pin them down, because all of us contain multitudes, blah blah blah, and so basically the more you know someone, the less you know them, and this book really painted that out for me. People are more elusive the more you know them, otherwise you’re lying to yourself, or they’re lying to you, and it makes you realize how little we know ourselves, because we all have this delusion that we know who we are, but if that were true, it can only be the lie that stands in front of everything we don’t know.
I was going to take a stab at how this book deals with grooming, Stockholm syndrome, is it a problematic portrayal of a victim or is it something deeper, words and words and more words, but I actually don’t feel like getting into it more than I just did.
Russel imperfectly handles race but in a way that feels realistic for the narrator, who’s an uneducated white male baby boomer (or just about) raised in rural Kentucky. I mean, in some ways the BIPOC here are progressively portrayed, and then some lines feel harmful. Just wanted to make a note of that.
Last thing before I wrap this up. All the blurbs talk about how shocking this book is, and it’s kind of sold as this super edgy gay novel that presumably has a bunch of graphic sex and violence in it. Which should mean what? Perfect! Bring it on. I love that stuff, even if it feels like nothing fazes me anymore. But the explicit scenes in Boys of Life are very brief and minimally described. This isn’t some wild, appalling book—except in its poetics? Just not in the sex and violence department. So that could disappoint some readers; this is definitely literary fiction, not horror. But the writing is so strong and the characters so rich and the themes so evocative that I didn’t even care about the minimal sex and violence.
This is one of those books that makes me realize how my reviews tend to write around the stories, and I suspect I’ll read back on this in a few years or whenever and ne unable to gauge literally anything specific or concrete about this book from my review. I’m just talking around everything that happens. I don’t have some point to this, other than saying it.
I’ll conclude now.
I’m so used to only giving myself permission to rate a book 5 stars if it wows me in an energetic sort of way. Boys of Life is kind of sleepily brilliant. I wasn’t enthralled while reading it, and while some lines or scenes did blow me away kind of, for the most part the writing is quietly profound. It’s not a jarring prose (or story, for the most part, despite the folks who will be scandalized by one or two brief lines about scat) like Dennis Cooper or Chuck Palahniuk or Alex Kazemi. Because it’s so quiet, I kept forgetting what I’d just read. I’d come back to the book and try to recall the previous chapters, try to hold them because I knew they were so beautiful, but here I was struggling to remember beyond a basic plot summary and the emotions it left me reeling with. It’s that kind of writing, where you struggle to internalize it enough to hold onto it. No, it’s probably more of a me problem.
All to say, this is the kind of book I want to read two times to feel like I’ve truly read it one time. Its characters are that complex, its style that deceptively straight-forward.
Now I have a sense of having said a whole lot of nothing. I’m not so happy with what I’ve just pieced together. But whatever, my point is that this book is great.
March 23, 2007
I've read this book a couple times. It's a dark, twisted tale that could be a psuedo biography for a filmmaker like Todd Verow, Bruce LeBruce, John Waters or Pier Paulo Passolini. It's a disturbing look at line between art and masturbatory porn and the destructive drives behind the auteur gone awry.
June 17, 2015
Rereading. So good.
November 8, 2016
It meanders on a bit...
Not a bad read, but I wouldn't read it again. It lacked substance for me; it felt too vague overall.
Not a bad read, but I wouldn't read it again. It lacked substance for me; it felt too vague overall.
July 31, 2017
BOYS OF LIFE is enjoyable as far as pulpy gay erotica goes but its ambivalent protagonist and slow-moving plot make it a slog to get through when we're not in the midst of a sex scene.
March 27, 2025
There are several different blurbs for this book, and of all the blurbs, the ones for the Dutton hardcover and the Plume paperback are the most accurate. Don't listen to or look at the ones for the 2016 Cleis Press reprints, because, while technically they are accurate, they're not really what the book is about and if you go into it expecting that, I think you're going to be disappointed as the parts those summaries emphasize aren't what the bulk of this novel deals with, and are actually pretty miniscule. The book, in actuality, is more about the very complex relationship between an older film director and the main character, a teenager at the time of their relationship, and also about the relationship with the main character and his younger brother, and between the main character and his own sexuality.
It's an odd duck, this book. There isn't really anything in here that should make me feel the sheer emotional exhaustion I felt after finishing this book, and honestly Paul Russell makes a lot of quite frankly bizarre additions to the plot- the pigeons, the scene where Earl attempts to convert Tony, the reveal that Verbena was a transvestite, honestly Sammy's entire thing- that I didn't feel negatively towards but I was sort of like "explain to me why you just chucked that in there and left" when they appeared. The unreliable narrator is also done in a fairly interesting way, with Tony just bluntly admitting that he lied to you or that he left something out. I liked this, some might find it annoying. The writing didn't blow me away, but there was something there that I liked, maybe just how refreshingly competently written it felt, like Paul Russell knows how to string sentences together in order to tell a compelling story and I appreciate that. And I thought the themes were surprisingly fresh, especially for the time it was written in, the exploration of power dynamics and the way young people get taken advantage of by older men with some level of notority only to be thrown away once someone younger and more naive comes along, how often they blame themselves both for allowing the abuse to get to that point and making the abuser move on (due to the crime of getting older). And, of course, because this is a 90s novel we also have the main character unable to confide and feeling confused and broken because of them both being male and the implications that went along with that. They weren't done perfectly, but they were good enough for me.
This is also an example of a book I found disturbing but not necessarily because of the content, but I can't really put my finger on why I found it so disturbing. At no point was there ever a scene that made me shift in my seat or get that "ooh, don't like that" feeling in my brain the way I've felt with other books that are more, I guess, classically disturbing? The content isn't as bad as I thought it would be, like, the sex is explicit but with the way Goodreads reviews made it seem I thought it would be way worse. Of course, I've also been microwaving my brain with transgressive fiction over the past few years, so if you aren't used to this sort of content I could see how you might be shocked. But I also think that general "I don't know why this book is eliciting these feelings in me" pretty much defines my experience with Boys of Life, because it was very much the kind of book where nothing really happens but there's just so much going on, like this is a lot of book for its 320 pages.
Also, while looking at the reviews on Goodreads, I noticed there were a lot of romance fans reviewing this, which you can tell by them referring to it as M/M and it getting tagged as erotica a few times. Come to find out, Cleis Press, who reprinted this in 2016, is a smut publisher who also managed to get Edmund White's journals for some reason, though I guess if I was Edmund White and a porn press wanted to publish or reprint my journals I'd be like "you know what, I like your attitude". That also explains people seeming shaken-up by the content of this book. Uh, I wouldn't call this romance or erotica, so if you're going in for that you'd probably be disappointed, and I'm sure there's a lot of people who picked this up expecting dark romance and ended up disturbed, because, in my experience at least, there's a lot of weird overlap between dark romance readers and people who thought, idk, Lapvona was too much for them. It's very very emblematic of the kind of gay fiction that got published in the 1990s prior to or as a reaction against mainstream assimilation where the pressure was on for gay fiction to be a source of positive representation that would attract wider audiences and as a result some gay writers launched careers writing lyrical and harmless lit fic and some gay writers got edgy and weird and some gay writers rebranded as bisexual or even straight and wrote about violence towards women instead. And, I mean, it's obvious who won- Less got the Pulitzer Prize, Dennis Cooper seems more focused on movies than books these days- but 90s lit will always have a soft-spot in my heart for that reason, and I miss the days where writers could be as edgy as they wanted and not have to worry if they're representing their specific minority or majority in the correct light and still get published by mainstream presses without having the name recognition of Chuck Palahniuk or Bret Easton Ellis.
All of this to say that my enjoyment of this book is extremely heavily influenced by my very large soft spot for edgy 90s lit fic and that you might hate this if you aren't also a fan of that particular category of book. Though, I'd argue that if you found this book at all, you're probably one of me too, in which case I'd recommend it whole-heartedly. It's not a new favorite book ever, but it's an interesting enough ride.
It's an odd duck, this book. There isn't really anything in here that should make me feel the sheer emotional exhaustion I felt after finishing this book, and honestly Paul Russell makes a lot of quite frankly bizarre additions to the plot- the pigeons, the scene where Earl attempts to convert Tony, the reveal that Verbena was a transvestite, honestly Sammy's entire thing- that I didn't feel negatively towards but I was sort of like "explain to me why you just chucked that in there and left" when they appeared. The unreliable narrator is also done in a fairly interesting way, with Tony just bluntly admitting that he lied to you or that he left something out. I liked this, some might find it annoying. The writing didn't blow me away, but there was something there that I liked, maybe just how refreshingly competently written it felt, like Paul Russell knows how to string sentences together in order to tell a compelling story and I appreciate that. And I thought the themes were surprisingly fresh, especially for the time it was written in, the exploration of power dynamics and the way young people get taken advantage of by older men with some level of notority only to be thrown away once someone younger and more naive comes along, how often they blame themselves both for allowing the abuse to get to that point and making the abuser move on (due to the crime of getting older). And, of course, because this is a 90s novel we also have the main character unable to confide and feeling confused and broken because of them both being male and the implications that went along with that. They weren't done perfectly, but they were good enough for me.
This is also an example of a book I found disturbing but not necessarily because of the content, but I can't really put my finger on why I found it so disturbing. At no point was there ever a scene that made me shift in my seat or get that "ooh, don't like that" feeling in my brain the way I've felt with other books that are more, I guess, classically disturbing? The content isn't as bad as I thought it would be, like, the sex is explicit but with the way Goodreads reviews made it seem I thought it would be way worse. Of course, I've also been microwaving my brain with transgressive fiction over the past few years, so if you aren't used to this sort of content I could see how you might be shocked. But I also think that general "I don't know why this book is eliciting these feelings in me" pretty much defines my experience with Boys of Life, because it was very much the kind of book where nothing really happens but there's just so much going on, like this is a lot of book for its 320 pages.
Also, while looking at the reviews on Goodreads, I noticed there were a lot of romance fans reviewing this, which you can tell by them referring to it as M/M and it getting tagged as erotica a few times. Come to find out, Cleis Press, who reprinted this in 2016, is a smut publisher who also managed to get Edmund White's journals for some reason, though I guess if I was Edmund White and a porn press wanted to publish or reprint my journals I'd be like "you know what, I like your attitude". That also explains people seeming shaken-up by the content of this book. Uh, I wouldn't call this romance or erotica, so if you're going in for that you'd probably be disappointed, and I'm sure there's a lot of people who picked this up expecting dark romance and ended up disturbed, because, in my experience at least, there's a lot of weird overlap between dark romance readers and people who thought, idk, Lapvona was too much for them. It's very very emblematic of the kind of gay fiction that got published in the 1990s prior to or as a reaction against mainstream assimilation where the pressure was on for gay fiction to be a source of positive representation that would attract wider audiences and as a result some gay writers launched careers writing lyrical and harmless lit fic and some gay writers got edgy and weird and some gay writers rebranded as bisexual or even straight and wrote about violence towards women instead. And, I mean, it's obvious who won- Less got the Pulitzer Prize, Dennis Cooper seems more focused on movies than books these days- but 90s lit will always have a soft-spot in my heart for that reason, and I miss the days where writers could be as edgy as they wanted and not have to worry if they're representing their specific minority or majority in the correct light and still get published by mainstream presses without having the name recognition of Chuck Palahniuk or Bret Easton Ellis.
All of this to say that my enjoyment of this book is extremely heavily influenced by my very large soft spot for edgy 90s lit fic and that you might hate this if you aren't also a fan of that particular category of book. Though, I'd argue that if you found this book at all, you're probably one of me too, in which case I'd recommend it whole-heartedly. It's not a new favorite book ever, but it's an interesting enough ride.
August 6, 2025
could be a mean two but like..... yeah. too many words; needed to be cut down (but I do like long books). the violence was like..... ok. new york is like...... ok. the fact that the only sex that tried to project erotic vibes to the viewer was vanilla and anything remotely k*inky (besides like public s*x ig) was v like "this is erotically charged for the characters but I won't try to make it erotically chraged for the readers" is like........ ok.
idk just perhaps if the writing and also all the other parts of the book were better i would've liked it more. i lost steam after 40%, got some steam back up at the end but like....... i also feel like something was off about r*ce here and it's so american to make like the holoc**st a r*ce instead of an immigration story.
idk just perhaps if the writing and also all the other parts of the book were better i would've liked it more. i lost steam after 40%, got some steam back up at the end but like....... i also feel like something was off about r*ce here and it's so american to make like the holoc**st a r*ce instead of an immigration story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 6, 2018
Difficult book, not sure that I liked it, but it got me to think about a variety of issues, including our values. Tragic narrator, but he sees the world artistically, and his insight seems to be where the reader finds hope in this dark text. It isn’t a sensationalist book, like some books I’ve read, but an honest depiction of human suffering. Not necessarily recommended, but as fiction I find the book important for understanding human morality and where we often go wrong. Note: the ending is very disturbing.
July 26, 2018
This is a fairly early book of Paul Russell's and it's definitely a bit over the top. I don't think it is still in print but it worthwhile searching out for the compelling story and the difference between art and depravity. This is more in line with the writings of Dennis Cooper and the ending is quite haunting.
April 11, 2024
It's so rare to come across books that are exactly, unapologetically what they are—"'Oh, I remember when I used to be interested in movies. Now it's just life I'm interested in.' Which at the time struck me as sort of strange for a movie director to go around saying, but now I think I understand. All of it was life for Carlos. Everything that happened."
December 24, 2020
Not exactly crazy about this book.
January 9, 2022
Dark but very good.
May 22, 2025
Poignant and beautifully messy
January 5, 2026
“You could say he took this comic book kid, all jerky freeze-frames, and threaded him together into a moving picture. It’s what nobody else in my life ever did with me, before or since.”
March 23, 2016
Tony Blair, is a sixteen-year-old boy who is seduced by Andy Warhol like filmmaker Carlos Reichart. Tony moves to New York with Carlos as his lover and star to be. Right from the start their relationship was very dangerous, considering the issues that Tony was having trying to accept his homosexuality.
Tony meet and moves away with Monica to start a new life. However, leaving, leads to more issues and a tragedy brings him back to New York where things will change his life forever.
We find that Tony is telling his story from prison because he has killed Carlos. Nobody ever cared about what he felt and everything he went through, or why he did what he did, but now he has the chance to tell the truth about everything. Boys of Life is not a romance with a HEA, it is a very dark read.
Even though you know how it ends you can’t help but keep turning the pages. This is a riveting, imaginative story, the sex, sometimes shocking, is never gratuitous.
The plot was great and Paul really draws you in with his writing. The setting was the 80’s where homosexuality was not accepted and people suffered from physical and emotional abuse from stupidity of others.
This is definitely a different type of book than I’m used to reading. This book made me cry, laugh and kept me wanting to know what happened that would cause someone to murder another person. I highly recommend this book, be prepared to be moved and possibly terrified.1-Click and get started.
Warning: This book features a relationship between a 16-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man along with graphic BDSM.
Tony meet and moves away with Monica to start a new life. However, leaving, leads to more issues and a tragedy brings him back to New York where things will change his life forever.
We find that Tony is telling his story from prison because he has killed Carlos. Nobody ever cared about what he felt and everything he went through, or why he did what he did, but now he has the chance to tell the truth about everything. Boys of Life is not a romance with a HEA, it is a very dark read.
Even though you know how it ends you can’t help but keep turning the pages. This is a riveting, imaginative story, the sex, sometimes shocking, is never gratuitous.
The plot was great and Paul really draws you in with his writing. The setting was the 80’s where homosexuality was not accepted and people suffered from physical and emotional abuse from stupidity of others.
This is definitely a different type of book than I’m used to reading. This book made me cry, laugh and kept me wanting to know what happened that would cause someone to murder another person. I highly recommend this book, be prepared to be moved and possibly terrified.1-Click and get started.
Warning: This book features a relationship between a 16-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man along with graphic BDSM.
March 22, 2016
This raw, gritty read rocked my socks. It is one of those books that makes no apologies for the story it tells one the brutal honesty it conveys. I love that about it. It meant that, though the entire book, I was constantly battling with different emotions, as I connected with what was taking place.
The characters, in the book, were a wide variety of people. From the main character, who starts off as a sheltered, quiet teen, to the flirtatious and convincing director. I liked that it gave us the opportunity to experience all types of people, get to know their ways of thinking and what made them have such differing personalities. I also liked that we were given many opportunities to see into their minds, and try to understand what they were doing or thinking.
The pace of the book was good. It felt very lifelike and had a fast enough pace, in the moments where the lead character was struggling, to really give us a feel for the fear, angst and worry that he felt.
This book was such a great story. It is unique and written very well, which made it very easy to dive right in and want to keep ready. I just had to know what was going to happen to the main. Though the subject matter is rough, maybe even offensive to some, it is real and not afraid to show people the side of the world they wouldn't even want to dream about. All of this, without ever apologizing for its honesty and ability to grow you into that moment head first. I love it.
The characters, in the book, were a wide variety of people. From the main character, who starts off as a sheltered, quiet teen, to the flirtatious and convincing director. I liked that it gave us the opportunity to experience all types of people, get to know their ways of thinking and what made them have such differing personalities. I also liked that we were given many opportunities to see into their minds, and try to understand what they were doing or thinking.
The pace of the book was good. It felt very lifelike and had a fast enough pace, in the moments where the lead character was struggling, to really give us a feel for the fear, angst and worry that he felt.
This book was such a great story. It is unique and written very well, which made it very easy to dive right in and want to keep ready. I just had to know what was going to happen to the main. Though the subject matter is rough, maybe even offensive to some, it is real and not afraid to show people the side of the world they wouldn't even want to dream about. All of this, without ever apologizing for its honesty and ability to grow you into that moment head first. I love it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews