White Guys

by Anthony Giardina

After graduating from high school, in the early 1970s, Billy Mogavero is the only one of a tight-knit group of five friends who didn't make it out of Winship, a hardscrabble town outside of Boston. Twenty years later, the other four—who have made their way, to varying degrees—decide to return to Winship to visit Billy, once their galvanizing alpha male and now a paint salesman who lives at home with his mentally handicapped brother. Their reunion sparks a rapid-fire chain of events as Billy finally makes the social leap his friends have spent their lives making—to suburban respectability and conformity.

Enthralled by the rapidity of Billy's climb—his marriage to an equally ambitious and tough Irishwoman, Maureen, included—his best friend, Timmy O'Kane, sees in Billy's protean character and masterful adoption of middle-class norms a vital and necessary critique of his cozy existence—paid for by his wealthy wife—in a privileged Boston suburb. But when Billy, Maureen, and their unborn child are victims of a drive-by shooting in which only Billy survives, Timmy is ensnared in a series of events that threaten to spin entirely out of his control. His complicity in the aftermath of the tragedy threatens the hard-won security of his leafy, suburban idyll—but is also strangely and seductively liberating.

Inspired by actual events, Giardina has created a masterful and explosive social novel about the price of the American dream.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published May 2, 2006

About the author

Anthony Giardina is the author of Norumbega Park and White Guys. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine, and his plays have been widely produced. He is a regular visiting professor at the Michener Center of the University of Texas. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/anthon...

Reviews

[Jowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

must i say how i really find tim o'kane to be so... i don't know... humanely naive and perhaps weak. his longing for the past and also his inability to think about the future really struck with me; because i feel like, somehow, beneath his red hair and quite erect penis, i see myself.

i really could not stop reading. all throughout the book i thought, ''what has this got to do with perfection?'' - that was on the book cover. but it's perfect for that, because it gives this irrevocable sense of familiarity and doubt of oneself. the more you read, the more the book becomes centred around one single aspect : billy. the fact is, i don't think it was some male homoerotic fascination for his being, but really just a build-up to the after-fact. and it's crazy. i doubted everything the whole way through. even now, after i finished reading this, the author's note, and the wikipedia page for the actual, real-life murder, within myself i truly doubt billy did anything. even though, obviously, there are parallels - i absolutely feel inside, that Giardina had written this book based on how he felt - not as a ''report''.

and billy's anti-social-ness, is so.. wonderful. his eccentricities and his behaviour, his 'genius'. it's something i absolutely cannot resist. i'm surprised the ending was like this. more so the fact that i myself cannot see him as a killer. i see bill as lonely and, ultimately unlucky. i can't see him as someone who got what he deserved. his suicide felt like hopelessness, not guilt - but i guess they may be one in the same as their fates are intertwined - and he did leave with a secret, and this sort of yearning i have for him and the why - it makes you wonder. man always asks why why why!

you also got closer with timmy for living his personhood, it made me dislike him slightly. i couldn't see myself the way he acts - he sees himself the way i see myself, but not the result, no. he thinks too much of sex, (maybe it's normal), i believe he lacks that grit that makes him a person. he's too subservient to the past and slightly to the present - to the past billy, at least. he's so full of wanderlust. i don't know how to explain it. as much as i couldn't stand the way he behaved, i also would see myself as him.

i don't really know the way to proceed. i think it was a wonderful book. it was set up for something so horrible, it's easy to separate the person from actions once you get a taste of a chronological, retrospective thing. and it is not the case that one moment death is over there and not here, so it does not concern you. the bridge railing is as fragile as anything else. even after the author's note, the murder of carol and her son - regarding the same 'blackness' of the real boston and their boston, it was surprising for me to see that the man they framed, now has dementia. and everything is a killer - so it must be.

[KP McGowan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a well-written book told from the perspective of a 40-something, Boston-area white ethnic husband and father disgruntled with much of his life.

It covers some well-trodden territory about midlife crisis, male yearning, and dreams left unfulfilled. Much of the book involves the narrator's fascination and somewhat unwelcome involvement with a boyhood friend who turns out to the be the most dangerous (and perhaps psychotic) member of their group of adolescent friends.

I liked the Boston area background setting and some larger themes about the noveau riche and surburbanites degrading the area's history and natural environment are interesting. The narrator's ruminations about marriage and family (especially his connection with a cherished daughter) strike a nerve and are quite moving.

But the main narrative about our hero's connection with his dangerous friend becomes tiresome after a while and the reader can see the "surprises" in the plot from a mile away.

Giardina seems a talented writer with something to say, but perhaps someone like John Updike has already covered this material more expertly.

[Allan Doe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my introduction to the this writer's work. He kept me turning the pages engrossed in the story. I actually had to put it down more than once because I kept anticipating catastrophe for the main character, Tim, on the next page.

These guys in the story are about ten years younger than I. Many familiar settings. I could relate. My image of Billy was/is Ray Liotta. Very visual storytelling. I enjoyed this book very much.

[Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a lot of thoughts about White Guys. Billy, as incredible of a character he is, felt like a force of nature everpresent in the narrative, in ways reminiscent of Brighton Rock’s Pinky. Timmy’s friends and family had compelling stories of their own - though Timmy was often a frustrating narrator to follow.

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was no masterpiece, but it had great flow and momentum, and if the story sounds at all interesting to you, it won’t be a waste of time to have read it. It was enjoyable, for all that I cannot give it five or even four stars.

[Mike Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids from school and the lives they lived - pretty standard stuff but a great example of it.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of interesting stuff to think about (like how much are we are past and upbringing? How much do we do in life just to fit into society?) but ultimately I thought not that well executed. I liked this book a lot better in the first half than in the second half, because it started out as something with a lot of potential that, to me, did not come to fruition. I kept thinking about "The Razor's Edge" and how this book reminded me of that one, but made less sense to me. Like, why is the narrator's "hero" his hero at all? Why does the narrator torture himself over life choices that he has the power to change, but chooses not to? Why do you HAVE to feel like you must live exactly as you were brought up, or else you're living some kind of false existence? It just makes the narrator an incredibly weak character who deserves everything he gets because he's too weak and indecisive to do anything about it.

[Cody VC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe 2.5 stars. Prose is very middle-of-the-road; nothing particularly impressive one way or another.

except for one line from when the heterosexual, married narrator goes to visit his old house and soak up some childhood memories while a five-year-old nephew is staying in his former bedroom. "Half consciously I picked up the top of Brendan's pajamas and sniffed them and allowed the warm child-scent to linger in my nostrils."
what the fuck happened to giardina's editor

Doesn't really cover any new ground in terms of social commentary. First half is better than the second; the book loses its momentum and starts just rephrasing the same ideas from the first part. Another book that isn't necessarily bad, just disappointing because it had good ideas and poor execution.

[Kia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this book off the "free" shelf at the library just to have something different to read. I was pleasantly surprised. The first few chapters throw you off as to the quality of the story to come because I will admit I first thought "Jeez...I'm not going to be able to finish this." The story does get really good, and it's a deeper book than I thought it would be. The only reason I am giving it 3 stars is that I feel the climax and ending was kind of thrown at you with no real explanation and it leave you with a bunch of questions. Still, I'd give this author another chance and check out some more of his work.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly just bought it for the title, a fiction based off of one factual news story. I liked the growing up aspect, and thought the book was more about the friends you try not to outgrow, it follows several men from growing up in a small beachtown, to adulthood and families and still remaing friends. I found that that aspect of the book was very well written. The book had as much drama as gossipy real life, and maintained an enourmous pace considering it's size. All in all a good quick read.

[Irwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very reminiscent of Dennis Lehane. A gritty Boston story about a group of 4 friends who rose above their working class town. The 5th of the group, Billy, was someone who peaked in high school via violence, and his success with girls, and was working in the local paint store in town. When one of the friends brings him into his world, a chain of events begin involving lies, deceit, and murder. Worth it.

[Vanessa]

After plowing through we finally got to the good stuff. Alas, the killer committed suicide and we never found out any motives what so ever for why he committed the crime. Very Frustrating. It was only after reading the author's comments that I came to understand that the essence of the book was based on truth. Still, to plow through a fiction with no reason at the end is pretty painful

[Zulayka.reidn · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, it's like a good peek at the common man's mind.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you lived in or near Boston in the early 1990s, this is a must-read for you. DO NOT read the author's note until you finish.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

just into it...getting to like the character..