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All American Boy
When a call from his estranged mother brings him home, actor Wally Day is forced to confront his dark past and his relationship with his family, which leads him on a powerful journey of self-discovery, self-acceptance, and salvation.
339 pages, Hardcover
First published May 3, 2005
58 people are currently reading
369 people want to read
About the author
William J. Mann
46 books252 followersAlso writes children's books under the pseudonym Geoffrey Huntington.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 22, 2013
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Sometimes you just don't connect with a book. I started reading William J Mann's "All American Boy" a while back and it took me the longest time to finish it (I think I finished three books in the course of reading this) Walter Day gets a call from his mother asking him to come home, and he does, and he is forced to face a lot of things when he does, like his mother's declining mental state. Plus, he has to face his first love, whom he wronged many years ago. It's a great set up for a story, but I just did not like any of the characters, starting with Wally. He treats his own mother like shit, and that just did not sit well with me, as I come from the school of always treating your parents well. I kind of wish his reunion with his first love was a little more heartening, but I guess this is not that kind of book. The writing style here is a bit muddled. he changes from dream to reality in a sentence, so it can just a bit confusing. I totally lost interest in the characters at some point, and I just went through the motions of finishing this without caring.
Sometimes you just don't connect with a book. I started reading William J Mann's "All American Boy" a while back and it took me the longest time to finish it (I think I finished three books in the course of reading this) Walter Day gets a call from his mother asking him to come home, and he does, and he is forced to face a lot of things when he does, like his mother's declining mental state. Plus, he has to face his first love, whom he wronged many years ago. It's a great set up for a story, but I just did not like any of the characters, starting with Wally. He treats his own mother like shit, and that just did not sit well with me, as I come from the school of always treating your parents well. I kind of wish his reunion with his first love was a little more heartening, but I guess this is not that kind of book. The writing style here is a bit muddled. he changes from dream to reality in a sentence, so it can just a bit confusing. I totally lost interest in the characters at some point, and I just went through the motions of finishing this without caring.
March 21, 2019
Probably my favorite William J. Mann novel which is high praise indeed as I have read and enjoyed all of his work.
An exciting and extremely erotic novel with an absorbing storyline featuring a fascinating array of well etched and colorful characters. The story of Wally; his relationship with his parents, his sexual and tragic encounter with Zandy, his involvement with his wonderful saviour Miss Aletha and his "escape" from Brown's Mill to NYC and his subsequent return to face the ghosts of his past. A great read and one you won't find easy putting aside.
An exciting and extremely erotic novel with an absorbing storyline featuring a fascinating array of well etched and colorful characters. The story of Wally; his relationship with his parents, his sexual and tragic encounter with Zandy, his involvement with his wonderful saviour Miss Aletha and his "escape" from Brown's Mill to NYC and his subsequent return to face the ghosts of his past. A great read and one you won't find easy putting aside.
July 27, 2014
Intriguing..impassioned voice..taking the reader through a whole slew of gripping emotions. Impossible not to appreciate Mann's writing regardless his plot mechanism. Great writer.
February 4, 2019
I really disliked this book, that’s when I actually knew what was going on. It seems like every gay man in this book is a paedophile and somehow this isn’t weird or gross but a right of passage almost. Its horrible and plays right into the hands of those homophobes who already equate homosexuality with paedophilia. It made me feel a bit sick and I thought that every character was an awful person and totally morally bereft apart from maybe the mother who was just a crap parent. It was really dreadful, don’t read it.
September 26, 2025
""Would you please come home, Walter? Please?" With these desperate words from the mysterious, distant mother he hasn't seen in ten years, Wally Day finds his carefully constructed world falling in on itself. For years the handsome actor has made denial his own particular f- art form - rom his stalled career to his emotionless embrace of the hard-edged boys who regularly traipse through his bedroom. But now, faced with this sudden intrusion from his past, Wally must confront the reasons he left his hometown of Brown's Mill in a cloud of anger, shame, and guilt. He must look face-to-face upon the ghosts of his past: his mother, whom he once loved more than anyone else in the world, his abusive father, who never looked at Wally without contempt ans suspicion; the life-affirming Miss Althea, whose love had given Wally refuge; and most of all Zandy - the man whose memory still haunts him, whose love for Wally had been called a crime.
"As Wally unravels the dark side of his All-American family, he has a chance to make peace with the boy he was in order to become the man he needs to be. He is once more the 14-year old living at Miss Althea's house on the wrong side of town, the music of 'Saturday Night Fever' providing the charged, erotic soundtrack to his life. The world was on the exuberant edge of change in those days, and Wally relives the thrill of discovery, the promise of forbidden sex - and the mistake that cost him everything.
"It's a journey that will take Wally back to his past-to a time when he was the good son, the smartest boy in his class, the shining picture of the All-American boy.
"Bestselling author William J. Mann has written his most powerful work yet: a searing novel about the differences between going home and finding yourself there. By turns poignant and sexy, harrowing and hopeful, 'All American Boy' is a big wise book filled with insight, humor, hurt, truth, and the ever-renewing hope of love." From the 2006 Kensington paperback edition.
I first encountered this novel via an excerpt published in 'His2: Brilliant New Gay Fiction' edited Robert Drake, 1997, twenty or more years ago and I thought it was a very powerful indeed a very good story (I should point that what appeared was slightly different to what appeared in the novel but not different enough to make it unrecognisable). It was well over 10+ years later that I finally read the book and unfortunately it didn't live up to what the excerpt promised.
William Mann is a very good writer but his novels appear both dated and parochial. He doesn't find anything wrong, never mind absurd with that phrase 'All American Boy' but removing oneself from America it becomes so. Have you ever heard of an 'All Irish, French, Mexican, Japanese, etc. Boy'? Of course not and I wonder now (2025) would such an expression still be used, except ironically in the USA. I found on reading it in 2019 to be terribly dated because its concerns seemed silly - I would refer to my review of his novel 'Where the Boys Are'. There doesn't seem any reason to repeat myself.
I would highly recommend seeking the extract in 'His2' and it is only because of my respect for it that this novel gets three stars.
"As Wally unravels the dark side of his All-American family, he has a chance to make peace with the boy he was in order to become the man he needs to be. He is once more the 14-year old living at Miss Althea's house on the wrong side of town, the music of 'Saturday Night Fever' providing the charged, erotic soundtrack to his life. The world was on the exuberant edge of change in those days, and Wally relives the thrill of discovery, the promise of forbidden sex - and the mistake that cost him everything.
"It's a journey that will take Wally back to his past-to a time when he was the good son, the smartest boy in his class, the shining picture of the All-American boy.
"Bestselling author William J. Mann has written his most powerful work yet: a searing novel about the differences between going home and finding yourself there. By turns poignant and sexy, harrowing and hopeful, 'All American Boy' is a big wise book filled with insight, humor, hurt, truth, and the ever-renewing hope of love." From the 2006 Kensington paperback edition.
I first encountered this novel via an excerpt published in 'His2: Brilliant New Gay Fiction' edited Robert Drake, 1997, twenty or more years ago and I thought it was a very powerful indeed a very good story (I should point that what appeared was slightly different to what appeared in the novel but not different enough to make it unrecognisable). It was well over 10+ years later that I finally read the book and unfortunately it didn't live up to what the excerpt promised.
William Mann is a very good writer but his novels appear both dated and parochial. He doesn't find anything wrong, never mind absurd with that phrase 'All American Boy' but removing oneself from America it becomes so. Have you ever heard of an 'All Irish, French, Mexican, Japanese, etc. Boy'? Of course not and I wonder now (2025) would such an expression still be used, except ironically in the USA. I found on reading it in 2019 to be terribly dated because its concerns seemed silly - I would refer to my review of his novel 'Where the Boys Are'. There doesn't seem any reason to repeat myself.
I would highly recommend seeking the extract in 'His2' and it is only because of my respect for it that this novel gets three stars.
July 18, 2024
The narrative, though beautifully literate, was difficult to get through. Jumping timelines and characters. I finally gave up. I really would have liked a linear story.
March 29, 2013
If nothing else this book would make an ideal film with a cast of characters - good, bad and indifferent. Personally I found the book just as much about Regina,his mother, than about Wally the protagonist. We are part of her interior world, listening to her voices and seeing what really isn't there. Wally knows none of this. He only sees the apparent disintegration of his mother but we are on the inside looking out and can understand where she is coming from. Wally admits that they never knew one another nor had the least desire to do so. Regina stands out as a really 'done by' woman as they say, who suffered far more than her son. There are a lot of other characters in the book who are just as interesting - if not more so - than Wally and the latter chapters take a counter cultural stance as the 'boy now man' cannot bring himself to emotionally accept that the 'relationship' he had with a man when he was fourteen was detrimental to his emotional developement. He does realise that he was coming from such an emotionally disfunctional and cold household that any glimpse of emotional warmth would have been jumped on and seen as a lifeline - which Wally did. You must make your own mind up on that issue. It is a great read though and some of the chapters make hard reading and the focusing in and out of Regina's mind can be difficult to follow but never impossible. Totally absorbing and more than you think it will be.
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July 3, 2017
Awkward start but makes sense in the end.
This is a story about a son and his mother. We are “inside” their heads as they have flashback to other times, and frankly it’s confusing, but in the end it’s a story about growing up, for both the son and the mother, and connections are made that tie the whole thing together.
It was a really difficult read in that I didn’t care too much for either the son or the mother, they both seemed dreadful people that made a lot of bad decision. I’d read a couple of pages, then set the book aside for another time, repeating often. Somewhere around page ~200 – it started being a more interesting book.
Again, once I completed the book, I found enough interest to make the whole thing worthwhile, but the first 2/3rds was a slog
It contains several triggers: underage sex, mental illness, runaway children and child abandonment. It may or may not include a murder; it’s a mystery if it actually happened, but plays a major role. Acts occur “off screen” in the characters past and are brought up from time to time: Suicide of the boy’s father and the mothers husband, parental violence directed at children.
Would you come home, Walter? Please?" With these desperate words from the mysterious, distant mother he hasn't seen in ten years, Wally Day finds his carefully constructed world falling in on itself. For years, the handsome actor has made denial his own particular art form. But now, faced with this sudden intrusion from his past, Wally must confront the reasons he left his hometown of Brown's Mill in a cloud of anger, shame, and guilt. But Wally isn't the only one who's confronting ghosts. His mother Regina had dreams too once, dreams corrupted by fate and circumstance. With her own world unraveling, with strange, confusing memories of a murder that may or may not have occurred, she turns to the son she barely knows for help. As Wally unravels the dark side of his all-American family, he has a chance to make peace with the boy he was in order to become the man he needs to be. He is once more the 14-year-old living at Miss Aletha's house on the wrong side of town, the music of "Saturday Night Fever providing the charged, erotic soundtrack to his life. The world was on the exuberant edge of change in those days, and Wally relives the thrill of discovery, the promise of forbidden sex--"and the mistake that cost him everything.
This is a story about a son and his mother. We are “inside” their heads as they have flashback to other times, and frankly it’s confusing, but in the end it’s a story about growing up, for both the son and the mother, and connections are made that tie the whole thing together.
It was a really difficult read in that I didn’t care too much for either the son or the mother, they both seemed dreadful people that made a lot of bad decision. I’d read a couple of pages, then set the book aside for another time, repeating often. Somewhere around page ~200 – it started being a more interesting book.
Again, once I completed the book, I found enough interest to make the whole thing worthwhile, but the first 2/3rds was a slog
It contains several triggers: underage sex, mental illness, runaway children and child abandonment. It may or may not include a murder; it’s a mystery if it actually happened, but plays a major role. Acts occur “off screen” in the characters past and are brought up from time to time: Suicide of the boy’s father and the mothers husband, parental violence directed at children.
Would you come home, Walter? Please?" With these desperate words from the mysterious, distant mother he hasn't seen in ten years, Wally Day finds his carefully constructed world falling in on itself. For years, the handsome actor has made denial his own particular art form. But now, faced with this sudden intrusion from his past, Wally must confront the reasons he left his hometown of Brown's Mill in a cloud of anger, shame, and guilt. But Wally isn't the only one who's confronting ghosts. His mother Regina had dreams too once, dreams corrupted by fate and circumstance. With her own world unraveling, with strange, confusing memories of a murder that may or may not have occurred, she turns to the son she barely knows for help. As Wally unravels the dark side of his all-American family, he has a chance to make peace with the boy he was in order to become the man he needs to be. He is once more the 14-year-old living at Miss Aletha's house on the wrong side of town, the music of "Saturday Night Fever providing the charged, erotic soundtrack to his life. The world was on the exuberant edge of change in those days, and Wally relives the thrill of discovery, the promise of forbidden sex--"and the mistake that cost him everything.
July 4, 2008
Author William J. Mann invites us into the world of Wally Day, former small-town-boy turned big-city-(albeit unemployed)-actor, who returns home to visit for the first time in ten years. All the left-behind elements of the past are suddenly in the present again for Wally, including his complacent and seemingly delusional mother, Regina; memories of his heartless, decorated-then-later-disgraced war hero father, Robert; Aletha, a transsexual mother figure who takes in Wally after the family is ravaged by scandal; and Alexander (known to Wally as "Zandy"), the statutory rapist and former object of Wally's affection.
Mann's ability to weave the past with the present is brilliant, which helps the reader to overlook some of the predictable plot twists. His accessible, conversational writing style allows us to bear witness first-hand to the heartbreaking and disturbing events endured by both Wally and his mother (the story is just as much about Regina). The characters and circumstances in Mann's classic, The Men From The Boys (and its sequel, Where The Boys Are), were also a predictable yet frighteningly accurate portrayal of the gay-male-centered culture. With All American Boy, he tackles family dysfunction, mental illness, and small-town-mindedness. Regardless of the reader's familiarity or prior experience with such matters, Wally's story makes for a compelling read.
Mann's ability to weave the past with the present is brilliant, which helps the reader to overlook some of the predictable plot twists. His accessible, conversational writing style allows us to bear witness first-hand to the heartbreaking and disturbing events endured by both Wally and his mother (the story is just as much about Regina). The characters and circumstances in Mann's classic, The Men From The Boys (and its sequel, Where The Boys Are), were also a predictable yet frighteningly accurate portrayal of the gay-male-centered culture. With All American Boy, he tackles family dysfunction, mental illness, and small-town-mindedness. Regardless of the reader's familiarity or prior experience with such matters, Wally's story makes for a compelling read.
June 14, 2010
It's a purposely disjointed at times which makes it difficult to figure out whether things are present or past. There were a couple of chapters that were eerily so close to my teen years that I had to put it down a couple of times. Overall, good read, but can be challenging at times.
June 10, 2020
I enjoyed this book - it was different to others I have read by this author but still incorporated complex themes of abuse, love, loss, identity and grief. An engaging but challenging read.
October 8, 2024
A RUBRIC'S CUBE I DIDN'T CARE MUCH ABOUT SOLVING
Walter, the All American boy in this novel, shares the book, in fact, surrenders it to his mentally ill mother who occupies more than fifty percent of the novel's attention. I am not sure what makes Walter an All-American boy unless it's being raised as an only child to two highly dysfunctional people. Sure Mann, in painting Walter's childhood creates a stellar student with expectations of high achievement from his hyper masculine fag-hating bully of a father, his oblivious teachers, and even most of the good citizens in his small "all-American" town. However, that quickly falls away when we learn Walter is gay, troubled, bullied, and soon experiences his first love when he enters into an underage relationship with a much older man.
This storyline, however, receives less attention in the novel than does his mentally ill mother who constantly seems to be hallucinating. She is the primary focus of the book in my opinion although much of the action involves her complicated love-hate relationship with her son. Mann jumps about in the novel from one time period to another in their lives, sometimes within the same paragraph. I was often not sure if I was in her hallucination or her reality. It was confusing. If this was a writing convention on Mann's part in that crazy people aren't aware that they're hallucinating, then "kudos" to Mann, it worked, but I didn't need tricked as the reader to be included. While there were some interesting offshoots to the story and other interesting characters, the constant return to the tortured relationship between Walter and his mother became tedious and uninteresting to me.
This book became a confounding puzzle in an ever twisting story with characters Mann was not successful in making me care about. Still, I read on hoping for improvements that never materialized.
Walter, the All American boy in this novel, shares the book, in fact, surrenders it to his mentally ill mother who occupies more than fifty percent of the novel's attention. I am not sure what makes Walter an All-American boy unless it's being raised as an only child to two highly dysfunctional people. Sure Mann, in painting Walter's childhood creates a stellar student with expectations of high achievement from his hyper masculine fag-hating bully of a father, his oblivious teachers, and even most of the good citizens in his small "all-American" town. However, that quickly falls away when we learn Walter is gay, troubled, bullied, and soon experiences his first love when he enters into an underage relationship with a much older man.
This storyline, however, receives less attention in the novel than does his mentally ill mother who constantly seems to be hallucinating. She is the primary focus of the book in my opinion although much of the action involves her complicated love-hate relationship with her son. Mann jumps about in the novel from one time period to another in their lives, sometimes within the same paragraph. I was often not sure if I was in her hallucination or her reality. It was confusing. If this was a writing convention on Mann's part in that crazy people aren't aware that they're hallucinating, then "kudos" to Mann, it worked, but I didn't need tricked as the reader to be included. While there were some interesting offshoots to the story and other interesting characters, the constant return to the tortured relationship between Walter and his mother became tedious and uninteresting to me.
This book became a confounding puzzle in an ever twisting story with characters Mann was not successful in making me care about. Still, I read on hoping for improvements that never materialized.
May 10, 2020
This was not my favorite book by Mann, but it was okay. Walter Day is a semi-famous New York City actor who gets a mysterious phone call from his estranged mother asking for help. Reluctantly he returns to his small home town...partly to see what is up with his mother....but largely to seek closure with the man he had imprisoned 15 years ealier for statutory rape.
The book is pretty random in it's storytelling: scraps of Walter's childhood, scraps of his mother's childhood, a few chapters about Vampires, and a sexual encounter with a ghost. The overall theme is a good one though...the message of the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness of ourselves, our families, and those who have done us wrong.
The book is pretty random in it's storytelling: scraps of Walter's childhood, scraps of his mother's childhood, a few chapters about Vampires, and a sexual encounter with a ghost. The overall theme is a good one though...the message of the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness of ourselves, our families, and those who have done us wrong.
April 27, 2024
This novel was truly disappointing. I had high hopes when I began reading it, but, sadly, those hopes were dashed.
I thought it would be about a young, gay man coming of age, but the story went way beyond that into places I didn't enjoy. Also, Mann keeps moving the story back and forth in time. I found that confusing. This was simply not an enjoyable reading experience for me.
I can in no way recommend this novel.
I thought it would be about a young, gay man coming of age, but the story went way beyond that into places I didn't enjoy. Also, Mann keeps moving the story back and forth in time. I found that confusing. This was simply not an enjoyable reading experience for me.
I can in no way recommend this novel.
July 20, 2024
I read this authors other book, but this one did not nearly stand up to the quality of the other book. First of all, I don’t like books that take place in different time frames and this took place in. I don’t know five or six different time errors and it was extremely confusing to follow. I really didn’t like the mother character and was really hard to even read some of the story because it just was not interesting.
July 4, 2018
There’s a lot going on in this book and most of it isn’t good. Mann does an excellent job of describing Walter’s dysfunctional relationship with his mother and I wish he’d stuck with that plot rather than introducing so many other plot lines with Luz, Regina’s past, Kyle, Rocky, etc. It all became overwhelming.
January 5, 2018
Page 168
Mr Kowalski’s eyes bear down on her. “Might I see her? You let me see her, won’t you?“
“All right,“ Rocky says, turning to walk back into the flat, leaving the door open for Mr Kowalski to follow.
“My dear,“ he calls after her graciously. “First you must invite me in.“
Mr Kowalski’s eyes bear down on her. “Might I see her? You let me see her, won’t you?“
“All right,“ Rocky says, turning to walk back into the flat, leaving the door open for Mr Kowalski to follow.
“My dear,“ he calls after her graciously. “First you must invite me in.“
July 29, 2021
I thought the werewolf portion of the story detracted from the book
September 14, 2021
A cast of dysfunctional characters - keeps you wondering until the end.
September 27, 2024
What a slog to nowhere! Yuck!
July 29, 2025
a gothic tour of fuddled heads
Everything that can go wrong will go wrong which finally makes it right for the Day family in dreadful Brown’s Milll.
Everything that can go wrong will go wrong which finally makes it right for the Day family in dreadful Brown’s Milll.
June 9, 2010
I like William J. Mann's novels because they tell stories that I don't hear anywhere else or give me perspective on people or communities that I'm not familiar with. Also, he does plot very well. This one is much darker than the others I've read. It's largely about abuse (mental, physical and sexual) in families and how that spirals out into communities. There's also a lot of emotional and mental illness here and many secrets. Despite its occasional emotionality, sometime clunkiness and high quotient of personal tragedy, I was completely absorbed in it. I was thoroughly engaged in the characters and their struggles and was impressed the authors vision of the dark side of life in small town America. He does a more effective job than more renowned writers like Edmund White and Andrew Holleran because his characters are more recognizable and he's not effecting a lofty prose style. I also liked the pieces of the puzzle he left for us to assemble ourselves.
May 18, 2015
The book is an interesting read, full of emotion.
It is supposed to be about All-American Boy Walter Day, but is as much (if not more) about his mother, Regina, and also about their relationship.
Definitely a tale of several dysfunctional lives, and an effort of Walter and Regina to try to get things functioning.
Some heartstrings get pulled, and as the book winds down to its inevitable ending, there is hope for the future for Walter and Regina. Maybe their lives will get on a good path, and their mother/son relationship will also become healthier.
It is supposed to be about All-American Boy Walter Day, but is as much (if not more) about his mother, Regina, and also about their relationship.
Definitely a tale of several dysfunctional lives, and an effort of Walter and Regina to try to get things functioning.
Some heartstrings get pulled, and as the book winds down to its inevitable ending, there is hope for the future for Walter and Regina. Maybe their lives will get on a good path, and their mother/son relationship will also become healthier.
December 21, 2013
Surprisingly I finished the book. I think I was interested to see where the story would lead. Maybe I thought the ending would be intriguing. I was disappointed. I've read Mann's work before, I especially like Men from the Boys. So Mann's has entertained me before. Unfortunately not with this book.
September 14, 2007
A fairly interesting book and story. Favorite charecter was Ms Althea.A black female friend of the boy.She was easily the most likable of all.She was open,understanding,and non judgemental.A good read and one that didnt seem like a waste of reading time.
July 28, 2010
Review by Chantrelle K.
A homosexual boy trying to find his place and why he was that way.
I thought it was interesting because it was told from two points of view. I didn't really like it because it was too strange.
A homosexual boy trying to find his place and why he was that way.
I thought it was interesting because it was told from two points of view. I didn't really like it because it was too strange.
June 17, 2012
This was a great book and I read it in two days.Every other main charecter was so interesting that they deserved their own book,especially Regina.I'd give it 5 stars if there weren't so many cliff hangers at the end!
July 11, 2007
I enjoyed this book, the protagonist is such a jerk to his mother and its seems very honest and real.
April 11, 2008
This book was a bit long. Although it had an alluring story you had to read til you finished. I actually emailed the author for his autograph. I have yet to mail my book to him. LOL!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews