I was so excited to start this book because I am a huge fan of biographies, and this one is essentially a trilogy. Getting hold of these books has been and is the biggest mission but makes it so worth it when I find them!

I didn’t love the way White jumps back and forth a lot, but once I got the hang of it, it was okay.

My favorite part of this book was the impeccable descriptions of White’s characters. Their physicalities were explained so well I could see the clearest picture of the character in my mind. I loved this.

3.5 stars ⭐️

A sexually changed tween tells of his escapades into a post-child sexuality dealing with adult judgement and perspectives of the world that contrasts with his own. Initially this book could have went in many direction, such as hustling, homosexuality in the 1950s, paedophilia, however, it stayed its course, only exploring the daring and controversial narrative of pre-teenage sexuality. The language was very beautiful and interesting, and I generally enjoyed the book.

I really enjoyed the writing, especially the physical descriptions of people which are always rather disgusting: 'Her teeth overlapped. Her eyeteeth were unusually long and pointed and wet'. Or, 'Mr. Pouchet had very full lips the color of raspberry ice when it's still in the carton, before it's licked lighter...' The book is six chapters, but really they are anecdotes that flit around different times during the narrator's adolescence, detailing his different encounters with men and boys, and his longing for love. They were all fascinating and brilliantly written, but don't add up to a structure that you could say had a beginning and an end. At one point, when talking about the stories that some friends of his tell him about their life, the narrator says, 'One passage, complete in itself but not yet oriented to the rest, would float wonderfully to its correct position on the board.' But I'm not sure White's passages did every float to their correct position for me, and that was frustrating. Also, I have to admit that I am a little tired of reading about lonely adolescent boys, who by their very nature are incredibly self-centred.

I read a couple of reviews comparing this favorably with "The Catcher in the Rye" (even one called it "essentially a homosexual Catcher in the Rye.")
I couldn't disagree more. I would much rather any young gay man read "Catcher" than this.
There's some pretty prose here, but the structure is all over the place, the events implausible and more tawdry than anything nearly as poignant as Salinger. "Catcher" is a story. ABOS is random snippets mostly focused on sexual escapades. A book solely focused on the sexual awakenings of a boy does not lend itself to jumping around a timeline. I wonder if the chapters were accidentally printed out of order the first time and they just left it that way?

One of the most beautifully crafted books I've read - his use of language is absolutely amazing

While I usually appreciate books telling stories about homosexuality, this one was just horrendous to read. White tries to be so lyrical the piece becomes entirely illegible and flat out boring and overworked. Dragged myself through it. Boring read.

The writing was often beautiful, but the story-telling was disjointed and did not succeed in drawing me in.