Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (Perennial Classics)
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Author: Paul Monette
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Paperback:
ISBN 10: 0060595647
ISBN 13: 978-0060595647
A child of the 1950s from a small New England town, "perfect Paul" earns straight A's and shines in social and literary pursuits, all the while keeping a secret—from himself and the rest of the world. Struggling to be, or at least to imitate, a straight man, through Ivy League halls of privilege and bohemian travels abroad, loveless intimacy and unrequited passion, Paul Monette was haunted, and finally saved, by a dream of "the thing I'd never even seen: two men in love and laughing."
Searingly honest, witty, and humane, Becoming a Man is the definitive coming-out story in the classic coming-of-age genre.
Review
“Everyone can learn something about courage and self-discovery from Becoming a Man.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
“One of the most complex, moral, personal, and political books to have been written about gay life.” (L. A. Weekly)
“Beautifully written…a heartfelt illumination of how a gay person overcame the self-reproach that societal condemnation enacts.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A poignant, bittersweet memoir….Each stage of [Monette’s] personal journey is described at an intimate, insightful, human level.” (Library Journal)
“Monette’s interior life, his ghosts, his turmoil, his final peace -- in Becoming a Man, they have become our literature.” (--David Ebershoff, author of Pasadena and The Danish Girl)
About the Author
Paul Monette (1945-1995) is the author of many books, including seven novels, four volumes of poetry, and several highly praised nonfiction works, such as Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. In 1992, he received the National Book Award for Becoming a Man. He died of AIDS complications in 1995.
