Becoming a Man

Half a Life Story

by Paul Monette

On Sale: 05/25/2004

Becoming a Man

Half a Life Story

by Paul Monette

On Sale: 05/25/2004

Format:

About the Book

The National Book Award winning memoir with a new foreword by Kathryn Harrison, author of The Kiss.

“Fiercely committed to bequeathing a map of his psychic terrain, to spare others the pain of his solitary journey, [Monette’s] fine memoir is affirmative and ultimately celebratory.” — New York Times Book Review

A child of the 1950s from a small New England town, “perfect Paul” earns straight A’s and scholarships 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—“The thing I’d never even seen: two men in love and laughing.” This searingly honest, witty, and humane merging of memoir and manifesto has become the definitive coming out story—and a classic of the coming-of-age genre. It was awarded the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction.

Critical Praise

“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

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Resources

Product Details

  • ISBN: 9780060595647
  • ISBN 10: 0060595647
  • Imprint: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
  • On Sale: 05/25/2004
  • Pages: 304
  • List Price:18.50 CAD
  • BISAC1 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General
  • BISAC2 : SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies
  • BISAC3 : PSYCHOLOGY / Human Sexuality
  • BISAC4 : SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBT Studies / Gay Studies

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