Tony Blair is just seventeen when the avant-garde filmmaker Carlos Reichart comes to his small Kentucky town with a bizarre troupe of actors and technicians. A bored teenager with the face of an angel and a drinking problem, Tony is ripe for any kind of adventure. Easily seduced by Carlos, he falls in love, not only with the man and his extraordinary style but with the glittering promise of New York and stardom in Carlos’ films. But the glamour turns to tawdriness. As vulnerable and naïve as Tony is, he eventually discovers the truth about his lover: the malevolence of Carlos’ films, the dangers in sharing Carlos’ life-on-the-edge. And it is Tony’s desperate need to free himself from Carlos’ debasing grip that pushes him into a final irrevocable act.
Boys of Life
“Boys of Life is simply great writing—risky, honest, horrifying and insightful…. A forthright vision of love’s darkest possibilities.”—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
“Picaresque and symbolic, raffish yet lyrical, told in one of the most compelling and authentic vernacular voices in American literature—Tony Blair is the peer of Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield… an awesome achievement.”—Booklist
“One hellish, utterly compelling surprise package. Read it and weep.”—The Detroit News
“Like a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph, Boys of Life explores the unsettling tensions between artistry and prurience, aesthetics and morality… a provocative but balanced study of the artist as pioneer in the far reaches of human experience.”—San Francisco Chronicle
