The Boys of My Youth

I usually don't give such low star ratings to books--in fact this is the lowest I've given--but I'm so in awe of the sentimentality in this book with its quirkiness posing as art that I simply need to express my shock that this would be considered great reading. This may sound harsh, but maybe for a bunch of lonely middle-aged women the quaint little anecdotes in this book would seem comforting--the way group therapy feel "comforting" perhaps--but I can't suggest this as true literature, however snobby that sounds.

I bought Ms. Beard's The Boys of My Youth, her collection of fictionalized essays, and finished it in short order. It was a delight. Then I went back and read parts of it again. Then I tried another "quirky" writer a friend had recommended, but soon found myself rereading ALL of The Boys of My Youth. So there you have it. I love this writer. I think "Fourth State of Matter" is just about the most perfect piece of writing. Ever. So whenever you're ready, Jo Ann, we're out here, like one of your faithful dogs, waiting so hard.

The Boys of My Youth makes it crystal clear that an ordinary life may be at times overflowing with extraordinary drama. Through Beard's fine writing and descriptive skilly, she shows that the typical days of her life are loaded with drama, humor, and pathos. The book is a loose collection of vignettes spanning the author's 60's childhood and flows into her early adulthood. The title, however (as well as the jacket cover), is misleading. One might expect sexual initiation and experimentation to play a large role. The Boys of My Youth, however, is more about the LACK of boys in her youth - and the importance of having a good friend. Wonderful, wonderful book. Buy it.

Jo Ann Beard writes so well it almost doesn't matter what she's writing about. A chapter on toenail clippers would likely sing off the page like the rest of her writing.

That being said, I felt like I understood women a little better by the end of this. So many stories about growing up female from girl to woman, so intimate and sweet and heartbreaking.

If you only read one essay in your life, you must read "The Fourth State of Matter," a chapter in this book. It's astoundingly good. Terrifying and brilliant.

This book was recommended to me by professors in my MFA program in writing and I've given it as a gift more than once.

If you graduated high school in the late 70s, early 80s and were a little on the wild side..... this book has some wonderful memories in store for you. It's when painters pants were big, long hair meant everything and riding in cars with girlfriends was so IT. JoAnn Beard tells it like it was better than any author I've read, even down to sneaking out of the house though we knew better.
Put on an old Van Morrison CD, and relive some wonderful memories while reading great book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of autobiographical short stories. It was fun to read about someone who grew up in the same era that I did. My favorite was "The Family Hour" which was so reminiscent of the dinner table at my house back in the 60's and 70's that I had to read it aloud to my husband and sister. This collection is not all laughs, however; there are sad,poignant,and even frightening pieces that stay with you well after you put down the book. Beard's topics transcend time and place. In fact, "The Fourth State of Matter" is so timely that I saw a similar event on the news yesterday. If you're looking for a collection of essays worth your while, you've found it in "The Boys of My Youth."

While parts of this book were certainly entertaining, it was very disjointed, and the author's efforts at descriptive writing went way overboard. The chapter called COYOTES was painful to read, in that is was 'all over the place' and had NO flow. I see this writer has potential, but she certainly has not reached that point yet. I would not recommend this book-- unless you would like to practice your editorial skills. If you can forgive the author's lack of skills, you might enjoy it. But, isn't reading supposed to be about escaping, not racking your brain to find a flow?

From the preface author/narrator Jo Ann Beard rambles to us, in no particular order and in an obscure jumble, about the boys of her youth -- and also her family and friends and pets, and a random wild animal. For the first quarter of the book I didn't know if she was autistic, senile, or hallucinating. She's in a crib, she's grown, she's a kid, she's at her home, she's at her grandma's, she's unborn, she's a teen; she is Kansas, she is Kansas, she is Kansas, she is back in Iowa, she is growing up in Illinois, by this point I didn't even care. I figured if she can't be bothered to be coherent I'm not going to put effort into understanding what for example, is "the jawline of an angel", or how a car door is "coat hangered shut", or how ones feet can possibly look "like they belong to a stranger with too much time on their hands".

The story is a loose and vague bio of Jo Ann Beard. It jumps around from one period of her life to another and is difficult to follow. The details of her connections with others were blah and failed to elicit any real emotional to me. I really had higher expectations based on other reviews.

A sparklingly beautiful collection of essays describing the defining moments in Beard's life. Her writing is brutally honest and magically poetical as she takes the reader along beside her to relive these events. They range from the traumas of an office shooting at the University of Iowa, her dog's slow death, her aunt's stealing her favorite doll, and her divorce, to the everyday scenes of youth and youth adulthood. Her talent lies in taking ordinary pieces from her life and making them extraordinary. Recommended.