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Becoming A Man

On sale

19th May 1994

Price: £12.99

Selected:  Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780349105499

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He grew up in a small town in New England in the 1950’s, watching lassie, going to church, getting straight A’s at school, a scholar destined for success. But he already had a secret, and his public life with family and friends was already a constant round of ventriloquism as he played the joker and pretended to be the same as everyone else. For Paul Monette was gay.

BECOMING A MAN is about growing up gay, and about the tyranny and self denial of the closet – one man’s struggle, for half his life, to come out. From the white-bread 1950’s through the rebellious 1960’s to the self-creating 1970’s and beyond, it forms a passionately honest and unsparing account of the tortures of living a lie, a naked protrait of one man’s fight for freedom in a time of ignorance and bigotry.

Reviews

VILLAGE VOICE
A profound tale, wrenching as it is life-affirming, poetic as it is uncompromisingly real.
NEW YORK TIMES
Affirmative and ultimately celebratory.
Esquire
Searingly honest and lyrically beautiful...an unforgettable account of growing up gay in America.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Everyone can learn about courage and self-discovery from BECOMING A MAN.
BOSTON GLOBE
A daring and heartbreaking memoir.