City of Boys

by Beth Nugent

Book Overview

Set in New York City, middle America, the beaches of Florida and rural highways, suburban kitchens, and cross-country trains, the ten stories of City of Boys evoke a haunting landscape at once... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679733515
• ISBN13: 9780679733515
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

still works

I bought this book when it was released by Knopf (early 90s) and I was impressed both by the writing and how Beth dissected so many adolescent feelings that other writers merely labeled. Some reviewers may be upset that her stories are consistently dark and her characters tend to overly internalize things....it doesn't match their perception of how kids are today . But I would suggest that while today's kids are more juiced up and likely to act out feelings (versus internalize), it doesn't negate what's deep down and driving the pseudo-empowered behavior that makes news headlines. See Alice Miller. Then re-read Beth.

Finest Writer Living

Beth Nugent's stories mystically manage to go nowhere....that life does not go.They captivate as they meander. You will be shocked to find expression for your deepest, until-now-unarticulated turmoils as you are violated by your own empathy with Nugent's characters....and a plot that plods like a life.

I stand impressed

Good lord can this author write. I do a lot of writing and I am very picking about what I deem good writing but Nugent is incredible. Her stories have the perfect balance of prolepsis, irony, and metaphor (sorry but I AM an English major!) But I am also a writer and I feel my own writing is improving from reading her work. She is incredibly gifted and the stories in this book simply blew me away. Hats off to Beth Nugent!

Perfect

Beth Nugent is the writer I have been searching for. Her work is unusual, powerful, dark, and balanced. This collection of short stories is fascinating. From the first sentence, I am reeled in by her prolific fishing line. I highly recommend this book. I love her style. --Julie Bickley

Exposes reader to a rich, strange world.

Reading this book is like walking on Beacon Hill in Boston, turning into an alley, walking down a cul-de-sac, and finding yourself in a new world. Protagonists are usually women. I never knew what the author was going to say about them next. Even the stories you might consider downers are full of sly humor and neat observations. I can accept these new worlds even though I have never lived in them, and mostly wouldn't want to. My favorites: City of Boys, Locusts. See also the story Cocktail Party in the New Yorker a few years ago.