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The Best Little Boy in the World
by: John Reid, Andrew Tobias

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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.389664092
EAN: 9780345381767
ISBN: 0345381769
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: May 11, 1993
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: May 11, 1993
Studio: Ballantine Books
Sales Rank: 284637

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
The classic account of growing up gay in America.
"The best little boy in the world never had wet dreams or masturbated; he always topped his class, honored mom and dad, deferred to elders and excelled in sports . . . . The best little boy in the world was . . . the model IBM exec . . . The best little boy in the world was a closet case who 'never read anything about homosexuality.' . . . John Reid comes out slowly, hilariously, brilliantly. One reads this utterly honest account with the shock of recognition." The New York Times
"The quality of this book is fantastic because it comes of equal parts honesty and logic and humor. It is far from being the story of a Gay crusader, nor is it the story of a closet queen. It is the story of a normal boy growing into maturity without managing to get raped into, or taunted because of, his homosexuality. . . . He is bright enough to be aware of his hangups and the reasons for them. And he writes well enough that he doesn't resort to sensationalism . . . ." San Francisco Bay Area Reporter

Amazon.com Review:
When The Best Little Boy in the World was first published in 1973, Andrew Tobias could write about what it had felt like to begin to accept his homosexuality, but he couldn't bring himself to sign his own name to the book, for fear of embarrassing his parents. And so it was "John Reid" who became a hero to the thousands of gay males who found in this memoir a mirror for their own experiences.

Although the book appears rambling at times, Tobias always has a clear sense of where he wants to take readers with the story. He treats his closeted adolescence and college years, and his stumbling first attempts at "doing a thing" with other gay men, with a self-effacing humor that exposes his pain without descending into self-pity. And if his life seems fairly ordinary, apart from the sexual awakening ... well, that was the whole point. "You like and respect us when you don't realize we're gay," he writes in a new introduction, "so now please just continue to like and respect us once you do realize. It's not that big a deal."

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- TBLBITW: Life in the Closet
The Best Little Boy in the World (TBLBITW) was the first memoir of a LGBT individual I read and it was well worth the read. Andrew Tobias tells his story in a witty, sarcastic and humorous tone that makes the book one you can't put down. LGBT individuals are sure to relate to at least some aspects of Tobias's life. Non-LGBT individuals will be able to learn a bit about the struggles and costs of living a closeted life and the experience of coming out to friends and family. The best part is this book rarely takes on a serious tone which would be disruptive to its flow and make it less accessible to some readers. I highly recommend readers read TBLBITW and then the sequel, TBLBITW Grows Up, where Tobias discusses his life since publishing the TBLBITW and discusses some areas in the original ... Read More

Rating:

- How many of us have the same story?
I could have written this book but I didn't. It's taken me nearly 60 years to do what Andrew Tobias did in his 20s. How many "best little boys" are out there somewhere? The personal telling of his story - with delving soul-searching analysis and a great geal of humor - makes this a necessity for anyone who has lived a secret life and learned the accepted norms of society in the days when there were no real choices.

Rating:

- Outdated and Overhyped
I bought this book because I thought I'd relate with the author's choice of the title "The Best Little Boy in the World". It took me less than fifty pages to realize that this was one of the worst books I've ever read. I can imagine that this book probably made a lot of difference when it was written, but today, I like to think we've progressed beyond the self-loathing, hatred of our own nature, and belittling of anyone that isn't like us to make this book less relevant for today. If I was recommending a book to a teenager to help them with their coming out process, I definitely would not recommend this book. I mean, come on, coming out is traumatic enough as it is, why would I want to make it worse by suggesting they read a book that will only put them down and make them feel worse about themselves? ... Read More

Rating:

- Self-loathing and superior
The other readers pegged it nicely: this book is self-loathing and superior. I read this when I was fourteen and, fourteen years later, found myself rereading it when I cleaned out my closet. I can't believe the arrogance and myopia of its WASP narrator. This book is internalized homophobia coupled with upper middle class snobbery at its worst. No doubt if the author was born in Nazi Germany sixty years ago, he would be Hitler's right hand man in his pink triangle quest to oppress homosexuals, or at least, those too limp wristed and "icky" for Andrew Tobias' liking. I'm aghast other readers are recommending his book for those coming out of the closet.

Rating:

- Damaging story from a damaged, poor writer.
If you're looking for a tale of self-loathing, arrogance born of privilege and internalized homophobia - then you've found your book.

I was hoping this book would be a comment on homosexuality in the '50s and '60s but it isn't - it's the over-indulgent self-obsessed story of a gay man who is so hung up on how smart, privileged, "straight-acting" and attractive he is, that mid-way through the book you realize there can be no redemption.

Worse than this laborious and uneventful story, is the author's socio-political commentary on homosexuality and race (Tobias is a self-admitted racist). It's nothing you haven't heard or read - though the surprise is it's coming from a gay man. It's the sort of bland rhetoric you'd expect from a Bush supporter.

Women rank low on Tobias' ... Read More

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