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Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys : A Novel by Chris Fuhrman (2001, Trade Paperback)
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Publisher: University of Georgia Press. Number of Pages: 200. Weight: 0.59 lbs. Publication Date: 2001-09-28. ISBN13: 9780820323381.
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of Georgia Press
ISBN-100820323381
ISBN-139780820323381
eBay Product ID (ePID)1902305
Product Key Features
Book TitleDangerous Lives of Altar Boys : a Novel
Number of Pages200 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicReligious, Literary
Publication Year2001
FeaturesReprint
IllustratorRohrer, Dean, Yes
GenreFiction
AuthorChris Fuhrman
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height0.6 in
Item Weight9.3 Oz
Item Length8.4 in
Item Width5.7 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
TitleLeadingThe
Dewey Edition20
Reviews"Fuhrman handles his material with wit and grace. There are no false remembrances, there is no condescension; the boys appear here in all their gum-chewing, insult-spitting, girl fantasizing naivete and candor."- Washington Times, "The author's real triumph lies in his ability to plumb wild young minds, to reveal the ardent romantic hearts that beat within wisecracking boys. Their wild, unselfconscious beauty permeates the book. . . . We may never know what a loss [Chris Fuhrman's death] was. Who knows how many other brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking books he may have written?"-- Boston Book Review, "The moral of the story . . . has so much gravity and grace. . . . This is the real thing, writing done with everything on the line . . . The death of Chris Fuhrman is an incalculable loss to this generation of writers. We should be glad to have his testimony."-- Boston Globe, "This book deserves many, many readers. . . . A memorable, funny, and poignant depiction of a glorious boyhood chased down and brutally terminated . . . A story as odd, vivid, painful, splendid, and sad as adolescence itself . . . Fuhrman's posthumous debut invites wistful speculation about the sort of career which might have followed it."- Commonweal, "The moral of the story . . . has so much gravity and grace. . . . This is the real thing, writing done with everything on the line . . . The death of Chris Fuhrman is an incalculable loss to this generation of writers. We should be glad to have his testimony."- Boston Globe, "Heartbreaking yet hilarious . . . By marrying the earnest to the ridiculous, Fuhrman captures the sublime intensity of adolescence."--Publishers Weekly(starred review), "This book deserves many, many readers. . . . A memorable, funny, and poignant depiction of a glorious boyhood chased down and brutally terminated . . . A story as odd, vivid, painful, splendid, and sad as adolescence itself . . . Fuhrman's posthumous debut invites wistful speculation about the sort of career which might have followed it."-- Commonweal, "Fuhrman takes wicked pleasure in scraping teen innocence against the graveled, perverse underbelly of suburban childhood."-- Newsday, "Fuhrman takes wicked pleasure in scraping teen innocence against the graveled, perverse underbelly of suburban childhood."- Newsday, "The freshness of Fuhrman's novel comes from his ability to squeeze out of a time of transition universal evocations of rebellion against growing up. . . . Fuhrman provides his story and characters with enough originality to keep the narrative clipping along and his reader totally absorbed."- Chicago Tribune, "Fuhrman handles his material with wit and grace. There are no false remembrances, there is no condescension; the boys appear here in all their gum-chewing, insult-spitting, girl fantasizing naivete and candor."--Washington Times, "Fuhrman takes wicked pleasure in scraping teen innocence against the graveled, perverse underbelly of suburban childhood."--Newsday, "Fuhrman handles his material with wit and grace. There are no false remembrances, there is no condescension; the boys appear here in all their gum-chewing, insult-spitting, girl fantasizing naivete and candor."-- Washington Times, "The author's real triumph lies in his ability to plumb wild young minds, to reveal the ardent romantic hearts that beat within wisecracking boys. Their wild, unselfconscious beauty permeates the book. . . . We may never know what a loss [Chris Fuhrman's death] was. Who knows how many other brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking books he may have written?"- Boston Book Review, "The freshness of Fuhrman's novel comes from his ability to squeeze out of a time of transition universal evocations of rebellion against growing up. . . . Fuhrman provides his story and characters with enough originality to keep the narrative clipping along and his reader totally absorbed."-- Chicago Tribune, "The freshness of Fuhrman's novel comes from his ability to squeeze out of a time of transition universal evocations of rebellion against growing up. . . . Fuhrman provides his story and characters with enough originality to keep the narrative clipping along and his reader totally absorbed."--Chicago Tribune, "The moral of the story . . . has so much gravity and grace. . . . This is the real thing, writing done with everything on the line . . . The death of Chris Fuhrman is an incalculable loss to this generation of writers. We should be glad to have his testimony."--Boston Globe, "Heartbreaking yet hilarious . . . By marrying the earnest to the ridiculous, Fuhrman captures the sublime intensity of adolescence."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review), "This book deserves many, many readers. . . . A memorable, funny, and poignant depiction of a glorious boyhood chased down and brutally terminated . . . A story as odd, vivid, painful, splendid, and sad as adolescence itself . . . Fuhrman's posthumous debut invites wistful speculation about the sort of career which might have followed it."--Commonweal, "Heartbreaking yet hilarious . . . By marrying the earnest to the ridiculous, Fuhrman captures the sublime intensity of adolescence."- Publishers Weekly (starred review), "The author's real triumph lies in his ability to plumb wild young minds, to reveal the ardent romantic hearts that beat within wisecracking boys. Their wild, unselfconscious beauty permeates the book. . . . We may never know what a loss [Chris Fuhrman's death] was. Who knows how many other brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking books he may have written?"--Boston Book Review
Dewey Decimal813/.54
Edition DescriptionReprint
SynopsisSet in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1970s, this is a novel of the anarchic joy of youth and encounters with the concerns of early adulthood. Francis Doyle, Tim Sullivan, and their three closest friends are altar boys at Blessed Heart Catholic Church and eighth-grade classmates at the parish school. They are also inveterate pranksters, artistic, and unimpressed by adult authority. When Sodom vs. Gomorrah '74 , their collaborative comic book depicting Blessed Heart's nuns and priests gleefully breaking the seventh commandment, falls into the hands of the principal, the boys, certain that their parents will be informed, conspire to create an audacious diversion. Woven into the details of the boys' preparations for the stunt are touching, hilarious renderings of the school day routine and the initiatory rites of male adolescence, from the first serious kiss to the first serious hangover., Set in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1970s, this is a novel of the anarchic joy of youth and encounters with the concerns of early adulthood: from the first serious kiss to the first serious hangover., Set in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1970s, this is a novel of youth, its anarchic joy, and its first encounters with the concerns and apprehensions of early adulthood. Francis Doyle, Tim Sullivan, and their three closest friends are altar boys at Blessed Heart Catholic Church and eight-grade classmates at the parish school. They are also inveterate pranksters, suburban Tom Saywers. Bright, artistic, and unimpressed by adult authority, they are sworn to subvert the world that their parents and teachers have made for them. Trouble at school presents the opportunity for their crowning escapade - for a chance to move beyond broken streetlights, playground brawls, and shoplifted junk food. They had barely finished drawing Sodom vs. Gomorrah '74 - a collaborative comic book depicting Blessed Heart's nuns and priests gleefully breaking the seventh commandment - when it fell into the hands of the principal. Certain that their parents will be informed, the boys conspire to create a diversion and buy some time. Their plan is to capture a dangerous wild animal and set it loose in the school. It is a scheme too audacious to abandon, one that will seal their friendships forever. Woven into the details of the boys' preparations for the stunt are author Chris Fuhrman's touching, hilarious renderings of the daily routines of the school day and the initiatory rites of male adolescence, from the first serious kiss to the first serious hangover. Fuhrman also displays his ear for the continual banter of schoolboys, employing its luridly detailed put-downs, exaggerated boasts, and aimless speculations as a backdrop against which the story's main events take place. His descriptions of the boys' lives athome, of their self-absorbed or abusive parents, are rendered discerningly as well. Without moralizing, Fuhrman conveys the notion so central to his story: precocity and idealism aside, the main motivation for the boys to band together is that they find in one another the comfort, support, and approval that are missing at home. In the end, a turn of fate puts more distance between the boys and the comic-book incident than they had ever planned or wanted, and mortality, not adult authority, becomes the enemy against which they must plot. So right in its details of a particular place, time, and state of mind, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys will reawaken its readers' memories of their own precarious passage out of childhood.
LC Classification NumberPS3556.U3245D36 1994
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