The Best Little Boy in the World - Softcover

John Reid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345298179 ISBN 13: 9780345298171

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1981

Synopsis

When The Best Little Boy in the World was first published in 1973, The New York Times Book Review hailed this classic account of a young man's coming to terms with his sexuality as "uniquely frank . . . a splendid book." Yet the reviewer was also disturbed that a journal about owning up to one's true identity had to appear under a pen name because of "societal bigotry."
------Happily, times have changed. Today "John Reid" can be himself and is already known to millions of readers as the witty, bestselling financial writer Andrew Tobias. To commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his intelligent work, the Modern Library is re-
issuing The Best Little Boy in the World. Full of humor and free of guilt, it remains one of the most enduring memoirs of a generation.
------"An enlightening portrait of growing up gay in a straight world," said the Chicago Tribune. "John Reid comes out slowly, hilariously, brilliantly," wrote David Brudnoy in The New York Times Book Review. "One reads this utterly honest account with the shock of recognition."
------This Modern Library edition coincides with the publication of its sequel, The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up, and includes a new Foreword by Andrew Tobias and a new Introduction by the writer and journalist Andrew Sullivan.

About this title

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."

From the Back Cover:

"The best little boy in the world never had wet dreams or masturbated; he always topped his class, honored more 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

"An enlightening portrait of growing up gay in a straight world."--Chicago Tribune

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0345298179
• ISBN 13: 9780345298171
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback