User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I have neither the words nor the talent to adequately describe what this book did to me. It should be on your bucket list, no matter who you are.
On the surface, this book is a murder mystery. Forget the minimal supernatural elements, it plays a much smaller part than you might think.
It's a coming-of-age story about a twelve year old boy, Cory Mackenson, growing up in a town called Zephyr in the early sixties. And the story begins with him and his father, witnessing the aftermath of a murder and the killer's attempt to hide it.
And, BAM, you find yourself in a different world.
It takes an exceptional writer to tell this story in 600 pages without boring the reader. This book is truly a masterpiece of literature - simply because of the feelings it invokes in the reader.
So, what happens in this story?
Everything! Absolutely EVERYTHING!
Allow me to explain.
I was 17 years old when I read IT by Stephen King - a daunting task with a book of more than a thousand pages. King managed to take me back a few years, to connect with a younger, freer and naiver me. Those memories were still fresh in my mind and I had no difficulty going along with the ride. Not only could I relate with those characters, I could connect to them on a personal level.
Twenty five years later I read BOY'S LIFE, and, for the life of me, I can't believe I'd forgotten so much about those feelings I had as a young man. But during these last two weeks, I've felt things I didn't know still existed inside me. For the last two weeks, I felt that magic again - I'm certain it's to a much lesser extent than in my youth, but this is the closest I have come to it in my adult life.
This story covers all the important stuff:
Ignorance vs. Tolerance
Love vs. Hate
Anger vs. Fear
Hope vs. Pessimism
Grief vs. Acceptance
Grudges vs. Forgiveness
Bullies vs. Victims
Loss vs. Grace
There were so many situations in this book which transformed me back to my youth. Times have changed, as they always will...I have changed, as any adult does.
It also saddens me a little, to look at my son (almost 4), and to think about the things he will never know in his life. He is growing up in a different world than I did, especially if you look at the age gap, will he be able to relate to this book when he is older?
I'm a bit emotional as I write this, I might change this review in the future. For now, this is one of the best books I've ever read, it will rate in my top 5 for sure. I hope that everybody will grant themselves the chance to go on this journey.
Update: After sixteen months, this is still the best book I've read since joining Goodreads.
*****
Rating: really liked it
There is no way that any review could live up to this book. It is utterly fabulous. It reels you in and never lets you go. It will bring back every good memory that you had while growing up. The feeling of freedom you experienced riding your bike, exploring wooded areas and just generally being a kid.
One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from this book:
We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves. Do yourself a favor. Read this book. Get a little of that magic back.
Rating: really liked it
A totally magnificent coming-of-age standalone.Fantasy and sci-fi will always be my favorite genres to read. I’m not ashamed to say that I haven’t read a lot of novels outside SFF; mainly because I found the popular and highly acclaimed non-SFF books that I've read so far to be mostly disappointing or just not satisfying enough. However, there will always be that rare occurrence where I pick up a random book outside of my favorite genre and realized that I have been transported by a magical portal.
Boy’s Life was that kind of book; it grabbed my full attention from the prologue and it still dazzled me after I finished it.
Picture: Boy’s Life by David Ho
I’m almost 30 years old now and reading this book as an adult simply hit my feelings on all front. I was transported to my childhood for a while. Maybe I should’ve read this book when I was young to understand the importance of childhood and growing up; to appreciate the fleeting and short moment of that time.
“Don’t be in a hurry to grow up. Hold on to being a boy as long as you can, because once you lose that magic, you’re always begging to find it again.”
But I also know that I was just a boy. I know that I wouldn’t be able to appreciate how incredible and impactful this book if I’ve read it as a kid instead of now. Childhood to me is a period of time that shine the brightest in contemplation. Except for homework and exams, freedom was given in abundance, I just didn’t know it back then. It’s only through the telescope of adulthood, age, and restriction from the invisible chains of responsibilities that the gravitas and happiness of childhood became meaningful; the constant accumulation of experience and hardship growing up made reading this book an irreplaceable experience. I have forgotten a lot of events from my childhood, some still stand out. The one that stands out was the simple things done in repetition. Sleeping over at friends’ or cousin’s house, learning and riding a bicycle, caring for your pets, being late to school, just the simple things. When we’re kids, we're most likely to be protected by our parents from the burden and brutality of the world that exist; adulthood means we’re the one who does the protecting.
What’s the point of me saying all this? Here’s why.
Boy’s Life made me lived that period of time while retaining the knowledge and experience I have accumulated to understand the importance and beauty of childhood. For ten hours, I was back to being a boy. The book was so beautifully written and the characters really get under my skin. Our eyes were lenses that reflected magic and wonder in everything we saw, we allowed our imagination to wonder and came up with an impossible situation that if we talk about it as an adult, we’ll most likely be called insane.
“Maybe crazy is what they call anybody who's got magic in them after they're no longer a child.”
Boy’s Life was published in 1991 and yet it still managed to resonate easily with me, a reader who read it for the first time in 2018. It has won many awards but it should’ve won more. I don’t know if this book can be classified as a classic but it should be. It’s a timeless lesson on life, death, hardship, racism, reality, appreciation, faith, and growing up.
“No one ever grows up. They may look grown-up, but it's just the clay of time. Men and women are still children deep in their hearts."
Magic, horror, mystery were evident but they’re not really the main focus of the book. The main driving force was the wonder of childhood that can be found in almost every paragraph. It was a beautifully well-told story full of poignancy; a classic and a new addition to one of my favorite standalone (that’s not part of a series) books of all time.
If you want to regain the forgotten magic in you,
Boy’s Life is a magical portal that will transport you to the past even if you're reading this for the first time. And if you’re still not sure about giving this book a go, I’ll close this review with a passage from the prologue. It’s a long one but if you find this passage heartwarming or lovely to read, trust me that it’s very probable that you will have a wonderful and magical time with this book.
“You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody else didn’t realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present and into the future. You probably did too; you just don’t recall it. See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.
After you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.
That’s what I believe.
The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. Things happen to us. Loved ones die. People get in wrecks and get crippled. People lose their way, for one reason or another. It’s not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. Life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. You don’t know it’s happening until one day you feel you’ve lost something but you’re not sure what it is. It’s like smiling at a pretty girl and she calls you “sir.” It just happens.
These memories of who I was and where I lived are important to me. They make up a large part of who I’m going to be when my journey winds down. I need the memory of magic if I am ever going to conjure magic again. I need to know and remember, and I want to tell you.”
Read this absolutely amazing book! That’s all.
You can buy the book with free shipping by clicking this link!You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions
Rating: really liked it
Update: $1.99 Kindle US 9/21/19I am almost at a loss of words about this book. It is one of my favorites now. I thought it was going to be just about a mystery of who murdered someone and and father and son trying to find out the mystery!
Even though it was a little before my time all of the things that happened in Corys childhood is so familiar growing up hearing all of the stories from family. Granted a lot of the same things were in my childhood but I digress.
I loved the mystery that went on throughout the book and finally getting to the end game of it all.
I have laughed and cried during this book. Some parts even made my heart soar and also plummet at the atrocities of evil people.
This book has a little of so many things. I recommend it to every one.
Rating: really liked it
I QUIT!!!
I can't stand this book any longer! I mean ....I REALLY can't stand it!!!!!
After about 4 hours of my time listening to the Audiobook...I'm DONE!!!
I don't care what the hell happens -- I can't remember when I've completely disliked a book more
The guys voice on the Audiobook sounds condescending to me most of the time.
Other times the writing itself is too syrupy sweet.
I was bored to death -- I felt everything was OVER-DESCRIBED. My God....I didn't care if the door was shiny. If the damn door was dull it would have been ok with me. Better yet, I was getting resentful with all this boys interpretation about every piece of furniture-his mother's or father's differences.....
( and his fricken wisdom about how his parents differences made for a good marriage).
I could have cared less about the spots of turtles ( as a metaphor for the truth)....
OMG.... and there were TOO MANY metaphors in this book. I was starting to get physically sick...and pissed off!!!
I didn't care about his bike riding or his going to the movies to eat candy and popcorn...
And I HATED the whimsical magical Philosophy of life from this 12-year-old kid.
Boring - long- tedious - pretentious descriptions-
NOT FOR ME!!!!
Rating: really liked it
This is one of those books that I've beat myself over the head with how to rate it.
I'm going with five stars because it's a book I will remember. I think some of the story felt familiar to me because other author's have been influenced by this writing. And there is not a thing wrong with that, because this was superb.
It follows eleven year old Cory for a full year in his life. The 1960's growing up in a small town. A town that magic existed in. I had some trouble I do admit with some parts of the story. (view spoiler)
[The boys flying? I mean I know it was in their imagination but I did not feel that went with the rest of the story...and the dog? WTH? (hide spoiler)]Cory is helping his father early one morning on his milk delivery and a car races across in front of them almost causing them to wreck. The car goes off into the local lake and his dad jumps in to try and help the driver of the car. The driver is past his help though, he had been brutally murdered and the killer was dumping him so that no one would ever find him or know what happened.
That seems like such a simple basis for a story. Then Robert McCammon takes that story and builds on it. He takes this boy's life and makes it come alive.
The Demon.
The Lady.
The backwoods moonshiners
Moon Man
The local crazy man that walks around naked.
A monkey with a bowel problem
Midnight Mona and her deadly ride.
Rocket the bike
And Old Moose....
Holy crap. I loved this book. Even with the few problems I had with it. After sitting here thinking about it as I wrote this review. I must have my own copy of it. Because I'm going to want to go back again.
Rating: really liked it
Think Something Wicked This Way Comes without a focused antagonistic plot line. Think Alice Hoffman. Think of something slow, and winding, with just a trace of the unreal. Think of stories from your southern grandpa, told from the perspective of a master storyteller.
Think
slooooow.
Boy’s Life is very evocative, an atmospheric picture of Cory Mackenson, a young man growing up in a small Alabama town during the 1960s. One early morning, he’s with his father making milk deliveries when they witness a car speeding into a lake of endless depth. His father attempts to rescue the driver only to discover he is already dead, savagely beaten and strangled. It becomes a transformative moment for his father, and perhaps for Cory as well. The chapters that follow often refer to it, but not in any plot-moving way. There is a sleep-over at a friend’s house. There is the death of the boy’s bike and a junkman. A church service with wasps. A town flood. An elderly black woman. A bike. The last day of school. A new boy moving into town. A cross burning on a lawn. His first typewriter. An overnight in the woods. All the sort of things that one might look back on one’s life and say, “I remember when,” when thinking of those moments that encapsulate a feeling, a change, a pivotal experience. Intertwined through them is a strain of magic, but not ‘magic’ in the sense that we usually use the word in modern literature, but life magic from the perspective of an imaginative child.
While the storytelling was masterful, there is no clear sense of plot beyond ‘day-in-the-life’ and self-discovery, leaving the conflict-focused reader searching for a connection between chapters. Since both the book blurb and the first chapter hint that the lake experience was the harbinger of something strange, it is an understandable confusion. There are dribbles and moments that contribute to the puzzle of the dead man, as well as the reverberating effect on the father, but truly, serious plot development and resolution is left until the last 80 pages of an over 500-page book. The murder bookends this section of the boy’s life, but does not drive his experiences.
The writing is lyrical and beautiful:
“When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.”I think if one heads into it expecting more of a Faulkner-esque short story collection, the read is more likely to be successful and satisfying. The writing is lovely. The characters are well developed, and McCammon even manages to imply the real at the same time the narrator is interpreting the fantastic. I also appreciate the contextualizing and gentle exploration of racism during a transformative time in the south. He also nicely captures the feeling of impending adulthood shadowing the edges of the tales, as well as those inklings when one starts to realize adults are people with their own foibles and may even have been young once.
“He lifted his face to me. In the hard, cold light he looked terribly old. I thought I could see his skull beneath the thin flesh, and this sight frightened me. It was like looking at someone you loved very much, slowly dying… I saw all too clearly that my father–not a mythic hero, not a superman, but just a good man–was a solitary traveler in the wilderness of anguish.”
Ultimately, be prepared to go slow. I often read it before bed, as it was usually soothing, not action driven, and each chapter encapsulated. Normally, I wouldn’t give a book I fell asleep on four stars, but the characterization as well as overall writing really are impressive. Highly recommended–for the right mood.
“There is something about nature out of control that touches a primal terror. We are used to believing that we’re the masters of our domain, and that God has given us this earth to rule over. We need this illusion like a good night0light. The truth is more fearsome: we are as frail as young trees in tornadoes, and our beloved homes are one flood away from driftwood. We plant our roots in trembling earth, we live where mountains rose and fell and prehistoric seas burned away in mist. We and the towns we have built are not permanent; the earth itself is a passing train. When you stand in muddy water that is rising toward your waist and you hear people shouting against the darkness and see their figures struggling to hold back the currents that will not be denies, you realize the truth of it: we will not win, but we cannot give up.”
Rating: really liked it
You know, it's a weighty thing when you've read as many books as I have over my 41 years of life and you finish a book that becomes your new favorite of all time.
I never thought I'd read anything that impressed me as much as a Stephen King book. I mean, for a long time Salem's Lot was the gold standard, then it was The Shining, then IT. My favorite book for many, many years was IT. Until just now.
Boy's Life is my new favorite, standalone novel.
It's literally everything.
It's an adventure, it's a mystery, it's a thriller, it's paranormal, it's supernatural, it's a coming of age tale, it's nostalgic and modern at the same time. It's personal and intimate but it's also a book for everyone. The protagonist, Cory and his dad, remind me of the father/son relationship in Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World, one of my most beloved stories.
There are so many memorable scenes and lovable characters. There are quotes for DAYS! I couldn't keep up with them all. There were times when I laughed out loud and I'd tell my family what happened.
There was one time where my hubby was making dinner in the kitchen and I was sobbing, reading a scene that near killed me--it just stopped my heart and I was bursting. My husband came in and was like, "Oh no, what's wrong, what happened"...I told him and he let me cry on his shoulder while he laughed at me for crying over fictional characters.
I kept stopping after like 50 pages because I knew the more that I read, the closer I would be to finishing and I never wanted it to end.
But it won't end will it? Not for me, because I'll read this one a dozen more times and cherish it always. A beloved favorite story of all time. Thank you Mr. McCammon.
Rating: really liked it
This was a very good book with two main plot lines and a separate smaller plot in almost every chapter. It reminded me of, and I have read this comparison elsewhere as well, Different Seasons era Stephen King.
One of the great things about this book is that it perfectly embodies pre-pubecent innocence and coming of age. I was discussing this in one of my book clubs and we talked about how the main characters had yet to reach the the point of disenchanted teenagers driven by angst and hormones while at the same time having to step up and accept the realities of adulthood.
Another oddity of this book is that every few pages something mystical and wild happens and it is never hinted at as being part of the narrator's imagination; it is completely integrated into the story. It leads to some very interesting questions and blows the mind.
While this is a long book, it may read quickly for some. If you are a fan of early King and/or character study books, this should be right up your alley.
Rating: really liked it
A beautifully written account of a boy's life through the lens of the narrator looking back to the past. An intriguing and compelling mystery holds the book together; the recollecting starts with a father, and son Cory (the narrator), finding a tortured murdered victim; we get to to look back the ensuing year with Cory, his family and friends, just living their lives with the mystery mostly on the periphery.
What unfolds is a compelling take on small town America in the 1960s, which includes NOT steering away from the rampant intolerance and inequality. Overall this is a heart warming and at times heart rending look at family life for the rural white poor; in addition this book has one of the most uplifting and beautifully written epilogues I've ever read. A spell binding tale of boyhood, family, mystery, supernatural, secrets and lies set in the poor rural America of the 1960s. A strong 8 from 12 from me :)
2018 read
Rating: really liked it
While riding with his father on the milk route, Cory Mackenson witnesses a car plunging into a bottomless lake with a dead man handcuffed to the steering wheel. Will they figure out who the man was before the memory destroys them?
Yeah, that's not a great teaser for this. How do you summarize a couple years in the life of a young boy?
I tried hard not to like this book. For the first quarter of it, it wasn't hard. Boy's Life feels overwritten for what it is and Robert McCammon was trying so hard to write like Stephen King that you could taste it. I thought about tossing it back on the to-read mountain. Then it grabbed me. I wolfed it down in less than 24 hours.
While it has some crime and horror elements, Boy's Life is a coming of age tale more than anything else. It reminded me of Stephen King's The Body (aka Stand by Me) at first, but it's a lot more than that.
Cory is eleven when the story begins, growing up in a small Alabama town called Zephyr. While the mysterious dead man in Saxon Lake kicks off the tale, it's really about Cory getting older and world-weary in Zephyr. Since the story takes place in the early 1960's, the civil rights movement and Vietnam are lurking in the background, as are the rise of corporations.
Cory's adventures with his pals were a lot of fun but also harrowing at times. I loved the beast from the lost word and Nemo Curliss. For a twelve year old, Cory was sure in the middle of a lot of weirdness, though. The bit with Rebel added this book to my man-tears shelf. Was Vernon Thaxter a stand-in for McCammon himself?
I thought about giving this a five but couldn't. While I enjoyed the book immensely, I felt like parts of it were cobbled together from various Stephen King tales, like The Body, Christine, Pet Semetery, and others. Also, it seemed excessively wordy for what it was at times, like I mentioned at the beginning.
All things considered, Boy's Life was a great read. Four out of five stars.
Rating: really liked it
This was the monthly read of a group that I am a member of. This is also the first book that I completed under my resolution of reading atleast one book of the monthly read of my groups. I was a little hesitant reading it (specially after the disaster of The Ocean at the End of the Lane). But this book was nothing like that. In every sense it is better than that. It just left me spellbound.
Story captures a whole year of a boy's life named Cory Mackerson. While reading the book I couldn't help but going back to my own memories of class room, stupid chatter with friends, that excitement before the summer vacations and bicycle adventures. If you'll read this I am sure you will relate yourself to Cory in one way or other.
This story so beautifully shows emotions for a 12 year old. Be it love, happiness, elation, thrill, mystery, nightmares, pain or death.
Even after all these beautiful things this book remains a murder mystery to be solved. Solving the mystery from a 12 year's POV was amazing.
This sure is going to my favorite and re-read shelf.
So just go ahead and read this beautiful story.
Rating: really liked it
Tiptoes gingerly across hallowed ground, drops this, and runs away before the arrows start slinging…
Boy’s Life is a revered 1991 novel by Robert McCammon set in 1964 small-town Alabama. I liked it, but I didn’t love it.
The story spans one year in a 12-year-old boy’s life and at various times feels reminiscent of King’s The Body (1982) and Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989). It’s shelved primarily as horror, though I didn’t find many aspects to be scary. It’s a bit of a mishmash of a coming-of-age tale with sprinklings of fantasy and paranormal elements, which for this reader made it seem a little uneven.
What is consistent though is the graphic destruction of animals. Two dogs meet horrific, drawn-out ends. Two cats are violently killed, a circus monkey (seriously) is abused, and a dinosaur (???) is tortured before running amuck. If somebody told me this beforehand, I would have known this modern classic was never going to make it onto my personal favorites shelf.
I can understand why others adore Boy’s Life for the childhood nostalgia it must conjure, but I have serious regrets about the images I now have in my head after reading it.
Sorry, friends.
Rating: really liked it
"See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our ages. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves."
Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old, Cory Mackenson - a place where monsters swim the river and friends are forever.
If you haven't read Boy's Life yet, if you don't even have a copy, drop everything you're doing and get a copy and read it. It's not everyday when a book comes along and burrows itself into your heart and soul. Stephen King couldn't have put it better when he said "Books are a uniquely portable magic" and this book IS magic. It's right in there, glittering between the pages.
Nothing I have read has so accurately and poignantly portrayed growing up. There's (hopefully) lots of joy and happiness and magic dispersed throughout your younger years, but unfortunately there can also be some heartbreak and loss, and McCammon beautifully presents all these different emotions seamlessly.
Cory's coming-of-age tale is intertwined with the unravelling of the mystery of a dead body in his small town. The two different threads are woven together so intricately and McCammon does an incredible job of moving both storylines along at a pace that feels natural. Boy's Life is not ABOUT the mystery, but it's about Cory as an adult looking back at the magical place where he grew up. McCammon's writing itself is some of the best I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and he manages to cover so many themes with such ease - childhood, realism, racism, fantasy, death - I am truly in awe.
You will laugh and you will undoubtedly cry (unless you have a cold black stone residing in your chest instead of a heart). And when I say cry, I mean UGLY cry. There's no beautiful solitary tear rolling down the cheek. There is full-on sobbing. There was a particular scene towards the end involving Cory's father that was really personal for me and what I took away from it will stay with me forever.
Not only one of my favourite books of 2018, but one of the best books I've read in my life.
ALL. THE. STARS.
Rating: really liked it
If I had to pick JUST ONE book that was my favorite (with a gun to my head, obviously, which is the only way I could ever choose between my favorite books) I would choose this one. It blew me away the first time I read it, and it continues to blow me away each and every time I pick it up. I'm getting all shivery right now, just thinking of reading it.
My favorite quote -- "We all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get it the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves."
