The Boy
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2.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Who is the boy? And whose body lies beneath a sheet of blue tarpaulin in the basement of a derelict brewery? The discovery of a chilling diary sends Sean Hennessy, once a foster father to the boy, on a desperate search to unlock the secrets of his tragic past and to learn the truth about the boy's part in the disintegration of Sean's family. The boy's charismatic, seductive, and protean personality (he is Devon to the keepers of the Boys' Home, Alex to the Fatman with whom he lives, Priestly to the young rent-boy who reveres him, and Durwood to Sean's daughter) arches over this compelling novel and is mirrored in the lives of all the people Sean encounters. From these different perspectives we witness the boy's many incarnations, which reflect, aggravate, and distort the desires of those around him, involving these characters--and ultimately Sean himself--irrevocably in the boy's mysterious intentions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A man combs the London slums for the foster child who destroyed his family in this overwrought, strangely original debut. Haunted by the disgrace of his father's alcoholism, Birmingham's Sean Kennedy grows up determined to distinguish himself in liberal politics and enters government as a social worker. After a secret transgression demolishes his self-respect, he atones by taking Durward--the charismatic, orphaned adolescent son of a client--home to live with his wife and children. Durward, however, proves to be a supremely troubled youngster with several personalities and identities. After causing the Kennedy family irreparable harm, he runs away for a life of prostitution. Sean's hunt for the boy leads him to the Churchill Home for Boys in Battersea, where Sean tries to piece his own life back together by having a love affair with one of the eccentric employees before finally facing his sociopathic foster son. Murr's characters seduce each other and explain themselves with operatic gusto: they seem to communicate in arias. This is especially true of the epicene, Nietzsche-spouting Durward, a pied piper who, wherever he roams, charms men, women and children into high-camp crimes of passion. As in old-fashioned gothic novels, the implausibility of the plot and characters reflect a compelling psychological truth that lurks somewhere beneath the clunky melodramatic machinery. If the results are sometimes messy, they never fail to interest or intrigue. Author tour; rights: Ellen Levine; British rights: Fourth Estate; German rights: Luchterhand. FYI: Born in London and of Irish and Lebanese descent, Neem currently lives in Houston.
