Description

A child of the 1950s from a small New England town, "perfect Paul" earns straight A's and shines in social and literary pursuits, all the while keeping a secret -- from himself and the rest of the world. Struggling to be, or at least to imitate, a straight man, through Ivy League halls of privilege and bohemian travels abroad, loveless intimacy and unrequited passion, Paul Monette was haunted, and finally saved, by a dream of "the thing I'd never even seen: two men in love and laughing."

Searingly honest, witty, and humane, Becoming a Man is the definitive coming-out story in the classic coming-of-age genre.

About the Author

Paul Monette (1945-1995) is the author many books including seven novels, four volumes of poetry, and several highly praised nonfiction works such as Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. In 1992, he received the National Book Award for Becoming a Man. He died of AIDS complications in 1995.

Praise for Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story…

“One of the most complex, moral, personal, and political books to have been written about gay life.”
-L. A. Weekly

“Monette’s interior life, his ghosts, his turmoil, his final peace -- in Becoming a Man, they have become our literature.”
---David Ebershoff, author of Pasadena and The Danish Girl

“Beautifully written…a heartfelt illumination of how a gay person overcame the self-reproach that societal condemnation enacts.”
-Publishers Weekly

“Everyone can learn something about courage and self-discovery from Becoming a Man.”
-San Francisco Chronicle

“A poignant, bittersweet memoir….Each stage of [Monette’s] personal journey is described at an intimate, insightful, human level.”
-Library Journal