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Loading... The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boyby Robert Leleux
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I liked book but couldn't get into what I was reading.  clibrarianhalstead | Jul 9, 2009 |  I picked this up as a lark at the public library, and found it a quick, enjoyable read. Not being Texan, or the gay son of a beautiful mother, it was cute and sweet and interesting enough to keep my attention for a few days. When I was done reading it, though, I found it left a sour taste in my mouth. I'm all for loving your parents unconditionally, but I was surprised that the author let his mother get away with the things he did. I would have imagined he'd feel more abandoned by her leaving him for for a man than he did his father leaving him for his pregnant mistress. He mentions early and often that both of his parents were miserable in their marriage, yet excuses his mother for wanting out and not his father. Honestly, both his parents sounded more than a little self-absorbed, which is maybe why someone so young, with so little actual life experience, felt the need to pen a memoir so early on. That sounds harsher than I meant it to, but writing a memoir about your teens when you are barely out of them does seem a bit premature. In all, it's a good, lazy summer read from an author who will probably go on to write better books. It's light, it's funny, it's a bit forgettable. (  )1  pinprick | Jun 10, 2009 | April 2009 selection- Our opinions were split on this unique memoir and its quirky sense of humor. While agreeing that many of the stories within are heartbreaking, the author's ability to turn the terrible situations from his formative years into funny anecdotes is a rare gift. Also, this is truly Texas tale from the dialog to the flawless description of the characteristic heat and the Houston area. The author manages to portray the people in his life with affection despite the difficult situations he shared with them. Several of us wondered how much was truth and how much was tall tale in his memories, but one thing is for sure, this book is not like any we've read. Pros: the storytelling is vivid and enjoyable Cons: some of the stories told are graphic and not something most of us would want to retell (  )1 bedfordbookworms | May 10, 2009 | I'm a huge fan of memoirs -- particularly funny memoirs about messed up childhoods. Think Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs or some of David Sedaris's books about his childhood. This memoir is along those lines, and it was a fun, fast read. Like Sedaris and Burroughs, Mr. LeLeux grows up as a gay son of a unusual and different mother (though Mr. LeLeux's mother takes the cake in terms of flamboyance). His mother is pretty much the star of the book. A Texas Blonde (but only because she wears a wig) who is left by her husband, Robert's mother puts Operation Snag Another Rich Husband into play when Robert is in his early teens. The story of her attempts to turn back the clock and get a man forms the heart of the book. Plastic surgery, hair replacement attempts -- his mother's attempts to regain her former lifestyle are both sad but hilarious. The bulk of the book chronicles his mother's various antics. These remembrances are a kick to read -- but I'm sure glad I didn't have to live them. The book also covers Robert's realization that he is gay (a shock only to him) and his subsequent love affair with Michael LeLeux. Although his mother moves to California during the last third of the book, she is never far away -- even though you wish poor Robert could just get a chance to be out from under her drama. This is a wonderfully written and fun memoir. I really enjoyed it and I hope the author continues to write more about his life and his larger-than-life mother. (  ) Jenners26 | Apr 14, 2009 | This was, quite simply, one of the funnest books I have ever read. It is just charming. The voice of the main character is amusing and light and his relationship with his mother is hilarious and touching at the same time. It is the story of a gay coming of age, but it transcends that and simply shows us how to laugh at ourselves. Seriously, I laughed out loud reading this and people around me thought I was nuts -- but I just couldn't help it. Somehow this book made my life a little lighter and more fun. (  ) tngolden | Jul 16, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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In the Dear John letter Daddy left for Mother and me, on a Saturday afternoon in early June 1996, on the inlaid Florentine table in the front entry of our house, which we found that night upon returning from a day spent in the crème-colored light of Neiman’s, Daddy wrote that he was leaving us because Mother was crazy, and because she’d driven me crazy in a way that perfectly suited her own insanity.
In a memoir studded with delicious lines and unforgettable set pieces, Robert Leleux describes his East Texas boyhood and coming of age under the tutelage of his eccentric, bewigged, flamboyant, and knowing mother.
Left high and dry by Daddy and living on their in-laws’ horse ranch in a white-pillared house they can’t afford, Robert and Mother find themselves chronically low on cash. Soon they are forced into more modest quarters, and as a teenaged Robert watches with hilarity and horror, Mother begins a desperate regimen of makeovers, extreme plastic surgeries, and finally hairpiece epoxies---all calculated to secure a new, wealthy husband.
Mother’s strategy takes her, with Robert in tow, from the glamorous environs of the Neiman Marcus beauty salon to questionable surgery offices and finally to a storefront clinic on the wrong side of Houston. Meanwhile, Robert begins his own journey away from Mother and through the local theater’s world of miscast hopefuls and thwarted ambitions---and into a romance that surprises absolutely no one but himself.
Written with a warmth and a wicked sense of fun that lighten even the most awful circumstances, The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy is a sparkling debut.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:10 -0400)
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