Matt Briggs

The summer Aldous Bohm turns nine, his younger sister dies. Aldous blames himself for her death, and this novel tracks the next ten years of his life. His life is anything but conventional; his parents are hippies who use drugs and only seek employment when absolutely necessary. His paternal uncle Oscar returns from the Vietnam War psychologically damaged and lives in the attic. Against this background, Aldous tries to fit in at school and deal with the death of his sister.

The book is well show more written, and the author portrays Aldous's perspective as a boy and a young man very realistically. While few of us grow up in a forest with pot-smoking hippies for parents, his struggle to lead a normal life and fit into the broader society make Aldous a character easy to identify with. The theme of self-forgiveness is also universal. show less

The book Virility Rituals of North American Teenage Boys is interesting, to say the least. This book is border line erotic, yet the author Matt Briggs keeps it from crossing that line. This book gives great incite North American teenage boys or just teenage boys in general. Very informative. The book is written in the first person which makes it very interesting to read. It is a collection of stories or rituals of teenage boys and/or men. I would recommend this book to anyone studying show more Philosophy and/or Psychology of men. It you are familiar with Philosophy and the ideas of Lawrence Kolhberg, this book is written from stage 1 of thinking to about stage 4.5. Again an interesting read to say the least. show less