Lawn Boy

Mike Munoz is a twenty-three year old half Mexican who can’t catch a break in life. “Old Mike Munoz would like to figure out who the hell he actually is, what he’d actually like to do with his life.” He calls himself a “tenth generation peasant with a Mexican last name, raised by a single mom on an Indian Reservation.”
He lives with his mother and his 300 pound special needs brother, who he has pretty much been stuck with looking after his whole life. His father left long ago and so did the two stepfathers that followed him. “Expectations for Mike Munoz had always been low. To a large degree we are products of our own environment.” That statement sums up what a huge chunk of the book is about. Mike is barely making ends show more meet and struggles from job to job, always broke and down on his luck.
“I was taught to always expect and prepare for something less, because eight times out of then that’s what’s coming. To actually expect anything bigger or better was simply beyond my reach.”
“Sometimes it’s pretty hard to see past your immediate struggles.”
He has a loser, douche-bag best friend that he has grown up with named, Nick who he has a sort of love/hate relationship with. “It’s just that no matter a narrow-minded dickhead he is, he’s family. All these years, I’ve had no choice but to accept him, in spite of his bigotry and shallowness and willful ignorance. No matter how deep the infection runs, family is family.”
Mike is “fleetingly content, most of the time broke, sometimes hopeful but ultimately powerless.” Mike finds peace, safety inspiration and comfort in the library and the books that he reads. He develops a friendship with the librarian, Andrew. He feels at home with Andrew and they have energetic conversations that make Mike feel like maybe he can be someone after all.
Mike says of himself, “If only Mike Munoz was able to think beyond the confines of his experience, if he could only summon the courage and the wherewithal to break the patterns that defined him, raze the walls that imprisoned him. If only he could believe in himself.”
As the story develops, Mike grows into himself and develops his identity. “Was I a traitor for empowering myself, for indulging a sense of self-worth? For finally holding out for something better.”
“Whoever you are, whatever your last name is, wherever you came from, whichever way you sway, whatever is standing in your way, just remember; you’re bigger than that. You contain multitudes.” show less

Twenty-two year old Mike Munoz, the narrator of Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, rarely catches a break. A young man from a lower class family, he doesn't lack talent, but he does lack credentials and capital. The opportunities that do present themselves to him are fraught with obstacles. Mike often finds himself down to his last few dollars. Still, he seeks to improve himself and his lot in life, and he finds love with a dentally-challenged library assistant.

On ALA's most challenged book list for 2022, Lawn Boy came in seventh. This engaging, humane novel doesn't deserve that dubious distinction. There's sexuality, but it is for the most part tastefully handled. Perhaps the real "issue" with this book is its anti-capitalist examination of show more the lives of poorly paid wait staff, landscapers, and others who aspire to, but often miss out on, the American Dream. show less

I desperately wanted this to be a 5-star read as the book has for several years been among the most often challenged/banned books in the country, but alas I found it awkward, overly sentimental, filled with contrived characters, and more intent on making points than on telling any naturally developing story. I don't generally read YA, and the only other Evison book I have read earned a 1-star review from me (I did not realize it was the same author until well into this book or I might not have read it.) I am the wrong reader for this. All that said, Evison clearly set out to make points regarding sexuality and gender, toxic, masculinity, economic disparity, disability, race, and the erosion of decency, and he makes them. I always show more consider in reviewing a book whether it appears the author accomplished what he was trying to accomplish, and Evison did that. That got me to a 2.5.

Speaking of making points, I want to make a few. The right-wing contingent here has left all sorts of reviews calling this filth and saying it contains pedophilia. These are also the grounds upon which the very same people and their cabal challenged the book in my former home, Fairfax County VA. So, point one: There is nothing remotely graphically sexual in this book. The content the terrified quivering loudmouths seem to object to is a plot point where two 4th grade boys snuck away from bible camp and took each other's penises into one another's mouths. This event is remembered by one of those boys as a young adult with discomfort and embarrassment (though not shame), never with any sense of arousal. There are no adult-child sexual activities at all, and no other on-the-page sexual activity beyond kissing. Zero. If people see pedophilia here the only thing I can assume is that when they read about this awkward and not particularly rare behavior they became aroused. Sorry Chip or Brad or whatever your names are, you with the khakis and torches, your reaction to something doesn't make that something dirty, it just makes you dirty. You are like those men who molest children and then blame the children for being too sexual. Turns out, it is all your fault. Now that I have given you something to talk about at your Promise Keeper's bible breakfast we can move on to point two. Those people who claim their objection to the book is due to repeated use of the word "faggot" can just go right to hell. The word is used to show real attitudes and behavior, it is not there as a suggestion that the reader start using the word -- quite the opposite, and you know that. Don't go pulling that disingenuous crap. Kind of like the crap you pull when you try to ban books or stop the teaching of American history that employs a Black lens, or attack Disney or Sesame Street for acknowledging that love is love and then call out cancel culture when some blowhard loses his job for suggesting that devaluing Black lives is the American way. (Which I suppose it is. It is the bad American way, the American way that evolved from laws drafted and practices developed by slaveholders, the American way that needs to change before one more drop of blood is shed.) Point three, and the last for this review, books with Gay characters who do not allow their lives to be guided by shame are your real problem. May I suggest you look for the "why" of that within yourself and freaking deal with it, because your issues are killing people. Though I did not much like this book, I am grateful to Evison and writers like him, and for librarians who stand up to pressure, for making sure adolescents have access to material that helps to balance out, hopefully to blot out, the fear and hate your kids are learning from you. show less

Mike Muñoz is in his early twenties, lives with his mom and his special needs brother in a rented trailer on the res, and works a minimum-wage landscaping job. When he quits his job out of protest for mistreatment (he didn't sign on to pick up yards full of dog turds), his bleak prospects for the future get even dimmer. So he spends the book on a rollercoaster of promising job leads and rotten luck, struggling with old friends and making new ones, all the while trying to suss out who he really is, who he wants to be, and realizing his own self worth. Think Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London for a different time and a different kind of outsider.
I struggled through the first two thirds of this one, forcing myself to read on show more despite being annoyed at most of the characters and the dismal tone of events, but I was caught up just enough in the main character that I needed to know how things turned out for him. And I'm so glad I stuck with it, because it turned out to be one of those rare novels in which the last 100 pages turn everything around and transform the story from generally disagreeable to one of my favorite reads so far this year. show less

My attention was drawn to read "Lawn Boy" because of efforts by some people to have it banned. I wanted to know what all the uproar was about.

My conclusion is that Jonathan Evison has written an easily-read, entertaining novel. He's been able to weave a range of interesting characters into the life of Michael Muñoz, the book's central character. Michael is quite talented as a landscaper, but is saddled with a past that has kept him from realizing his full potential. As the story develops, we gain more and more insight into Mike's character and that of the others in his life. We also get to see Mike's life evolve in ways not expected in the early parts of the book. It's a story worth reading, one that can even be considered show more inspiring.

Yes, there are some descriptions of adolescent same-sex interactions that might have been a little less descriptive, but they're not prurient. And they add some fibers into the fabric of the story.

Overall, a good story. show less

Mike Munoz wants nothing more than to cut lawns and do landscaping but as a perceived "Mexican" he is trundled into doing other services and chores. When he is asked to picked 'doggy-do' he quits in protest. He returns to his life: living on the Reservation (altho' his family is not Native American), sleeping in a tiny shack, minding a disabled 300 lb. brother, worrying about his mother who works two jobs and hanging out with friends who would be enemies to anyone else. He pursues a series of dead-end jobs and can't seem to catch a break... well, until he does. In the meantime, Mike develops a social conscience, a clearer sense of his own identity, and forges a path for himself. This is a clear, unflinching look at life lived at the show more poverty line; casual deprivation, hardships, and injustices. It would all be too much if not for Mike's sardonic humor and honesty. This reader rooted for Mike to find his way and attain his version of the American Dream; you will, too. Highly recommended. show less

A strong narrative voice carries one through the many pitfalls and general "Catch-22-ness" of life on the economic edge. Cliché as it may be, I did devour this book (it goes quickly), thinking, I'll just read one more chapter...and then one more...and then...Bonus: this character is a reader, and it is fun to get his perspective on some classic literature (e.g. "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun, which I loved, AND I also understand the sharp critique contained here). There were a couple scraps of dialogue and happy-ending plot devices that were a little off key, but small quibbles in light of the whole. This is my third Evison book...I'll read more.