Boy's Life
by Robert R. McCammon
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In Zephyr, Alabama, a bizarre murder is only the beginning Small town boys see weird sights, and Zephyr has provided Cory Jay Mackenson with his fair share of oddities. He knows the bootleggers who lurk in the dark places outside of town. On moonless nights, he's heard spirits congregate in the churchyard to reminisce about the good old days. He's seen rain that flooded Main Street and left it crawling with snakes. Cory knows magic, and relishes it as only a young boy can. One frosty winter show more morning, he and his father watch a car jump the curb and sail into the fathomless town lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a naked corpse handcuffed to the wheel. This chilling sight is only the start of the strangest period of Cory's life, when the magic of his town will transform him into a man. show lessTags
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Robert McCammon has created a very special book with Boy's Life. He's managed to capture time in a bottle, just like Jim Croce tried to in that song long ago. He's also captured that magic one has when one is young. When one dreams of flying, and a boy and his bike can ride all around and have adventures with friends. McCammon clearly remembers those days, like the last day of school, when the ticking clock counts down to the start of summer vacation. As we get older we tend to forget the importance those small events held in life. We view them through a lens of nostalgia, recalling favorite movies or books or times we went on bike rides exploring. McCammon brings those things to clear focus, makes them fresh and of the moment. Although show more the story is set mostly in the year 1964 the story itself is a rather timeless memory of anyone's youth. There is a dark side to the book also. Dark events that start very early, and pulse through our whole journey with young Cory Mackenson. This isn't a perfect book but it is darn close. The book slowly took me under it's spell and I loved it. It caught my attention immediately when I started reading it, but the sheer enjoyment of it was something that grew as I read through it. This is one of those books that one wishes would not end.
There are some almost perfect moments in this book, and some perfect ones. There are also one or two elements that push the ability to suspend belief just a little too far. There are good things and some very bad things. Moments captured and described so well. I don't think one needs to have lived through those days to appreciate the perfect touches, but knowing those days makes those touches all the more delicious. I really liked this book.
McCammon paid a great deal of attention to details when writing the book, with the brand names of candies and toys, hair tonics and household things, and the names of stores from the past. There was one thing though that I am fairly certain he got wrong. A rather big deal is made in the story about milk. The protaganist of the story is young Cory Mackenson, who is 12 in 1964. His father is a home delivery milkman in a small Alabama town. When a supermarket opens in a nearby town it spells the beginning of the end for the dairy and the home delivery of milk in glass bottles. It is mentioned several times that the supermarket has a whole row of milk in plastic jugs. Imagine that, the people say, milk in plastic jugs. Well, I don't think there were plastic milk jugs in 1964. When I was a child the glass bottles of milk from the dairy were replaced with wax coated paper milk cartons, and also a plastic coated paper carton and those paper milk cartons were used as the standard for quite a few years. The plastic jugs that are now the standard for buying milk in supermarkets began being used many years after the introduction of the paper cartons. So making a big deal about the plastic jugs of milk kept nagging me.
When I finished reading this I felt like I had read a memoir from McCammon. I don't know if there is any truth behind the adventures in the story, but I am sure there is some moments from his youth within it, and certainly some of his heart. This was a fine novel. show less
There are some almost perfect moments in this book, and some perfect ones. There are also one or two elements that push the ability to suspend belief just a little too far. There are good things and some very bad things. Moments captured and described so well. I don't think one needs to have lived through those days to appreciate the perfect touches, but knowing those days makes those touches all the more delicious. I really liked this book.
McCammon paid a great deal of attention to details when writing the book, with the brand names of candies and toys, hair tonics and household things, and the names of stores from the past. There was one thing though that I am fairly certain he got wrong. A rather big deal is made in the story about milk. The protaganist of the story is young Cory Mackenson, who is 12 in 1964. His father is a home delivery milkman in a small Alabama town. When a supermarket opens in a nearby town it spells the beginning of the end for the dairy and the home delivery of milk in glass bottles. It is mentioned several times that the supermarket has a whole row of milk in plastic jugs. Imagine that, the people say, milk in plastic jugs. Well, I don't think there were plastic milk jugs in 1964. When I was a child the glass bottles of milk from the dairy were replaced with wax coated paper milk cartons, and also a plastic coated paper carton and those paper milk cartons were used as the standard for quite a few years. The plastic jugs that are now the standard for buying milk in supermarkets began being used many years after the introduction of the paper cartons. So making a big deal about the plastic jugs of milk kept nagging me.
When I finished reading this I felt like I had read a memoir from McCammon. I don't know if there is any truth behind the adventures in the story, but I am sure there is some moments from his youth within it, and certainly some of his heart. This was a fine novel. show less
3.5*
I first read Boy's Life in the early 90s, not long after it was published. I was in high school or college at the time, a big fan of Stephen King and the horror genre, and I loved this book.
Rereading it some thirty years later was enjoyable, though it wasn't the masterpiece I recalled.
It is as if McCammon took a bunch of ideas already done by King (not the most original writer himself) and other genre authors and mixed them up in a blender:
* Mystical/magical elderly black woman (a la The Stand)
* Group of childhood friends, including a fat kid and a kid with a speech impediment (a la The Body/Stand By Me/It)
* Flame detailed ghost car driven by the restless ghost of a young man (a la Sometimes They Come Back)
There's much more, show more including an ending where the narrator lets us know what happened to his childhood friends after they parted ways--his own young daughter is present a la the closing scene to Stand By Me.
There's just so much going on in this book and a lot of it feels incomplete. Perhaps this would have been better as a group of intertwined short stories--at least each story would have more of an arc as opposed the the jumble we get. Very few of the characters outside of the narrator feel particularly well developed. Likewise the tone is all over the place--parts are told in the wistful wondrous nostalgic style of Ray Bradbury, parts in a more humorous nostalgic style similar to Jean Shepherd...and so much is a King pastiche.
There is a character in this book: a man who wanders around town stark naked. It seems he went crazy after publishing a book--the publishers forced him to insert a dark murder mystery into what was meant to be a look at the characters of a small town. I do wonder if McCammon was making a commentary on his own situation with this character. Perhaps he was forced to add the murder mystery element because he was known as a horror writer.
Regardless of all the above, this is a charming enough book. If you enjoy Stephen King's early works or just want some hardcore 60s boomer childhood nostalgia, this is a great option. show less
I first read Boy's Life in the early 90s, not long after it was published. I was in high school or college at the time, a big fan of Stephen King and the horror genre, and I loved this book.
Rereading it some thirty years later was enjoyable, though it wasn't the masterpiece I recalled.
It is as if McCammon took a bunch of ideas already done by King (not the most original writer himself) and other genre authors and mixed them up in a blender:
* Mystical/magical elderly black woman (a la The Stand)
* Group of childhood friends, including a fat kid and a kid with a speech impediment (a la The Body/Stand By Me/It)
* Flame detailed ghost car driven by the restless ghost of a young man (a la Sometimes They Come Back)
There's much more, show more including an ending where the narrator lets us know what happened to his childhood friends after they parted ways--his own young daughter is present a la the closing scene to Stand By Me.
There's just so much going on in this book and a lot of it feels incomplete. Perhaps this would have been better as a group of intertwined short stories--at least each story would have more of an arc as opposed the the jumble we get. Very few of the characters outside of the narrator feel particularly well developed. Likewise the tone is all over the place--parts are told in the wistful wondrous nostalgic style of Ray Bradbury, parts in a more humorous nostalgic style similar to Jean Shepherd...and so much is a King pastiche.
There is a character in this book: a man who wanders around town stark naked. It seems he went crazy after publishing a book--the publishers forced him to insert a dark murder mystery into what was meant to be a look at the characters of a small town. I do wonder if McCammon was making a commentary on his own situation with this character. Perhaps he was forced to add the murder mystery element because he was known as a horror writer.
Regardless of all the above, this is a charming enough book. If you enjoy Stephen King's early works or just want some hardcore 60s boomer childhood nostalgia, this is a great option. show less
Robert McCammon’s Epic coming of age Novel… Boy’s Life is surrounded with heaps of hype and rave reviews. A writer recounts his Southern Alabama childhood in the Mid 1960s in a most vivid manner. As a child Cory Mackenson and his father witness a car with a man handcuffed to the wheel careen into a quarry. After a failed attempt from Cory’s father to rescue the man, a small town is thrown into a hive of imaginary and not so imaginary activity. What ensues is a year of events that could be real….or might not be. The story is told from the child’s perspective by his adult self.
McCammon has crafted a humdinger of a story. Part Stand by Me and part Big Fish with some Sand Lot tossed in…but All McCammon. McCammon breaches some show more emotions in this story that none of the aforementioned titles seem to grasp. Personally, I have a vivid recollection of my childhood, and this book allowed me to connect and add some further introspection to those years. The Mind of a child particularly a boy (But McCammon does not leave out the girls as there are some interesting ones in Cory’s sphere of influence) is encapsulated with so many ideas, wishes, desires and fantasies that at times they intertwine with reality. However, not all of it comes out in the wash at the end. That is for the reader to decide. Parts of this book will make the reader whoop with joy while others will crush your heart. The gray place in a child’s mind when a childhood friend is lost, the leaving of a four-legged companion, the way boys view girls before puberty and of course the observation of the adults in your life as those larger-than-life people go through the all too human falls and stumbles. This book is an all-around winner. show less
McCammon has crafted a humdinger of a story. Part Stand by Me and part Big Fish with some Sand Lot tossed in…but All McCammon. McCammon breaches some show more emotions in this story that none of the aforementioned titles seem to grasp. Personally, I have a vivid recollection of my childhood, and this book allowed me to connect and add some further introspection to those years. The Mind of a child particularly a boy (But McCammon does not leave out the girls as there are some interesting ones in Cory’s sphere of influence) is encapsulated with so many ideas, wishes, desires and fantasies that at times they intertwine with reality. However, not all of it comes out in the wash at the end. That is for the reader to decide. Parts of this book will make the reader whoop with joy while others will crush your heart. The gray place in a child’s mind when a childhood friend is lost, the leaving of a four-legged companion, the way boys view girls before puberty and of course the observation of the adults in your life as those larger-than-life people go through the all too human falls and stumbles. This book is an all-around winner. show less
This wonderful nostalgic novel, with its frank homage to Ray Bradbury, explores the twelfth year in the life of its protagonist, Cory Mackenson. With 1960s Zephyr, Alabama standing in for 1920s Green Town, Illinois, Cory and his buddies traverse a season of devils and angels, monsters and miracles as they travel from childhood to the fringes of that unexplored territory called Grown-Up.
This is a time when the monsters that roamed the Saturday matinee movie screen began to seep into real life, sometimes into real people the boys had always known, a time when a bicycle was as good as a magic carpet, and a time when – amazingly, terrifyingly, those omnipotent gods-on-earth called parents, began to be revealed as Just People after all, show more with fears and concerns of their own which sometimes spilled over into a boy’s life.
There’s a rambling understory here that begins with a terrifying crime and ends with its resolution, but mostly the journey is told in episodic chapters, many of which could stand alone as first-class short stories, though most of them move the plot along in tiny increments. It’s peopled with characters real, almost-real, maybe-real, and … well, where does magical realism become fantasy? And does it matter whether a boy fights off a river monster with a twig broom in the real world or in an altered state that allows him to survive raging floodwaters?
This is a wonderful read for any fan of Bradbury’s, for anyone who ever sat mesmerized through an episode of The Twilight Zone, and for anyone who remembers that childhood journey through fields that now exist in memory alone. show less
This is a time when the monsters that roamed the Saturday matinee movie screen began to seep into real life, sometimes into real people the boys had always known, a time when a bicycle was as good as a magic carpet, and a time when – amazingly, terrifyingly, those omnipotent gods-on-earth called parents, began to be revealed as Just People after all, show more with fears and concerns of their own which sometimes spilled over into a boy’s life.
There’s a rambling understory here that begins with a terrifying crime and ends with its resolution, but mostly the journey is told in episodic chapters, many of which could stand alone as first-class short stories, though most of them move the plot along in tiny increments. It’s peopled with characters real, almost-real, maybe-real, and … well, where does magical realism become fantasy? And does it matter whether a boy fights off a river monster with a twig broom in the real world or in an altered state that allows him to survive raging floodwaters?
This is a wonderful read for any fan of Bradbury’s, for anyone who ever sat mesmerized through an episode of The Twilight Zone, and for anyone who remembers that childhood journey through fields that now exist in memory alone. show less
Yeah, it's about a boy and the joy and horror of being 12. But at the end, the author reminds us that it's a girl's life too. I'm the same age as Cory and it brought back memories of both the magical and horrific times I had as a tomboy in the 1960s, running freely in the hills with the neighborhood dogs, being somewhat of a misfit at school, and wondering deeply about life and the future. Yes there are cliches but the writing transported me and I enjoyed every minute.
I read this book when it was first released almost 25 years ago. I remembered the basic storyline and some of the points, but had forgotten most of it, other than the lingering feeling that I absolutely loved it back then.
As I worked my way chronologically through McCammon's works (most for the first time), I always had my eye on this one, waiting for it, anticipating it, hoping it would live up to that memory.
It didn't.
Instead, it surpassed it.
A writer has many jobs. They have to construct a solid story, create a world for it to occur in, build believable, engaging characters to carry that story. They have to do with only 26 letters and a handful of punctuation. It's never easy, and most fail. Others perform this adequately. But then show more there are the few that go beyond and offer the reader one thing more: wonder.
There's so much magic in this novel. It captures the aching beauty of being a young kid in a more innocent time. It remembers what the world felt like when it was full of wonder. It allowed me, as the reader, to feel that adolescent wonder, forty years after I'd been there.
The first time around, I read the novel. This time around, I chose to listen to it on audio. This, on reflection, was likely a mistake. I tend to do most of my listening while taking my dog for long walks through the neighbourhood. With Boy's Life, I found myself walking by the baseball diamond just as the kids were having their wondrous moment with Nemo in the ball field. I'm sure other pedestrians wondered about me as I burst out laughing in delight at the antics of Lucifer the monkey, and walked with a lump in my throat and tears streaming down my cheeks at a couple of sadder moments in the story.
In the Blue World anthology, there was a couple of times McCammon channeled Ray Bradbury. With this novel, he struck the perfect balance between Bradbury, circa Something Wicked This Way Comes and Stephen King's The Body (also known as the movie Stand By Me.
I can't say enough about this novel. I'd forgotten much of it over the years. I'll never let that happen again. Whenever I'm feeling my age, I can simply open this book and within moments, I'll be twelve years old again and full of wonder. show less
As I worked my way chronologically through McCammon's works (most for the first time), I always had my eye on this one, waiting for it, anticipating it, hoping it would live up to that memory.
It didn't.
Instead, it surpassed it.
A writer has many jobs. They have to construct a solid story, create a world for it to occur in, build believable, engaging characters to carry that story. They have to do with only 26 letters and a handful of punctuation. It's never easy, and most fail. Others perform this adequately. But then show more there are the few that go beyond and offer the reader one thing more: wonder.
There's so much magic in this novel. It captures the aching beauty of being a young kid in a more innocent time. It remembers what the world felt like when it was full of wonder. It allowed me, as the reader, to feel that adolescent wonder, forty years after I'd been there.
The first time around, I read the novel. This time around, I chose to listen to it on audio. This, on reflection, was likely a mistake. I tend to do most of my listening while taking my dog for long walks through the neighbourhood. With Boy's Life, I found myself walking by the baseball diamond just as the kids were having their wondrous moment with Nemo in the ball field. I'm sure other pedestrians wondered about me as I burst out laughing in delight at the antics of Lucifer the monkey, and walked with a lump in my throat and tears streaming down my cheeks at a couple of sadder moments in the story.
In the Blue World anthology, there was a couple of times McCammon channeled Ray Bradbury. With this novel, he struck the perfect balance between Bradbury, circa Something Wicked This Way Comes and Stephen King's The Body (also known as the movie Stand By Me.
I can't say enough about this novel. I'd forgotten much of it over the years. I'll never let that happen again. Whenever I'm feeling my age, I can simply open this book and within moments, I'll be twelve years old again and full of wonder. show less
This novel actually left me mesmerized, and reaching for whatever is left from my magical innocent youthful moments. (Although somewhat miniscule)
I felt myself reflect to the 80s when I was just a crumb snatching electric youth, wearing oversized lee jeans, dirty white keds, running through the corn field while chewing bubbletape gum. To say that I loved this novel is an understatement. I did more then love it, I Lived it. I stepped inside the mind of this boy, and then I felt all his pain, happiness, torment, innocence. This author really knows how to pull you in and never let you venture too far away. Then as it leaves you, it forces you to recollect your own memories from the past, what was real, what was more imagination? The show more scents from my youth include citronella, roses, grass. I feel images swirl around me, when I smell these things.
But when I stepped inside the mind of this boy, I smelled wet dog, forest, dirt, sweat, fear, it combines with all the beautiful images the author portrayed for us readers.
Well, I feel as though I received a blessing, when I read this book. I feel the author shared a blessing with us all, that alone should make you put down whatever you are tinkering with, and pick this up now!
My favorite part, which brought tears to my eyes, was
about the prehistoric beast, his living situation which lead up to his release and what happened shortly thereafter.
And then Rebel! and his new owner! ugh! *tears* were streaming!
My heart swelled and burst into a thousand pieces. I am presently still recuperating! show less
I felt myself reflect to the 80s when I was just a crumb snatching electric youth, wearing oversized lee jeans, dirty white keds, running through the corn field while chewing bubbletape gum. To say that I loved this novel is an understatement. I did more then love it, I Lived it. I stepped inside the mind of this boy, and then I felt all his pain, happiness, torment, innocence. This author really knows how to pull you in and never let you venture too far away. Then as it leaves you, it forces you to recollect your own memories from the past, what was real, what was more imagination? The show more scents from my youth include citronella, roses, grass. I feel images swirl around me, when I smell these things.
But when I stepped inside the mind of this boy, I smelled wet dog, forest, dirt, sweat, fear, it combines with all the beautiful images the author portrayed for us readers.
Well, I feel as though I received a blessing, when I read this book. I feel the author shared a blessing with us all, that alone should make you put down whatever you are tinkering with, and pick this up now!
My favorite part, which brought tears to my eyes, was
about the prehistoric beast, his living situation which lead up to his release and what happened shortly thereafter.
And then Rebel! and his new owner! ugh! *tears* were streaming!
My heart swelled and burst into a thousand pieces. I am presently still recuperating! show less
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From Library Journal
In 1964, 12-year-old Cory Mackenson lives with his parents in Zephyr, Alabama. It is a sleepy, comfortable town. Cory is helping with his father's milk route one morning when a car plunges into the lake before their eyes. His father dives in after the car and finds a dead man handcuffed to the steering wheel. Their world no longer seems so innocent: a vicious killer hides show more among apparently friendly neighbors. Other, equally unsettling transmogrifications occur: a friend's father becomes a shambling bully under the influence of moonshine, decent men metamorphose into Klan bigots, "responsible" adults flee when faced with danger for the first time. With the aid of unexpected allies, Cory faces hair-raising dangers as he seeks to find the secret of the dead man in the lake. McCammon writes an exciting adventure story. He also gives us an affecting tale of a young man growing out of childhood in a troubled place and time. Recommended. show less
In 1964, 12-year-old Cory Mackenson lives with his parents in Zephyr, Alabama. It is a sleepy, comfortable town. Cory is helping with his father's milk route one morning when a car plunges into the lake before their eyes. His father dives in after the car and finds a dead man handcuffed to the steering wheel. Their world no longer seems so innocent: a vicious killer hides show more among apparently friendly neighbors. Other, equally unsettling transmogrifications occur: a friend's father becomes a shambling bully under the influence of moonshine, decent men metamorphose into Klan bigots, "responsible" adults flee when faced with danger for the first time. With the aid of unexpected allies, Cory faces hair-raising dangers as he seeks to find the secret of the dead man in the lake. McCammon writes an exciting adventure story. He also gives us an affecting tale of a young man growing out of childhood in a troubled place and time. Recommended. show less
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Author Information
100+ Works 20,633 Members
Robert R. McCammon is a popular horror fiction writer. He was born in 1952 in Birmingham, Alabama and attended the University of Alabama. After college he spent a number of years working in advertising for bookstores in Birmingham, where he still lives. McCammon's first novel, "Baal," was published in 1978. He quickly joined the group of horror show more writers that includes Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, and Anne Rice, who write suspenseful stories with modern-day settings. He has published over two dozen books to date. With the publication of "Boy's Life" in 1991, McCammon left behind the horror genre, noting that he finds real life horrifying enough these days. While there are some aspects of the supernatural in "Boy's Life," it is more a story of growing up in a small Southern town. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Notable Lists
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Il ventre del lago
- Original title
- Boy's Life
- Original publication date
- 1991
- People/Characters
- Cory Mackenson; Tom Mackerson; Davy Ray Callan; Ben Sears; Johnny Wilson; Gunther Dahninaderke (Dr. Lezander) (show all 9); Vernon Thaxter; The Lady; Dick Moultry
- Important places
- Zephyr, Alabama, USA
- Epigraph
- We ran like young wild furies,
where angels feared to tread.
The woods were dark and deep.
Before us demons fled.
We checked Coke bottle bottoms
to see how far was far.
Our worlds of magic wonder
were nev... (show all)er reached by car.
We loved our dogs like brothers,
our bikes like rocket ships.
We were going to the stars,
to Mars we'd make round trips.
We swung on vines like Tarzan,
and flashed Zorro's keen blade.
We were James Bond in his Aston,
we were Hercules unchained.
We looked upon the future
and we saw a distant land,
where our folks were always ageless,
and time was shifting sand.
We filled up life with living,
with grins, scabbed knees, and noise.
In glass I see an older man,
but this book's for the boys. - First words
- I want to tell you some important things before we start our journey.
- Quotations
- To my mother, the world was a vast quilt whose stitches were always coming undone. Her worrying somehow worked like a needle, tightening those dangerous seams.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)They will always be there, as long as magic lives. And magic has a strong, strong heart.
- Blurbers
- Straub, Peter
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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