Gypsy Boy: One Boy's Struggle to Escape from a Secret World

Review: Gypsy Boy by Mikey Walsh.

It’s an extremely bright and captivating story about a notoriously secretive and enigmatic race, told with some calm humor and passion, through an outstanding stylish narrative voice. The description Mikey captures of life in the camps, the Gypsy culture the characters that had a major impact on his life are stunning and vivid, and writing in few words a real sense of place as the reader visualizes the events as they unfold.

It’s an autobiographical story about a boy growing up as a Romany Gypsy during the nineteen eighties and nineties. Mikey’s life was like a rollercoaster ride of emotions; strengths and he never wallow in self-pity and became an ensuring adult man with a purpose. It’s about show more self determination, human power of the mind and soul. Walsh didn’t hesitate describing his childhood of horrendous physical, and sexual abuse while growing up and his trying to fit in with the demands of his culture and satisfy his father’s sense of honor. What Mikey went through and the feelings of hopelessness that he must have felt are unimaginable. Betrayal by the people who should have been looking after him is unforgivable. Mikey’s mother was an accomplice in the abuse as she did nothing about it and seemed to be ignorant and also ruled by her husband.

Mikey explains the Romany Gypsy community with some humor and frankness. As he writes about the culture of his people I realized that I really didn’t know much about The Romany Gypsies. I believe his story but I was not educated enough to understand his culture. In the book they came across as ignorant and isolated. Also I felt they were a group of people who could not integrate, who hold no value in education and are obsessed with money and material things, which most of their things were obtained by ripping off the non-gypsy community who they apparently despised.

However, the culture of this gypsy group was mainly obsessed with a level of violence and the honor of bare fist knuckle boxing. At the young age of three Mikey was introduced to this event by his father and received beatings after beatings when he lost a fight. Their custom is to fight anyone in their community or other gypsy’s communities who came faced to face with you and wanted to fight to honor their immediate family. Mikey never got to win a fight to honor his family so his father was very brutal towards him. His father even made him fight against his sister (who always won) just to make Mikey feel shame for all the community to see…

Mikey was a brave child and later became a respectable adult through laugh and tears. This is a story that the reader can sense the honesty and reality of Mikey’s words and praise his honor for surviving…..It left me with questions and answer evading my mind that I did some research on Gypsies and their culture. It was really intriguing to be educated past what I was taught about gypsy as I was growing up….The reader will acknowledge Romany Gypsy are human too….. show less

Mikey is born into a long line of bare knuckle gypsy fighters. At 4 his father begins ‘training’ him brutally. The fact that Mikey is small and non-violent only angers his father causing more brutality. Throughout Mikey professes loving the gypsy life and regrets that he is a misfit to that lifestyle. However, it was hard for me to feel much affinity for it. The story shows a violent, thieving, illiterate way of life. Anything that is not gypsy is the enemy. There are a few sympathetic characters in the culture and a few outsiders that Mikey meets in their roaming, but generally his life is spent avoiding situations or being beaten. The book spends the last 25 pages bringing his life up to date. Apparently a second book covers the show more last quarter of the book in more depth. I think I’ve read enough. show less

Wow; this book starts out all lightweight. You think it's going to be a big romp taking the pee out of the gypsies, but it soon turns dark & just keeps getting darker, The only good news is that Mikey survives, as is evidenced by this book. No child should ever have to live through what he did. Gripping.

I almost gave up after the first 30 pages, it was evidently another misery lit book. I tried a second time with the audiobook version which made a big difference. Performed by the author, he injects a lot of emotion through the use of "pregnant pauses" that makes it hard to stop listening. It's interesting in parts, but mostly a depressing litany of illiterate people living in trailers, drinking and drugs, stealing and swearing, wife and child beating, incest. The Romany culture isn't romanticized in this account, and that may be the attraction, a Gypsy tell-all. Note: After a few months reflection the book has stayed with me more than I imagined it might, a sign that it had some impact.

I'm fascinated by Gypsies for some reason, and this book was an interesting window into their rigid culture. I guess when you've been the victim of so much violence you need to externalize it by describing every instance in great detail, but it made for difficult reading. The end of the book, where Mikey finally finds happiness, felt rushed and perfunctory. All in all, interesting but not a work of art - which only the greatest memoirs achieve.

DNF. I enjoyed this for the most part, but after a while I found the violence and brutality was sucking the air out of the room every time I tried to finish it. I may go back and finish it at some point in the future, but not right now.

Brutal story of Mikey's life growing up in a Romany family in England. Beaten to a pulp by his father who wanted him to be a fighter, sexually abused by an uncle, this story was harrowing. Mikey ran away from home as a teen when he discovered he was gay and could not live in his environment.