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A review by bookboy_troy
Lawnboy by Paul Lisicky
5.0
“Something was ringing inside my head, a fire alarm. You can change your life, you can”
Lawnboy by Paul Lisicky is a perfect coming of age novel. I couldn’t have picked a better book to read this summer. First published in 1998 and reprinted by Graywolf in 2006, this hidden gem is way overdue to be republished/reprinted so it can find a whole new era of queer readers (I wish I knew how to make this happen??) it’s definitely got the air of a queer cult classic to it. It felt like a similar reading experience to me as when I read Nevada by Imogen Binnie summer of last year. I will cherish the time I’ve read this for a long time.
Lisicky writes the character of Evan with such complexity and nuance. He brilliantly captures the narrative voice of a 17-year-old gay man trying to come into his own in the world in the early 90s in southern Florida. The prose was so vibrant, melancholic, lush; basically, every page had these knockout sentences where I would sit and marvel at the way Lisicky crafted them. How Florida is depicted was spot on - the hellish heat, the kitschy tourist traps, hotels against a harsh yet at times beautiful landscape. The push and pull of the plot and characters in Evan’s world made the novel’s pacing fantastic.
Naturally, this book brought me right back to being that same age where I knew everything and nothing about myself and the world. When I was impressionable, looking for love, for friends, for a place in the world where I felt safe and I belonged. An era of mistakes, awkwardness, finding a way forward. The cringey thoughts and opinions. This book was perfect to me, I only wish I could have read it earlier in my life.
My only hope is that I can introduce this book to more and more readers. Since it’s out of print, I found my copy at ThriftBooks. It was an ex-library copy and it felt really special knowing it had passed through the hands of so many readers before me. I can’t wait to read more of Lisicky’s work.
Lawnboy by Paul Lisicky is a perfect coming of age novel. I couldn’t have picked a better book to read this summer. First published in 1998 and reprinted by Graywolf in 2006, this hidden gem is way overdue to be republished/reprinted so it can find a whole new era of queer readers (I wish I knew how to make this happen??) it’s definitely got the air of a queer cult classic to it. It felt like a similar reading experience to me as when I read Nevada by Imogen Binnie summer of last year. I will cherish the time I’ve read this for a long time.
Lisicky writes the character of Evan with such complexity and nuance. He brilliantly captures the narrative voice of a 17-year-old gay man trying to come into his own in the world in the early 90s in southern Florida. The prose was so vibrant, melancholic, lush; basically, every page had these knockout sentences where I would sit and marvel at the way Lisicky crafted them. How Florida is depicted was spot on - the hellish heat, the kitschy tourist traps, hotels against a harsh yet at times beautiful landscape. The push and pull of the plot and characters in Evan’s world made the novel’s pacing fantastic.
Naturally, this book brought me right back to being that same age where I knew everything and nothing about myself and the world. When I was impressionable, looking for love, for friends, for a place in the world where I felt safe and I belonged. An era of mistakes, awkwardness, finding a way forward. The cringey thoughts and opinions. This book was perfect to me, I only wish I could have read it earlier in my life.
My only hope is that I can introduce this book to more and more readers. Since it’s out of print, I found my copy at ThriftBooks. It was an ex-library copy and it felt really special knowing it had passed through the hands of so many readers before me. I can’t wait to read more of Lisicky’s work.