The World of Normal Boys

The World of Normal Boys

Authors

K.M. Soehnlein

Publisher

Kensignton Books

Publication Year

2000

ISBN

9781575666617

Pages

282 pages

Genre

realism

Format

novel

Item Type

Fiction

Annotation

The time is the late 1970s -- an age of gas shortages, head shops, and Saturday Night Fever. The place, suburban New Jersey. At a time when the teenagers around him are coming of age, Robin MacKenzie is coming undone. While "normal boys" are into cars, sports, and bullying their classmates, Robin enjoys day trips to New York City with his elegant mother, spinning fantastic tales for her amusement in an intimate ritual he has come to love. He dutifully plays the role of the good son for his meat-and-potatoes father, even as his own mind is a jumble of sexual confusion and painful self-doubt. But everything changes in one horrifying instant, when a tragic accident wakes his family from their middle-American dream and plunges them into a spiral of slow destruction.

Grade Level

9-12

Diversity Topics

Family Relationships; LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Family member death; Gay/Lesbian; death of a brother; gay; gay teenager; same sex relationship

Main Character

male teenager

Race/Ethnicities

White

Family Formation

mother and father

LGBTQ+

gay male

Awards

Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction

Keywords

coming of age; 1970s; New Jersey; multiple relationships; accident; self-discovery

Diversity Impact

direct

The World of Normal Boys

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