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"All American Boy" is a
skillful tapestry of characterizations surrounding
the lead character, Walter, his dysfunctional birth
family, the family's own secrets, and regrets concerning
the other adults in his life, including Miss Aletha
(the transexual who raised him after he ran away
from his parents' home), Zandy (the older man to
whom he willingly gave his virginity in his early
teens, but was later pressured to turn him in to
the authorities, resulting in his being sent to prison)
and boyhood acquaintances. He travels back to his
small home town of Browns Mill, now an unemployed
actor who is far from the "All American Boy" the
town named him in his youth.
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Much of the story is told in a kind of stream-of-consciousness
manner that mimics the thought pattern of Walter's now
senile mother, who still has daytime illusions of her dead
husband and sister being alive, violent dellusions of killing
those who have hurt her in the past, mixed with flashbacks
from her own childhood (She had run away with her sister
to sing in big city taverns) and of various stages of Walter's
boyhood. It's not easy to follow, and more than a bit bleak
and depressing, but realistically and emotionally tells
the story of a boyhood lost and a life filled with regrets,
which he doesn't know how to repair.
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