List Price: $14.95
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Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
Average Customer Rating:
Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 817 EAN: 9780595430451 ISBN: 0595430457 Label: iUniverse, Inc. Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc. Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 158 Publication Date: 2007-03-06 Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. Release Date: 2007-03-06 Studio: iUniverse, Inc.
Editorial Reviews:
“I am 13 years old. I just realized that I’m not as good-looking as my mom led me to believe. I wear two pairs of underwear … everywhere. These are my stories.” It was 1985, and if you weren’t a diehard Knight Rider fan then you probably wouldn’t survive on the savage and perilous playground of St. Charles private school. It was a time unlike any other, filled with strange fashion choices, schoolyard extortion rackets, and first dates. It was a time for kids who stuck firecrackers in cats’ asses, a time for pretending to be murdered to freak out neighbors, and a time for realizing that no one really liked you. It was the perfect time for a Dirty Little Altar Boy. Middle-class, middle child, way uncool hair—these are the true confessions of a 13-year-old at the crossroads of junior high and hellfire eternity.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: I love this book Comment: This is a great book. It is honestly one of the funniest, most heartfelt, demented and strangest novels I've ever read. Although I've finished it, I keep flipping through it and reading pages and chapters over and over. A great debut book from a talented new writer. Customer Rating: Summary: BRILLIANT AND STRANGELY MOVING Comment: A real page turner, poignant, insightful and FUNNY. Laugh-out-loud yet, in way, touching. Anyone who's ever been perceived as the underdog - which is most of us - can relate to this collection.
I read this upon a recommendation from a friend (because four of my five brothers were Altar Boys) and I'm glad I did. I hope to see more from this author.
My only real complaint is I wish the book was longer. Which is exactly the opposite of the way I usually feel after putting down a book. Customer Rating: Summary: Coming of age, hmmm. Comment: When you hear the title, Dirty Little Altar Boy, what comes to mind is a tween or teenager that is a misfit and probably did some wild stuff when he was in middle school. What you get with Christopher's novel is a tired, worn-out plot about a 12-to-13-year-old malcontent who really doesn't do anything wrong. He attends parochial school, is an altar boy and is friends with two other rag tag, unpopular boys.
His friends steal the host chalice and wine from the priest, but that's been done before. The reader can't get close to Christopher, we catch glimpses when his father gets angry, once, but we don't get a full and complete picture of this boy, or why he'd consider himself a "dirty little altar boy." The book is a scattered glimpse into the life of Christopher, his love of Chuck Norris, finding girls attractive and generally doing what most young adolescent boys do.
The most deeply written story in the book is when Valentine boxes are on each child's desk and Christopher is left out, not getting one Valentine. It shows the brutality of other children, the pickiness and fickleness of girls and Christopher's heartbreak.
Armchair Interviews says: A decent read for a malcontent teenage boy, but otherwise a pass for the rest of us. Customer Rating: Summary: Great Stories from the Playground Read it Comment: This is a great book covering a time of change we have all been through. The author mixes humor with insight to take you through those troubled times between adolescents and the teen years. One will never know how he, his family and, friends ever survived these stories. Great fun! Customer Rating: Summary: A completely original and irreverent coming-of-age story Comment: When I finished the last page of this book, misty-eyed and smiling at the same time, I was ready to start over and read it again. Not only is it funny and smart, this book stays with you. It's a coming-of-age story that dodges the cliches, and it isn't afraid to get its hands dirty, just like the 13-year old protagonist himself. It touches on such a pivotal age, and through a series of short stories creates a large, vivid, and fulfilling novel. The characters are colorful and unflinchingly truthful, and the situations (from the hilariously surreal to the painfully too-real) are relatable and clever. The writer handles his subject matter with subtle brush strokes in some stories, or with the unbridled enthusiasm of a Rick Springfield concert when necessary. You can't help but connect with the protagonist, an outcast hero whose observations of his increasingly complicated world are written with a pitch-perfect voice that encompasses everything from innocence to cynicism, hope to disgust. This novel is funny, heartbreaking, moving, imaginative, and mischievous.
