It was awarded the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction. Paul Monette Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (Perennial Classics) Paperback by Paul Monette (Author) 250 ratings Teachers' pick See all formats and editions Kindle 11.99 Read with Our Free App Hardcover 4.98 65 Used from 1.99 4 New from 12.54 11 Collectible from 4.99 Paperback 14.99 37 Used from 1.49 12 New from 8. Struggling to be or at least to imitate a straight man, through Ivy League halls of privilege and bohemian travels abroad, loveless intimacy, and unrequited passion, Paul Monette was haunted, and finally saved, by a dream-“The thing I’d never even seen: two men in love and laughing.” This searingly honest, witty, and humane merging of memoir and manifesto has become the definitive coming out story-and a classic of the coming-of-age genre.

“Fiercely committed to bequeathing a map of his psychic terrain, to spare others the pain of his solitary journey, fine memoir is affirmative and ultimately celebratory.” - New York Times Book ReviewĪ child of the 1950s from a small New England town, “perfect Paul” earns straight A’s and scholarships and shines in social and literary pursuits, all the while keeping a secret-from himself and the rest of the world. In novels, poetry, and a memoir, Paul Monette wrote about gay men striving to fashion personal identities and, later, coping with the loss of a lover to AIDS. The National Book Award winning memoir with a new foreword by Kathryn Harrison, author of The Kiss. Monettes memoir, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, explores his struggle for identity as a gay man in a homophobic culture, finding love and carving out.

Becoming a Man by Paul Monette