Stories for Boys opens as Gregory Martin learns that his father has attempted suicide. The reasons for overdosing come as shocks: he was abused as a child by his own father, and throughout his marriage of nearly four decades, he has resorted to anonymous sexual encounters with more than 1,000 men. Martin, the father of two young boys himself, is filled with anger and feels betrayed.
Martin's mother--who brings her husband home from the hospital and immediately tells him to move out--is a university administrator, and her husband has followed wherever her career led, making a hodgepodge employment record for himself as a P.E. teacher, a traveling salesman, a real estate agent, a kitchen designer, a speech pathologist. Except for living a sexual lie, he was the perfect husband and father.
Martin's provocative account of the shattering and healing of his family takes the unusual angle of admitting his often judgmental, uncompassionate responses to his father's confession. His determination to come to grips with his own intolerance and sense of betrayal is the heart of Stories for Boys; watching him find new ways to love the father he never completely knew becomes emotionally exhilarating.
His memoir becomes profoundly touching as he takes himself to task, and over it all presides the spirit of his guiding light and inspiration, Walt Whitman, able to become sympathetic with any passing stranger, open to all, forgiving to all. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle