The Best Little Boy in the World: The 25th Anniversary Edition of the Classic Memoir

I have read this book a dozen times. I lost my copy, I bought this copy and it came with an inscription. The original owner gave it to a parent and wrote the most beautiful dedication where he explain what this book represented to him at the difficult times of coming out. This book will always have a especial place in my library and in my heart...

It was honest, enlightning & revealing to myself as a straight woman. I grew up with a gay sister & more than aware of the need to be someone else if your going to succeed in this world. She is a successful business woman & I'm proud of her as well as "the best little boy in the world". The book leaves you smiling because happiness is attainable for everyone.

I gave this book four stars largely because of its importance in LGBT history. It was the fist successful book about a gay man coming out in a straight world. At the time it was written in the early 1970s gays were viewed by society as being mentally ill, sick and certainly not normal. This book helped to change that view in that it showed a child growing up in a loving home doing much what all children do and being very successful in school academically and socially. As an adult he realized that the difference he had always felt from other boys was that he was homosexualcontinued. With this insight, he came out to the world and since then has continued to be successful while experiencing a fuller appreciation for who he is.

I had heard about this book, but never got around to reading it until a recent vacation. Andrew Tobias writes with a compelling truth. Those of us his age or older, can relate to many aspects of his story. To those of a younger age, it shows how many of the same struggles continue, yet many things have changed. I've become a fan of Mr. Tobias.

As a very young child, the author’s parents praise him as “the best little boy in the world” (BLBITW). Such parental praise may be relatively common, but our hero truly takes it to heart and spends many years trying to live up to the perceived expectations of his parents and others. When he realizes that he prefers boys to girls he sublimates those feelings, since the BLBITW most certainly can’t have such feelings. It isn’t until he finishes college and enters the working world that he realizes the pointlessness of denying his feelings. Although widely praised as a landmark of gay literature, “The Best Little Boy in the World” is a flawed book. However, even in the flaws there are perhaps some lessons to be learned. The story can be easily divided into two distinct parts: before and after coming out. The first half of the book recounts the author’s memories of his childhood, when he proudly boasts of being “the best little boy in the world” and does everything he can to retain his title. He is studious, polite and well behaved. However, when he begins to understand that other boys don’t want to “play cowboy” with their friends, the seeds of doubt begin to creep in. Perhaps the BLBITW is just a phony. Still, he soldiers on, throwing himself into schoolwork and sports while ignoring his attraction to other men. This part of the story can be amusing, and the author can appear a little endearing. Things change a lot in the second half of the book, when the author sees the futility of denying his feelings and comes out. He spends almost a year trying to make up for lost time. In that time, he realizes that he’s quite attractive to other men, and he becomes the very worst kind of gay man; the kind that looks down on anyone less fit and handsome than himself. He also spends a lot of time musing on what “makes” someone gay, even though he claims to be sure that he was made that way. His whole attitude makes the second half of the book a lot less enjoyable. Despite the sometimes cringe-inducing attitudes of the author, the book is an interesting read. It is probably a good depiction of the early days of gay liberation, post-Stonewall and pre-AIDS.

I could have written this book but I didn't. It's taken me nearly 60 years to do what Andrew Tobias did in his 20s. How many "best little boys" are out there somewhere? The personal telling of his story - with delving soul-searching analysis and a great geal of humor - makes this a necessity for anyone who has lived a secret life and learned the accepted norms of society in the days when there were no real choices.

What can I say? Anything written by the inimitable Andrew Tobias is a must read. A good introduction to gay male sexuality for gay and straight men alike.

This book could have been written with much less detail for me. I am not sure what I thought it would be but by the time I got a third through it I had lost interst.

Riveting !!!

I had read the book many years before. In the rereading of it was even more informative and interesting than the first time.