by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2019
192 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
From the famed publisher and poet, author of the million-copy-selling collection A Coney Island of the Mind, his literary last will and testament - part autobiography, part summing up, part Beat-inflected torrent of language and feeling, and all magical.
In this unapologetically unclassifiable work Lawrence Ferlinghetti lets loose an exhilarating rush of language to craft what might be termed a closing statement about his highly significant and productive 99 years on this planet. The "Little Boy" of the title is Ferlinghetti himself as a child, shuffled from his overburdened mother to his French aunt to foster childhood with a rich Bronxville family. Service in World War Two (including the D-Day landing), graduate work, and a scholar gypsy's vagabond life in Paris followed. These biographical reminiscences are interweaved with Allen Ginsberg-esque high energy bursts of raw emotion, rumination, reflection, reminiscence and prognostication on what we may face as a species on Planet Earth in the future. Little Boy is a magical font of literary lore with allusions galore, a final repository of hard-earned and durable wisdom, a compositional high wire act without a net (or all that much punctuation) and just a gas and an inspiration to read.
"This book is a Proustian celebration of both memory and moments that will delight readers." - Publishers Weekly
"It's called fiction, but this interweave of autobiography and history, lightning-flash language and wisdom of the ages by Ferlinghetti - Beat poet extraordinaire, author of the million-copy-selling collection A Coney Island of the Mind, and owner of the bookstore City Lights, whose publication of Allen Ginsberg's Howl caused First Amendment upheaval - is beyond easy definition." - Library Journal
"Dissonant, bewildering... beautiful." - Booklist
"There's plenty of indignation, wry observation, and inevitable prognostication as Ferlinghetti looks back on his near-century on the planet to remind us to - among other matters - stop griping and play the hand we're dealt." - The Millions, "Most Anticipated Books of 2019"
"Ferlinghetti invokes Beckett, Joyce, Ginsberg and Proust in this 'experimental novel' published to coincide with his 100th birthday: a mix of autobiography, philosophy and poetry... This exuberant word storm, narrated in Ferlinghetti's idiosyncratic 'wide-open' style, captures invaluable 'crystal moments in time." - BBC
"Ferlinghetti has given us a uniquely revelatory book. At first his narrative was what I'd hoped it would be, and then his words turned, like lively flashing fish, into what he wanted it to be, so he could leisurely reel me in, ever so surely, to his sublime conclusion. Little Boy evoked my surprise and delight - thank you, Lawrence! - Ann Charters, editor of The Portable Beat Reader and Kerouac: A Biography
"Little Boy may start off sounding like a conventional memoir, but before long, Ferlinghetti reclaims his beat soul, quickens the pace, dropping punctuation like a used-up booster rocket, and off we go on the last wild, motor-mouth, book-length riff of this poet's generation. All finger-popping readers will be gleefully swept up in this hip word-flood, this spontaneous stream - no, make that torrent of consciousness. Bravo, maestro!"- Billy Collins
This information about Little Boy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York in 1919. Founder of the famed City Lights Booksellers and Publishers, he is an activist, painter, and author of numerous works of poetry, prose, and drama. His A Coney Island of the Mind is one of the bestselling poetry books of all time. Among his many honors are the Los Angeles Times' Robert Kirsch Award, the NBCC's Ivan Sandrof Award, and the ACLU's Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. He is also a Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters. He lives in San Francisco, close by to the bookstore he founded.
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