Taking America Out of the Boy
by Billy Marshall Stoneking
I belonged and yet I didn't belong... I was overly enthusiastic and used my hands too much when I spoke. Women didn't frighten me. I didn't have to prove anything. I was always saying too much even when I wasn't talking. There were things I didn't like about America, and I didn't mind telling people. Sometimes they didn't believe me. There was a rumour going round that I was CIA. I was a know-all, yet I knew nothing. I never called anyone "boss"....
Told in the style of an oral storyteller, TAKING AMERICA OUT OF THE BOY is a tale of discovry and self-transformation; a funny, insightful and often poignant account of a misplaced person, his exile and his return. To anyone who has wondered where they belong or how they fit in, Billy Marshall Stoneking's delightful "auto-fictography" (the author's word for it) might very well be a signpost on the way home.
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Subjects
Stoneking, autobiographical, Australia, storyteller, memories, memoirTimes
1960s to 1980s| Edition | Availability |
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Taking America Out of the Boy
July 1, 1993, Hodder Headline Australia
Paperback
0340584491 9780340584491
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Book Details
First Sentence
"The tires of the one-tonne pick-up drummed the corrugated dirt road north of Papunya, kicking up a cloud of thick, red dust that billowed out behind the vehicle like smoke and would still be there, hanging in the hot dry air, ten minutes after we'd passed."
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Work Description
Stoneking refers to this book as an auto-fictography - a "new" kind of autobiographical writing that is based solely on memory without recourse to notes, diaries or the memories of family, friend and collegues. What emerges is a coming of age story that traverses two continents and any number of cultural/tribal groups. As one journeys with the Amerikan-born Stoneking ever deeper into the great hinterland of the Australian outback, one begins to see how Stoneking's odyssey possesses a universality for anyone who has had a home, lost it, and set about looking for one to replace it. It is by turns poignant, funny and exceedingly honest - nakedly so - with a progressive transformation of language that echoes the authors initiation into Aussie culture.
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| July 6, 2010 | Edited by 124.170.114.5 | Edited without comment. |
| April 28, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the work. |
| December 10, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |