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A powerful memoir “about a difficult childhood . . . tough stuff, honest and real”—The Oregonian Peter Hoffmeister was a nervous child who ran away repeatedly and bit his fingernails until they bled. Home-schooled until the age of fourteen, he had only to deal with his parents and siblings on a daily basis, yet even that sometimes proved too much for him. Over the years, he watched his mother disintegrate into her own form of mania, while his father—a scholar and doctor who had once played semi-pro baseball—was strict and pushed Peter particularly hard. He wanted only the best from his son, but in the process taught Peter to expect only the worst from himself. In the midst of his chaotic home life, Peter began to hear a voice—an insistent, monotone that would periodically dictate his actions. When Peter finally entered public school he started to break free from his father’s control—only to fall sway to the voice more and more. His obsessive-compulsive behavior morphed into ruthless competition in sports and, ultimately, into lies, violence, and drugs. The End of Boys follows Hoffmeister to the very brink of sanity and back, in a harrowing and heartbreaking account of the trauma of adolescence and the redemption available to us all, if only we choose to find it. “Peter Brown Hoffmeister calls every sense into play, providing rich imagery, grounded reflection, and the tension inherent in a coming-of-age tale in which drugs, violence, and a genetic tendency toward OCD conspire.” —Los Angeles Review “The End of Boys takes no prisoners with its gritty, entrancing realism . . . a chilling and captivating read . . . a voice that is refreshingly new.” —Eugene Weekly
I looked at the reviews before I grabbed the book, and everything seemed to scream out 'honestly, you just need to read it'. So I grabbed it. Finished it in a day. And let me tell you this:Honestly. You just need to read it.It was like... a mixture of When Rabbit Howls (which is a truly remarkable book) and American History X (a fascinating movie) in my mind. It isn't often that I am grabbed from the first page, but I was. And I was more grabbed because my mind was trying to wrap around the free flowing meter of the style being used in the book, but the more I read, the more it grew on me.I sat down and read the whole book, cover to cover (if that's even possible electronically). There were moments I caught myself smiling, holding my breath, screaming out for injustice, and crying. And then I got to the end and... the book is non-fiction?I admit, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I'm incredibly empathic when it comes to other people's emotions. When I read the book, I just thought the author did a fantastic job making everything feel so real. When I realized after the book was non-fiction (I don't always read what the book is about, I just dive right into them), I could (and still do) feel my heart breaking for the author with everything they had been through.I know this might not be everyone's kind of book, but for someone who had some rough spots in growing up, this put everything into perspective for me. The whole tale almost seems fantastical to me, but it is just a reminder that life really -can- be that rough, but if you hold out hope and have strength in yourself, you can pull through.Really an amazing book. There are so many reasons I would recommend this to someone. Thank you for this glimpse into the most intimate portions of your life.
