"Lawnboy is, quite simply, the real thing, a novel of mystery and great beauty."—Michael Cunningham
Lawnboy
- “Paul Lisicky conveys the sweetness and lostness of a boy, and the senselessness of making him choose between extremes.”—Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review
They all thought I was good-natured, upright and responsible, generous, affectionate, and kind, and of course I could be those things, but there was much more to me than that, a side that unnerved even myself, and this side included William.
Seventeen-year-old Evan begins his life's adventures with a summer job mowing forty-one year-old William's lawn. This ordinary chore leads him into an unexpected world of passion and love--something his parents never shared with each other. Kicked out of the house for being undeniably gay, Evan moves in with William and roams his childhood neighborhood as an exile. Burdened by his relentless desire but armed with a vast imagination, Evan wanders through the lush and decaying urban landscape of South Florida in search of connections in a broken world.
"Nobody writes about hilarious longing the way Lisicky does. Some writers manage to be funny and sad in turn; in Lawnboy, Lisicky manages to be both at the same time. It's beautifully written, it's beautiful."—Elizabeth McCracken
"This adventure-of-the-heart takes place in as evocative a landscape as any you'll find in fiction, its Floridian decay and lushness the perfect setting for a story dense with eroticism, disillusionment, and the surprising grace notes of renewal."—Bernard Cooper
Seventeen-year-old Evan begins his life's adventures with a summer job mowing forty-one year-old William's lawn. This ordinary chore leads him into an unexpected world of passion and love--something his parents never shared with each other. Kicked out of the house for being undeniably gay, Evan moves in with William and roams his childhood neighborhood as an exile. Burdened by his relentless desire but armed with a vast imagination, Evan wanders through the lush and decaying urban landscape of South Florida in search of connections in a broken world.
"Nobody writes about hilarious longing the way Lisicky does. Some writers manage to be funny and sad in turn; in Lawnboy, Lisicky manages to be both at the same time. It's beautifully written, it's beautiful."—Elizabeth McCracken
"This adventure-of-the-heart takes place in as evocative a landscape as any you'll find in fiction, its Floridian decay and lushness the perfect setting for a story dense with eroticism, disillusionment, and the surprising grace notes of renewal."—Bernard Cooper
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About the Author
Credit: Beowulf Sheehan
Praise
- “Lushly emotional, romantic and tragic.”—Paper Magazine
- “Lawnboy is as dreamy and lush as the south Florida landscape it inhabits. It is funny, dead-on insightful, and. . . . sexy.”—Ann Patchett
- “Nobody writes about hilarious longing the way Lisicky does. Some writers manage to be funny and sad in turn; in Lawnboy, Lisicky manages to be both at the same time. It’s beautifully written, it’s beautiful.”—Elizabeth McCracken
- “Lawnboy is, quite simply, the real thing, a novel of mystery and great beauty.”—Michael Cunningham
Acknowledgements
This book is made possible, in part, through the Jerome Foundation, which supports new works by emerging artists in New York City and Minnesota, and by the generosity of Graywolf Press donors like you.
