From the Bookshelf of Queereaders…

At Swim, Two Boys

Jamie O'Neill

Start date: May 1, 2009

Finish date: June 30, 2009

Discussion: group reads

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group reads

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* List of group reads
By Nancy · 1 post · 1518 views

last updated Oct 30, 2009 05:04PM

Books that Helped Us See Ourselves
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last updated Sep 09, 2025 01:10PM

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What Members Thought

Sep 30, 2007 Charles rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

An astonishing book, big and flawed and driven and filled with love and anger. I can't recommend it too highly. Other reviewers here have mentioned that it takes some getting into, but only if you don't let the ear do part of the work of reading. Listen to what O'Neill is doing with the language, the music of it certainly, but also the exactitude, the sense it creates of a world that is both our own and not our own. Fabulous. And of course it examines the ways in which gay sexuality/identity is ...more

35 likes · Like · see review

Aug 05, 2012 Ilya rated it really liked it

pretty wonderful, I like a book that rewards the hard work of slogging through voices and dialect, and after about 40 or 50 pages it started to flow marvelously.

book could have been 100 pages or so shorter, and I would suggest a radical trip to the extended crescendo. But a gorgeous book.

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Jun 23, 2016 Scott rated it liked it

Shelves: homo-lit

I was happy to read a coming-of-age/coming out story with a historical Context. O'Neill writes with complexity and beauty that made the book good, but not the type of read I could do on the subway or anywhere with distractions.

It had been sitting on my shelf to read, and I am glad I finally picked it up. ...more

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