Leave Myself Behind

by Bart Yates

Book Overview

From the author of The Language of Love and Loss, the 20th anniversary edition of the classic Alex Award-winning, gay coming-of-age novel heralded as The Catcher in the Rye meets Portnoy's Complaint.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0758203489
• ISBN13: 9780758203489
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Another "coming out" story, but with some bizarre plot twists

The main character in this novel lives with his widowed mother and realizes he is in love with his best friend. It takes a while for the best friend to catch on, but eventually he does (and they do). However, there are some very confusing subplots involving fetus bones in jars hidden in the walls. There are some coincidences with both of the boys' parents, but they are hard to actually believe. I felt that they should have just dropped the subplot altogether and just stuck to the very charming dance the two young men go through on their road to love.

Intense Page Turner

Whoever compared this book to Catcher in the Rye was right on the money. Bart Yate's Noah York, is witty, insightful, opinionated and wonderfully sarcastic. His narrative is never dull and the story unfolds with ease. I liked Noah immediately, and loved J.D just as much when he came on the scene. Both boys will pull at your heart strings with this riveting tale of coming of age in a world that won't accept you for who you are. Noah's grief over his father was poignant, it showed how hard it really is to lose someone you love and to have your life so drastically changed at the drop of the hat. I reccommend this book to anyone who likes a good story. Noah is definitely right up there with Holden Caufiield as a literary character not to be forgotten

Don't leave this book behind!

Bart Yates writes a poignant and somewhat believable account of the Noah York, a seventeen-year-old high school student who falls in love with his neighbor, J.D. Noah's mother is a bucketful of dysfunction, but she must be as an accomplished poet. While she's at times permissive and at others psychotic, Noah must navigate the waters of his adolescence without losing his own sanity, or losing his life. Though Yates writes with style and insight, there are a few places where the boundaries of believability are stretched thin...yet, he manages to avoid stepping completely past those points and does so without coming across as schmaltzy or trite. It's been a long while since I've read a novel with a gay central character that hasn't covered the same ground that everyone else has. "Leave Myself Behind" is that break-through novel.

Phenomenal Book

Not since Joseph Olshan's "The Nightswimmer" have I been so totally and thoroughly engrossed in a gay fiction book.The protagonist in this novel, Noah York, clearly has the voice of the author's life experiences but with the comical and "reality bites" point-of-view of a 17-year old boy.At times funny, at times poignant, and even psychotic, this simple story about a boy and his mom and the twists and turns their lives take after the death of the father/husband is just plain beautiful. As Noah comes to terms with his father's death, his sexuality, his mother's mental illness and the intolerance of his peers, we are treated to his witty and highly insightful interpretations of what it means to be a human being in a complicated world. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - it's well-written, has deep and richly-drawn characters, and a main character that will keep you engaged as he goes on his journey of being a boy yet becoming a man. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

This is Quite a Story & Different!

We have seen so many coming-out novels published in the past few years that one could say it's starting to be overdone, but this new novel about 17 year old Noah, is very effective and shows great originality. There are so many issues going on in the lives of these well-developed characters, that it takes a while to grasp it all, but you will, and it's quite a story from the beginning to end. Noah, a closeted gay teenager, is dealing with his father's death, his adjustment to living in rural New Hampshire after moving from urban Chicago, and his mother's growing madness as she discovers a terrible dark secret in the new house as she finds mason jar after mason jar between the walls filled with letters, poems, and other strange things while renovating the house. On top of all this, Noah's blossoming love for his new neighbor, J.D., a handsome 16 year-old, creates more issues as well. J.D. is living a horrific home life, with an alcoholic father and a bigoted mother. Yes, there's much, much more to this story. You'll have to discover the rest for yourself. Yates has the creative touch to explore all these issues, and many more not mentioned, and still bring it all together in the end. If you want an honest, intelligent, well-crafted story to read, this is the book for you. Yates is a fine writer, who has a great future ahead of him. This is a book to really get absorbed in, and forget the world around you for a while. Spend some time with these dysfunctional families, and your own life will take on a whole new light. Highly recommended!Joe Hanssen