Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon

In Zephyr, Alabama, a bizarre murder is only the beginning

Small town boys see weird sights, and Zephyr has provided Cory Jay Mackenson with his fair share of oddities. He knows the bootleggers who lurk in the dark places outside of town. On moonless nights, he’s heard spirits congregate in the churchyard to reminisce about the good old days. He’s seen rain that flooded Main Street and left it crawling with snakes. Cory knows magic, and relishes it as only a young boy can.

One frosty winter morning, he and his father watch a car jump the curb and sail into the fathomless town lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a naked corpse handcuffed to the wheel. This chilling sight is only the start of the strangest period of Cory’s life, when the magic of his town will transform him into a man.

Dear Reader,

I think that in everyone's life there is a time for looking back, in order to better judge the road ahead. Boy's Life is my backward look. It is more than a novel; Boy's Life is what I would call a "fictography," a combination of fiction and biography. It is, in one sense, about me and why I became a writer; in another sense, I believe it is a universal story of a boy's awakening to dark forces in the world around him.

But Boy's Life is certainly not about darkness alone. It is not a celebration of evil, nor a paean to lost innocence. Rather, Boy's Life is a journey through a particular time when the world stood on the threshold of great changes and achievements. Boy's Life is first and foremost about people, as seen through the eyes of a young Southern boy; some of these people I knew, some of them I wish I had known. This is where fiction and biography get all mixed and mingled, and what was real and what was wished share the borderland of imagination.

I am probably prouder of Boy's Life than of any book I've ever done. All books are like children, and every child has a different personality. Some are difficult, others companionable, some in a hurry to get where they want to be, others in no particular rush but just content to amble across the hills and meadows of a ripe young world. I hope Boy's Life has captured some of that young world---a world we all remember, and often yearn to return to in our secret hearts if but for a moment to catch our breaths and right our gyroscopes against the hard iron of reality.

I say Boy's Life is not about lost innocence, because I believe we all maintain the pool of innocence and wonder inside us no matter how far we get away from our childhood. I believe this pool can be revisited, and we can immerse ourselves in its healing water if we dare to take the risk of knowing again the children we used to be. This is a risky thing, because once we look back---once we let that wonderful pool take us in again---we may not ever fully return to being the adults we are now.

This is part of what Boy's Life is about: the rediscovery of magic, of wonders that lie drowning and half-forgotten in our souls. Boy's Life is about the dreams and terrors in the life of a Southern boy in 1964, but I hope it is more than that, too; I hope it is a universal key to yesterday, and by the opening of that door for a backward look we may all see today tomorrow in a much clearer, brighter light.

Robert R. McCammon

You Might Also Like