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Boy On A Pony | 
 enlarge | Author: George Abagnalo
Publisher: Moreland Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $19.00
You Save: $6.95 (27%)
New (1) Used (1) from $19.00
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 647852
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0970667701
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780970667700
ASIN: 0970667701
Publication Date: September 15, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A provocative story of love and sexual awakening, Boy On A Pony raises the controversial issue of privileged sexual abuse within our health care system.
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| Customer Reviews:
A powerful expose November 29, 2008
Related in the manner of an interview, Will tells of the traumatic experiences which have had a big impact on shaping his life. The only son of a weak mother and an abusive father, Will, a good looking boy but with traits of feminism, suffered the usual taunts as a child, but it was his experiences at the hands of medical care professionals which amounted to sexual abuse which caused him so much anguish. At the age or seventeen he was admitted to hospital with a life threatening problem, but the insensitive treatment he received, being exposed for any to see, being handled too freely by the doctors, nurses and especially an orderly who used the pre-op preparation as an opportunity to satisfy his own urges, begins a pattern which is repeated many times. His anxiety his aggravated as his claims of mistreatment went largely ignored; yet the consequences had a big impact on his life making it difficult for him to form lasting loving relationships, being unable to separated sex and abuse.
In his account Will talks frankly and openly about his problems, his childhood, his work, his abuse, his loves, about the S&M game he plays and about what if anything made him gay. It is at times harrowing, at times a revelation, it is a human story told with beauty and honesty and not without touches of humour. Above all it is about a man coming to terms with a deep and difficult problem, finding eventually perhaps a way forward.
 Boy on a Pony December 14, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
George Abagnalo's "Boy on a Pony" is written in a piercing style reminiscent of Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground." It tells the story of Will, a love-starved and otherwise very troubled young man who sets out to expose the sexual degeneracy he finds within our medical community. Brimming with extraordinary conflicts and intriguing situations, this sophisticated and ultimately very humanist novel builds to a series of explosive revelations and beautiful denouement. I was not surprised to find it was awarded ForeWord Magazine's 2002 Book of the Year Bronze Award for Gay Fiction. I highly recommend it.
Deeply moving, depressing and disturbing... November 12, 2003
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This has to be one of the most difficult and sad books I've read in some time. The authour gives a relentless account of his main character's tale of unhappiness, and the dreadful (but all too true) observations on the dark side of human nature. One won't find any relief, comic or otherwise, in the almost 300 pages; and Abagnalo's deep insight and the cruelty of others he relates is almost too much to take at times.
Am I glad I read it? Yes. Why not five stars? I wonder if this amount of unhappiness could have been made more poetic or palatable somehow - perhaps like looking at a Francis Bacon portrait, rather than having to stare at a journalist's photo of a car accident victim.
But regardless, I won't forget this novel for some time. It shines a white hot spotlight on many flaws the human race must take a great deal of shame in - though ultimately the writing of this book and the character within address higher qualities - bravery, courage and hope.
 A mish-mashed laundry list of griping and whining. Ugh! July 31, 2003
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
In fifty years of reading (sometimes 2 or 3 books a day), as an academic, a newspaper editor and someone who enjoys a good sexual romp, I did something I've never done in my entire life--I returned this waste of paper. No sense inflicting it on a friend. Not only is it so badly written as to be laughable, Abagnalo seems to take his weird gripes and paranoid fantasies to extremes, spending most of his time riffing on personal notions of exaggerated cruelties--from his father, his mother, his 'friends,' acquaintances, strangers, institutions. What a bore. The most titillating moment was when I was able to turn to the last page and put an end to both our suffering. This book is one long enema.
I Couldn't Put It Down May 6, 2002
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Although this book's title seems to refer to an idyllic childhood (it is listed on some websites as a children's book), this book is not for kids. George Abagnalo is one of the co-writers of Andy Warhol's Bad (co-written, by the way, with Pat Hackett who would later go on to publish the Warhol Diaries). Abagnalo has written a tour de force fictional account of the world of medical S&M. Abagnalo's book also provides a language and a voice for anyone who feels that they have been badly treated by their doctors. Shocking at times, but always gripping, I highly recommend this book.
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