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Walsh, Mikey. Gypsy Boy: My Life in the Secret World of the Romany Gypsies. Thomas Dunne Books\/St. Martin Press, 2012, c2009. Hardcover.\u00a0 278 p. $24.99. 978-0-3120-62208-4.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Under the pseudonym of Mikey Walsh, the author has written about his life, changing names and identifying details as well as sometimes creating composite characters.<\/p>\n This is truly an awful book in both senses of the word.\u00a0 Terrible in what this young gay slightly effeminate boy had to endure the worst possible family and culture for such a boy,\u00a0 but also full of awe in how he survived and finally came out whole and happy.<\/p>\n His father, just about the most evil person I have ever encountered, was a bare-knuckle fighter who would have been a champion among the British Romany Gypsies if he hadn\u2019t been surpassed by his older brother.\u00a0 Determined that his oldest son Mikey would become the new champion, he forced the boy to train everyday and fight every older boy and man who came along. After consistently losing, Mikey always got a beating from his abusive father. If his mother tried to stop his father, he beat her too.\u00a0 In addition, Mikey\u2019s uncle repeatedly raped him.<\/p>\n Rescued by his first boyfriend Caleb during his early teens, a Gorgia (non-Gypsy), Mikey suffered from his father\u2019s vendetta against the non-Gypsy boy and his father. When Caleb discovered that Mikey was only 15, he left the boy and left him to survive on his own.<\/p>\n This memoir, originally published in Britain in 2009, demonstrates that truth is often more terrible than fiction. While the author tells about his horrifying family, he also describes the secretive mores and customs of the isolated British Romanis. Despite the fact his lack of education, he writes in a straight-forward, smooth, and moving style.\u00a0 According to the website<\/a>, this book is being made into a movie.\u00a0 A sequel, Gypsy Boy on the Run, was published in 2012.<\/p>\n Libraries interested in the survival of gay boys in terrible situations and\/or in the culture of Romany Gypsies will want to get this book.<\/p>\n Reviewer: James Doig Anderson<\/strong>, Professor Emeritus<\/p>\n Library and Information Science,\u00a0Rutgers University<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Walsh, Mikey. Gypsy Boy: My Life in the Secret World of the Romany Gypsies. Thomas Dunne Books\/St. Martin Press, 2012, c2009. Hardcover.\u00a0 278 p. $24.99. 978-0-3120-62208-4. Under the pseudonym of Mikey Walsh, the author has written about his life, changing names and identifying details as well as sometimes creating composite characters. This is truly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,42,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}