All American Boy (novel)

All American Boy is a novel by William J. Mann.

Fourteen-year-old Walter (Wally) Day was a good son, the smartest boy in his class, an archetypal "all-American boy" growing up in the 1970s. Twenty years later, Wally’s mother, whom he has not seen in ten years, asks him to come home and Wally, now a handsome actor, has to confront the reasons he left his hometown of Brown's Mill in a cloud of anger, shame, and guilt.

Wally is in denial, denial about his failing career as an actor and denial about the rent-boys he uses. His lover, Ned, has died of AIDS. Returning home, he relives his past: his mother, whom he once loved more than anyone else in the world; his abusive father, Miss Aletha, who had given the boy real affection; and Zandy – the man who loved him and the man Wally cannot forget, the man they branded a pedophile and sent to jail.

As a small boy, Wally was physically abused by his father. He wanted to play with dolls, and was not allowed to. His mother was no help to him at all. Aged 13, he starts to make obscene phone calls offering sex, and one person he rings is a gay man, Alexander Reefy, Zandy. Until he phones Zandy, every caller either hangs up or shouts obscenities down the line. But Zandy expressed interest on the phone. After calling Zandy every day for two weeks, and two weeks after his 14th birthday, Wally cycles over to Zandy's house and asks if he can have sex with him.

Although Wally naively believes that the relationship is a loving one, his grades at school are affected, he drops out of sports and loses his friends. Zandy also introduces him to drugs. One day, his father follows Wally to Zandy's house, confronts him, and makes Wally tell the police. Zandy is arrested and ends up in jail.

Returning to see his mother and wanting to apologise to Zandy, he meets with the old man, now close to death, who forgives him. Wally also meets Donald Kyrwinski, Dee, a 16-year-old gay boy.