Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son by Leroy Aarons Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son
Book Review: prayers for other bobbys
Summary: 4 Stars
Very insightful. There are many young adults who are going through the same experience as "Bobby". Parents of gay children should read this book as a form of support and a source of information.Book Review: Awsome true story
Summary: 5 Stars
I havent read the book, but i did the movie, it was really good, well,it made me cry a lot, cauze i saw my life reflected there..kind of, mine wasnt like that, but every gay in his teenage years, still in the closet, has the same toughts like Bobby did...i recommend it highly...Book Review: omg.
Summary: 5 Stars
I did not buy this book but i did see the movie on lifetime. It was amazing Sigourney Weaver plays Bobbys mother and brings so much power into her acting. The movie left me bawling. I want to buy the movie but its not out on dvd. As soon as it does i recommend everyone go out and buy it. Im 18 and still in highschool and it means so much to me to be able to grow up and see this. Im still crying right now. Thanks to everyone who supports gays and gay teens.Book Review: Inching forward
Summary: 5 Stars
In advance of a television movie of the same name, I decided to read "Prayers for Bobby", written in 1996. It's a tragic and wonderful story at the same time...tragic for Bobby's suicide but wonderful at his mother's complete turnaround regarding her views on homosexuality. It also begs the question of just how far we've come in the twelve years since the book was published and the quarter century since Bobby's death.
Bobby Griffith led a tortured life... a closeted teen who was coming to grips with his sexuality and pummeled by a religious mother who wanted him "cured". His diary was often his only companion and through it we are able to see Bobby from the inside out....the loneliness, the depression and the hopelessness. He predicted he wouldn't live a long life, and sadly, that came to pass.
Yet his mother was able to realize, through her own grief, how much she had contributed to her own son's lack of self-worth. After his death she got involved in a public way, taking small steps at first as her new identity was being formed. She realized education was the key in helping people overcome homophobia, and to that end she has succeeded. But the book also serves as a reminder that even though things are better in many ways for gays since Bobby's suicide, we really only inch forward as a society. Since the book's publication, Matthew Shepard was murdered and his killing increased awareness of the dangers that still are felt by many gays.
"Prayers for Bobby" needs to be viewed on both a personal and a public level. It shows the triumph of a woman who so completely changed her life that she and others like her offer hope to those thousands who are still closeted and a yearning for better things to come. I highly recommend it.
Book Review: As relevant today as when it was written
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book when it first came out in 1996, then I re-read it a few months ago. It's just as powerful and relevant now as when it was first published. I'm so happy that Lifetime has made it into a movie (premiering 1/24/09) that will introduce a new generation of teens and parents to this moving story. To really understand the power of the story, though, read the book before or after seeing the movie. Leroy Aarons captured the voices and stories of both Bobby and his mother Mary in ways that speak to us today.
I knew the author, Leroy (Roy) Aarons personally, and he told me about getting many letters from gay youth who had contemplated suicide before reading this book -- it literally saved their lives. Many gave it to their mothers, hoping that they would reach the conclusion that Mary finally did without having to deal with the death of a child first.