...a consummate storyteller, as he demonstrates in this beautifully written, vastly entertaining, and moving memoir ... Black seems incapable of writing a dull word as he evokes his stirring life and times, ultimately inspiring comity by word and example. His book belongs in every library.
As the title implies, the main subjects of Dustin Lance Black’s memoir Mama’s Boy are Black and his mother, Anne. Both have remarkable stories ... Black is very good at depicting the kind of destitution in which the smallest luxuries take on outsized meaning. He writes touchingly of the family’s annual Christmas tradition ... even now, Black’s tender and heartfelt love letter to his remarkable mother is an act of courage and reclamation. It’s a well-deserved tribute.
... touching if unfocused ... This earnest memoir is somewhat overstuffed with discussions of religion and Hollywood; the greatest appreciation will likely come from readers interested in a heartfelt look at self-acceptance as well as the complexities of family or personal stories about mending divides between liberal[s] and conservative[s].
... a heckuva memoir ... I use 'heckuva' because it’s an impressive, readable story but also because that’s the kind of corny phrase that peppers Black’s account of a family that hung together despite dramatic differences and grievous hardship ... Although much of Mama’s Boy centers on Black’s indomitable mother, Rose, it frequently widens its scope from the personal to the political — often, alas, in the lingo of a campaign stump speech ... Black has a screenwriter’s knack for telling a rollicking tale, whether about a bike accident or a first date. Bits of suspense animate his narrative ... most engaging when Black vividly tells his life stories ... His tendency to mansplain his anecdotes with bromides about overcoming differences and national healing is less successful.
...thought-provoking ... a heartfelt tribute to Anne, his courageously inspiring yet deeply religious and politically conservative mother ... Black provides a wholly engrossing account of how a mother and son evolved beyond their potentially divisive religious and political beliefs to uncover a source of strength and unity through their enduring bond. A terrifically moving memoir of the myriad complexities of family dynamics.
[A] sometimes overwrought, sometimes luminous memoir ... Black devotes much space to tremulous fretting over his blue-on-red coming-out saga, but the results are not very dramatic ... But the book shines in its portrait of the vibrant, indomitable Anne trudging determinedly over every obstacle, and in intimate scenes of everyday family heartaches and triumphs against the odds.
