My Young Life, Frederic Tuten
My Young Life, Frederic Tuten
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My Young Life
A Memoir

Author: Frederic Tuten

Narrator: Donald Corren

Unabridged: 9 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/05/2019

Synopsis

Novelist, essayist, and critic Frederic Tuten recalls his personal and artistic coming-of-age in 1950s New York, a defining period that would set him on the course to becoming a writer.Born in the Bronx to a Sicilian mother and Southern father, Frederic Tuten always dreamed of being an artist. Determined to trade his neighborhood streets for the romantic avenues of Paris, he learned to paint and draw, falling in love with the process of putting a brush to canvas and the feeling it gave him. At fifteen, he decided to leave high school and pursue the bohemian life he’d read about in books, a life of salons and cafes and “worldly women” from whom he could learn and grow. But, before he could, he would receive an extraordinary education, right in his own backyard.My Young Life is the story of those early formative years where, in the halls of Christopher Columbus High School and later the City College of New York, Frederic would discover the kind of life he wanted to lead. As Tuten travels downtown for classes at the Art Students League, spends afternoons reading in Union Square, and discovers the vibrant scenes of downtown galleries and Lower East Side bars, he finds himself a member of a new community of artists, gathering friends, influences—and many girlfriends—along the way.Frederic Tuten has had a remarkable life, writing books, traveling around the world, acting in and creating films, and even conducting summer workshops with Paul Bowles in Tangiers. Spanning two decades and bringing us from his family’s kitchen table in the Bronx and the cafés of Greenwich Village and back again, My Young Life is an intimate and enchanting portrait of an artist’s coming-of-age, set against one of the most exciting creative periods of our time.

About Frederic Tuten

Frederic Tuten is the author of five novels, including Tintin in the New World, The Adventures of Mao on the Long March, Van Gogh’s Bad Café, Tallien: A Brief Romance, and The Green Hour, as well as a book of interwoven short stories, Self-Portraits: Fictions. He is the recipient of three Pushcart prizes and an O’Henry prize for fiction. Tuten is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award for Distinguished Writing from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

About Donald Corren

Donald Corren is an audiobook narrator and a New York actor with leading credits on and Off-Broadway, as well as numerous television appearances. On Broadway, he costarred with Judy Kaye in the critically acclaimed production of Souvenir, and replaced Harvey Fierstein in the seminal production of Torch Song Trilogy. His Off-Broadway appearances include The Soap Myth, Dietrich & Chevalier, The Last Sunday in June, Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night, and the original New York production of Tomfoolery. His television credits include eight seasons as forensic tech Medill on NBC’s Law & Order, as well as his current role as Dr. Kurian on Syfy’s Z Nation.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Robert

Frederic Tuten has a reputation as an author of fairly airless postmodern novels, which makes this memoir such a surprise. Raised in poverty in the Bronx, he developed a desire to be an artist (he tried visual art first before switching to writing) not because he had some burning desire to produce a......more

Goodreads review by Alexis

It’s been a while since I’ve read something like My Young Life. This was a memoir covering Fred’s early life and it was separated in essays that read like journal entries. The thing that really impressed me was the palpable tone that kept changing throughout the book. It ends in a sad and lonely pla......more

Goodreads review by Edward

A louche New York, well worth visiting. Tuten’s memoir reminded me a bit of “Kafka Was The Rage” by Anatole Broyard—intellectual New York in the 1950’s, poor New Yorkers aspiring for higher things, while drinking coffee in Greenwich Village—a wonderful story of youth and joy and longing in a City th......more

Quotes

“So thrilling. My Young Life describes a specific period, but it also evokes the timeless fascination with the Romantic life.” Steve Martin, American actor, comedian, producer, musician, and New York Times bestselling author

“It’s about a young man in search of a life, in search of himself. It’s about love found and lost. It’s about all of us. I love it.” Diane Keaton, actor and New York Times bestselling author

“In writing his early life [Tuten] turns what could be an act of narcissism—speaking of himself—into one of sparkling generosity.” Literary Hub

“A wonderfully raw story of city boy’s transformation into a writer.” Publishers Weekly

“Tuten’s gently self-deprecating yet humorous reflections cover the linked adolescent preoccupations with creative venturing and romantic/sexual adventuring…A story that is at once his own while also being universally familiar.” Booklist

“A sweet, openhearted, guileless, and deeply moving account of his formative years, one that will resonate with anyone who has undergone the process of trying to become an artist.” Luc Sante, author of The Other Paris

“Every page crackles. This is a lush, compelling, and rip-roaring portrait of a young artist making his way through the world.” Emma Cline, author of The Girls

“The eloquent story of an adolescent in love with women and art, of a naive young man exploring the world of privilege, culture, and seduction—who has nothing going for him except ardor.” Edmund White, PEN/Saul Bellow Award–winning author

“Tuten’s prose is imbued with exuberance, unbridled lust for experience, for love, and for the touching the most elusive and fragile—the human heart.” A. M. Homes, author of The End of Alice

“Tuten’s memoir of growing up in the Bronx is passionate and rueful, and at times, hilarious…A masterful tale of the long journey from Arthur Avenue to the world of art and artists in Alphabet City.” David Salle, artist and author of Debris

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