Every Boy Should Have a Man

February 4, 2013
In a future where primitive “mans” are considered pets or food by the dominant, giant humanoid “oafs,” one female man and her daughter become the cherished possessions, then friends, of a young oaf who learns to see them as more than just creatures. That friendship sets the daughter on a course to slavery, war, and traveling to a place where humans are not endangered—and a time when individuals might find salvation, even if a world is lost. Allen’s concise book’s power lies within its understated irony, never more heavy-handed than a preacher’s admonition that “a world without mans is a world without us all.” The plain narrative and relationship between boy and female man, rounded out with humor and occasional (sometimes literal) bite, promises to be a sleeper favorite among speculative audiences. Agent: Eleanor Jackson, Markson Thoma.

June 1, 2013

Winner of the Sonja H. Stone Prize in Fiction for his story collection, Churchboys & Other Sinners, Allen begins this captivating, fable-laced story with a poor young oaf, referred to as Boy, who lives in a world where human beings are ruled by small giants. After the loss of Boy's "man," Boy is offered by his father a "female man" named Red Sleeves, wrapped in a red ribbon with a note: "Every boy should have a man. You're a fine son. Love, Dad." Thus begins an imaginative and honest epic, weaving together biblical stories, fantasy, poetry, and fairy tales with a touch of realism. As Boy journeys through centuries, lands, wars, and empires, encountering characters struggling with the duality of being human and oaf, Allen asks us to question the assumptions, -isms, and contradictions of the modern world. Powerfully elegiac, the novel's ending stands on its own. VERDICT Recalling the humanitarian concerns of Octavia Butler's Fledgling and the poetry of Ovid's Metamorphosis, this book will appeal to readers of literary fiction and fantasy.--Ashanti White, Yelm, WA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013
Imaginative, versatile, and daring, Allen (Jesus Boy, 2010) raids the realms of myth and fairy tale in this topsy-turvy speculative fable. Like every boy, Allen's protagonist wants a man for a pet. Wait, what? Substitute dog for man, because in this out-of-whack world, the pets are people, called mans (short for humans), and their owners are oafs. The mans are smart, articulate, and artistic, yet many are eaten by oafs, who are failing miserably as stewards of the planet. So says a sacred speaker, who delivers a veritable sermon of the swamp in which he praises the holy tabernacle of nature found in the grand biodiversity of Eternal Grass (think Everglades). Red Locks, a brave and cunning female man, is this tale's hero. Brutally separated from her mother, she survives forced labor, abuse, and war. With canny improvisations on Jack and the Beanstalk, Gilgamesh, and Alice in Wonderland, Allen sharpens our perceptions of class divides, racism, enslavement, and abrupt and devastating climate change to create a delectably adventurous, wily, funny, and wise cautionary parable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)