![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LawnBoy.jpg?resize=201%2C300&ssl=1\")
By Jonathan Evison\n\u00a9 2019, Algonquin Books
\n336 Pages
\nISBN 13: 978-1616209230<\/p>\n
By Jonathan Evison
\n\u00a9 2019, Algonquin Books
\n336 Pages
\nISBN 13: 978-1616209230<\/p>\n
I had no idea what to expect when I selected Lawn Boy<\/em> as my second banned book for 2025. I didn\u2019t even know why it was banned, only that it was one of the 10 most banned books in the last few years. I started reading it on a Saturday, and finished it two days later. I honestly had trouble putting it down.<\/p>\n After finishing it, I looked up the reasons for the book\u2019s banned status and found it was sexually explicit content, as well as LGBTQ+ content. First, \u201cLGBTQ+ content\u201d is part of life. It\u2019s part of being human. Why is this an issue? Second, to be fair, there is a bit of sexuality in the story\u2014the main character is 22-year-old Mike Mu\u00f1oz, who\u2019s trying to find himself\u2014but it isn\u2019t egregious. I\u2019ve seen romance books with far more explicit erotica; they weren\u2019t banned. So why this book?<\/p>\n The larger element here, the story itself, is really about racism, class divides, and the issues that are regular parts of life for the working poor. Mike, whose father was Mexican (but Mike\u2019s a \u201cgood Mexican,\u201d not a \u201cMexican Mexican,\u201d per Gobels, another story character), and his special needs brother were raised by their mother, who worked (still works) double shifts as a waitress to try and support the family. Mike, who isn\u2019t afraid of hard work, finds it difficult to find and hold a job. He\u2019d love finding work as a landscaper. It\u2019s his passion.<\/p>\n But part of his problem is that he has a really hard time taking disrespect from the wealthy homeowners, or business owners who might employ him for the lowest possible hourly wage. All he wants, besides a living wage, is a little dignity, a little respect. And he\u2019s worked hard for it. It doesn\u2019t seem like too much to ask. And he\u2019s only willing to take so much from his employers or their clients\u2014like the old woman who insists he clean the dog poop off her deck, or the other old woman who expects him to move her furniture or carry her trash cans to the end of her mile-long driveway as if it\u2019s part of his landscaping job. And he has no problem telling them to f*ck right off if they go too far. Yeah. His mouth does get him in trouble a bit. Hey, he\u2019s 22 years old.<\/p>\n Despite his tendency to speak aloud those thoughts we\u2019re taught to keep inside, Mike is a great guy. He\u2019s generous, and kind, and loving. It was easy to relate to him, to get behind him in his struggle. Every time he\u2019d just start to get ahead, something awful would happen; like the time he got a great job offer, and on the way, his glued-together junker of a truck broke down on the side of the highway. He had no money to fix it, no way to get the rest of the way to the job site, and no means to get a new truck.<\/p>\n So I can\u2019t help but wonder if part of the reason this book was banned wasn\u2019t the sexuality, but the poignant, raw, plain-spoken depiction of what it is to be part of the working poor.<\/p>\n But issues of its banned content aside, this is one of the best, most engaging and evocative books I\u2019ve read in a long time. Even though I\u2019ve not lived Mike\u2019s story myself, I\u2019ve tasted bits of it, felt his frustration with wanting to be free of the restrictions that come with lower income, wanted to break free of them so that I could do what I loved, instead of what I must. Lawn Boy<\/em> is filled with humor, rage, hope, family, frustration, acceptance, and fulfillment from page one to the very end. Reading his story, watching his character and his journey of discovery unfold, seeing his spunk and his determination to find a way through the morass of his life, I came to love Mike Mu\u00f1oz and his family. I cried near the end, and when the last page was turned, I felt sad, like I\u2019d lost a friend. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jonathan Evison \u00a9 2019, Algonquin Books 336 Pages ISBN 13: 978-1616209230 I had no idea what to expect when I selected Lawn Boy as my second banned book for 2025. I didn\u2019t even know why it was banned, only that it was one of the 10 most banned books in the last few years….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-1AQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6894,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/27\/nineteen-minutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":6128,"position":0},"title":"Nineteen Minutes","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"October 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jodi Picoult \u00a9 March 5, 2007, Atria Books File size: 4.1 MB 468 pages ISBN-13: 978-1416538950 Caution: This review contains spoilers\u2014not of the ending, but of the story\u2019s arc. 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In these pages, Maia\u2014who was assigned female at birth (AFAB) and now uses the Spivak pronouns e\/em\/eir\u2014tells eir story of gender confusion from childhood to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A youth standing knee-deep in water, looking down at their reflection. The above-water youth has short hair, a t-shirt, and shorts; the reflected youth has long hair, is topless, and is wearing shorts. 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