Boy Almighty

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Boy Almighty

An Autobiographical Novel

Frederick Manfred

Introduction by Freya Manfred

362 pages

Paperback

September 2021

978-1-4962-2770-6

$21.95 Add to Cart
eBook (EPUB)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

October 2021

978-1-4962-2894-9

$21.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

Frederick Manfred was the author of Lord Grizzly, finalist for the National Book Award, as well as twenty-six other novels and short story collections, many of which explore nuanced struggles with death and other life challenges which demand toughness and resilience. Although a work of fiction, Boy Almighty conveys Manfred’s dramatic personal story of contracting tuberculosis as a young man and being cared for at a convalescent home at the Glen Lake Sanatorium in Minnesota.

A remarkable blend of stream-of-consciousness and objective reporting, Boy Almighty is the story of a man in the throes of dissolution and disintegration from tuberculosis and of his recovery, reintegration, and rebirth. Eric Frey, sensitive, aware, in love with life, yet beset with frustration and failure, is at first too ill to be placed in a tubercular ward, where his almost certain death would be upsetting to the other patients. Running concurrently with the inner story of Frey’s mind is the story of his body’s struggle to survive. Boy Almighty is a profound and compelling study of a man who desperately wants to live and of his relationships with doctors, nurses, roommates, and a fellow patient who teaches him the meaning of love.
 

Author Bio

Frederick Manfred (1912–94) is the author of twenty-six novels and short stories, including the Bison Books five-volume series, The Buckskin Man Tales, which includes Lord Grizzly, finalist for the 1954 National Book Award, Conquering Horse, Scarlet Plume, King of Spades, and Riders of Judgment. Freya Manfred is the author of the memoir Frederick Manfred: A Daughter Remembers and eight books of poetry, including Loon in Late November Water.
 

Praise

“Frederick Manfred’s semi-autobiographical second novel, Boy Almighty, is an eloquent, literary masterpiece of a young man’s life-and-death struggle with tuberculosis. The Iowa native’s poignant reflections on love, mortality, and faith are timeless reminders of what it means to be a human being.”—Stuart Rosebrook, editor of True West magazine
 

Table of Contents

I. Return to the Matrix
II. The Song Unsung
III. Flickerings
IV. Old Voices Awaken
V. The Foetus Plays
VI. Briefed for Battle
VII. The Whipper Recognized
VIII. Foolishness
IX. The Whipper Seen Again
X. Enter Satan Deeble 
XI. Relapse
XII. The Flame Clears
XIII. The Flame Quickens
XIV. The Whipper: Another View
XV. Hunger for the Red Bone
XVI. Whittlings
XVII. Greens, Reds, Bloody Reds
XVIII. Lamps in the Night
XIX. Fantasy in the Storm
XX. A Door Opens
XXI. The Flame Is Dampered
XXII. The New Woman
XXIII. Drifting
XXIV. The Door Opens Again
XXV. The Foetus Stirs
XXVI. Adventure
XXVII. A Lane and a Pasture
XXVIII. The Whipper Strikes
XXIX. Alarm in the Night
XXX. A Song Is Sung
XXXI. The Whipper Described
XXXII. The Whipper Strikes Again
XXXIII. Lament
XXXIV. Loneliness
XXXV. Rebuff
XXXVI. Re-enter Satan
XXXVII. Satan Tempts Eric
XXXVIII. The Way Widens
XXXIX. Descent Into Hell
XL. The Whipper as a Woman
XLI. Sparks
XLII. Activity
XLIII Labor Pains
XLIV. Cast from the Matrix Again
XLV. Brief Victory

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