Dream Boy

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This article is about the Jim Grimsley novel. For the comic book character, see Nura Nal#Threeboot.

Dream Boy

Author	Jim Grimsley
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date	1995 (1st edition)
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	195 p. (hardback 1st edition)
ISBN	ISBN 1-56512-106-6 (hardback 1st edition)

Dream Boy is a 1995 novel by Jim Grimsley

Nathan is an intelligent, but shy, adolescent boy. He would like to escape from his abusive and violent family and fantasizes about a relationship with Roy, the boy next door.

Nathan moves to a new town and is soon attracted to his neighbor Roy. Roy, a senior at the same high school as Nathan, drives the school bus that takes Nathan to school. Nathan admires Roy's body on the bus and gradually the two boys start talking. Their relationship develops and becomes sexual, as the boys express their love for each other, firstly in a graveyard, then on Roy's bus, then in a tent, at some point in Nathan's room, and finally in an abandoned house, where they are discovered by Roy's friends Randy and Burke.

Nathan's father is drunk one evening and tries to molest Nathan. This is clearly not the first time it has happened and helps explain Nathan's desire to escape from his family. His mother avoids the issue, though she knows what is going on. Nathan has to hide both this sexual abuse and his secret love for Roy from everyone. Nathan also dreams about purchasing horses.

Nathan is accepted into the social circle of Roy's school year and has the opportunity to go on a camping trip with Roy and his friends Randy and Burke. During the trip, they discover an abandoned and possibly haunted plantation house and Nathan and Roy are discovered having oral sex. Roy leaves Nathan in the house to follow his friends, but Burke later returns to the house and brutally rapes and beats up Nathan. After this traumatic event, two narratives emerge: in one, Nathan dies in the house and is discovered first by Randy and Roy, and then by the town sheriff and Nathan's father; in the other, Nathan survives, returns to town and finds Roy, who is able to accept the younger boy as his lover and runs away with Nathan into the woods.

[edit] Film adaptation

Dream Boy has been adapted to film and written and directed by James Bolton. Starring Stephan Bender as Nathan, Maximillian Roeg as Roy and also featuring musician Rickie Lee Jones as Roy's mother. The movie was released on January 28th, 2008. Richard Buckner has recorded the film's soundtrack.