Summary of Boys Alive
“Boys Alive” is a collection of interconnected stories about Riccetto and his group of friends—boys growing up as street children on the outskirts of Rome in the years following the Second World War. The book traces Riccetto’s coming of age as he survives day by day, searching for money, drifting from petty theft into other forms of criminality, including gambling and prostitution. The book has also been published in English under the titles “The Ragazzi”, “The Street Kids”, and “The Hustlers”.
Reasons to read Boys Alive
“Boys Alive” offers a vivid yet often harsh portrayal of Rome’s poorest social classes around 1950. It is partly written in Roman dialect and street slang, which adds to its realism. Upon its publication, the book caused a scandal but nevertheless became a bestseller in Italy. Its author, Pier Paolo Pasolini, is best known as a filmmaker (notably “The Gospel According to St Matthew”) and as a left-wing intellectual, but he also wrote novels and poetry (including “La meglio gioventù”). His brutal murder in 1975 shocked Italy and remains unsolved.
Original title: Ragazzi di vita
Year of publication: 1955
Nr of pages: 224
