Monkey Boy Summary
Francisco Goldman

Monkey Boy Overview

Part memoir, part fictional investigation into the long-term psychological trauma of parent abuse, part documentary account of the horrors of Guatemala’s decades long civil war, and part socio-political examination into the question of defining identity in a culturally diverse society, Francisco Goldman’s Monkey Boy recounts the events over a single March weekend. Frank Goldberg, the narrator, a successful investigative journalist and novelist living in New York City, returns home to Boston. Over the course of the long weekend, Frank, well aware he is approaching 50, unearths secrets about his family and its complicated history. Goldman tackles, among others, the themes of identity, the need to confront the past, the complex love/hate dynamic of a family, the brutality and greed of Guatemala’s protracted civil war, and the power of storytelling.