City Boy by Leonard Michaels
"City Boy" by Leonard Michaels is a narrative centered around the impulsive sexual relationship between Phillip and Veronica, which inadvertently leads to a critical situation involving Veronica's father. The story begins with the couple engaged in a secretive encounter in Veronica's family home, amid the tension of her parents being nearby. Their brazen actions result in an unintended heart attack for her father, Morris Cohen, prompting a whirlwind of emotions, including shame and regret.
Despite the gravity of the incident, the dynamics between Phillip and Veronica shift when she learns her father will survive, leading her to demand intimacy from Phillip shortly thereafter. The narrative explores themes of youthful recklessness, the complexities of desire, and the emotional repercussions of their actions. As Phillip navigates the fallout, including a comical and awkward escape into the streets while naked, the story paints a portrait of youthful indiscretion intertwined with profound moments of realization. "City Boy" ultimately invites readers to reflect on the intersections of sexual behavior, family dynamics, and personal accountability.
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City Boy by Leonard Michaels
First published: 1969
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The mid-twentieth century
Locale: New York City, Upper East Side
Principal Characters:
Phillip , a young unemployed man, the narratorVeronica , his girlfriendMorris Cohen , Veronica's wealthy fatherLudwig , the elevator operator
The Story
In Phillip's narrative, the thoughtless sexual behavior of Phillip and his girlfriend, Veronica, causes Veronica's father to have a heart attack. Though shamed, sorrowful, and vexed with Phillip, Veronica, on learning from her mother that her father will survive the attack, demands sex from Phillip.
At the outset of the story, Phillip and Veronica are having sex on the rug in the living room of her family home, surrounded in the dark by her family's expensive paintings and furnishings. Because her parents are in the next room, Veronica says what they are doing is crazy, but she responds eagerly to his touch. Phillip bites her neck, and she kisses his ear. While they are copulating, Phillip imagines that the furnishings are observing and reacting to them. Venting his lust, Phillip crushes Veronica's willing body under him, and—naked, satisfied, and exhausted—they both fall asleep.
Morris Cohen, Veronica's father, enters the living room to ask Veronica to tell her boyfriend to go home. From the other room, Veronica's mother can be heard complaining about her husband's lack of decisiveness. In the dark living room, Mr. Cohen accidentally steps on Phillip, pressing him into Veronica, who experiences a climax. Their secret tryst exposed, Phillip and Veronica fumble around as the outraged Mr. Cohen upbraids them. Phillip stumbles into the blinds, breaking some glass, and hearing the noise from the safe vantage of the other room, Veronica's mother threatens her husband if anything has been damaged. Phillip escapes naked.
While waiting for the elevator, Phillip decides to stand on his hands on the chance that his pubic hair will be mistaken for a beard and his penis for a nose. Ludwig, the elevator operator is not deceived but does not make an issue of Phillip's nakedness. Instead, he asks that Phillip treat Veronica more thoughtfully. Phillip is grateful.
Phillip proceeds naked down the street, climbs barefoot down the spit-spattered subway steps, and asks the neat African American man in the ticket booth to let him enter the train platform free. The ticket man refuses and, on noticing Phillip's nakedness, demands that he leave the station. At the head of the subway steps, Phillip encounters Veronica, who has chased after him with his clothes. She helps him dress. Phillip walks her home, convinced that his feelings for her have vanished. He is prepared to tell her, but before he can act, however, he learns that Veronica's father has had a heart attack.
Ludwig takes the couple up in the elevator, and once in the apartment, Veronica rushes to the toilet, turns on the faucet, and urinates. Phillip wants to watch her, but annoyed, she tells him to wait in the living room. Her mother calls from the hospital and informs Veronica that her father is recovering and that they will be home in the morning. No sooner does Veronica hang up the phone and share the good news with Phillip than, sexually stimulated by tensions of their now relatively harmless adventure, she crudely orders him to have sex with her.