Description:

Peter West is amazingly well-adjusted for somebody in his position: castrated at the age of nine in the Summer of Love and raised by the "normal" member of a family of eccentrics and circus people. In this slice-of-life narrative of a castrato singer in the late Twentieth Century, the concepts of identity, masculinity, love, and adults still growing up are addressed in a series of vignettes, diary entries, interviews, and direct communication with divinity. An unusual story of an unusual man that is occasionally interrupted with internal monologues about the timelessness of music and how true art changes through our life experiences and the creator's emotional and spiritual growth. Simple Man has been called "engrossing" and "original" by beta-readers and readers of McElroy's blog often regard his writing style as "lively and funny" and "endearing despite himself".