Tom Coraghessan Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948 in Peekskill, NY, changed his middle name to Coraghessan at the age of 17. His mother, a secretary, and his father, a bus driver, were both Catholic; his father was raised and educated in a Catholic orphanage. In his autobiographical essay "This Monkey, My Back," Boyle describes himself as an obedient child until about the age of 15, when the influence of his more affluent, better educated friends turned him into a self-described "proto-hippie." At the age of 17 he attended SUNY Potsdam, planning to study music and to play the saxophone; however, he flunked his audition, and as a result he pursued an alternate degree...
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