Sunday 14 February 2021

"Meat Rack Boy" by Michael Tarraga


This is a very short memoir.

Abandoned as a baby by his prostitute mother, with his twin brother and two-year-old sister, Michael grew up with foster-parents who systematically abused him from before he was six: he was anally raped repeatedly by his foster-father while his foster-mother prevented him from screaming or struggling. As a child he was forced to have oral sex with his sister while being filmed. His foster-parents rented him out to other men including, so he claims, Ted Heath (before he became Prime Minister).

Unlike the two other rentboy memoirs I have read recently (I am researching a character in a novel I am writing), Making Beds in Brothels and Street Kid, Michael is straight and practises heterosexual sex since  escaping his abusive childhood; the remainder of this memoir (written at the age of 70 and dying from cancer) describes his failed marriages, his drug addiction, his working life, and his crimes.

Simply written.

Some memorable moments:

  • You know Peter, God loves you. But right now I don’t like you very much.” (Ch 5)
  • "We have been together for 11 years and have never had an argument, as we can’t be arsed to argue." (Ch 11)

February 2021

Other memoirs and autobiographies reviewed in this blog may be found here



This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God


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