Man and Boy
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
"Some situations to avoid when preparing for your all-important, finally-I-am-fully-grown thirtieth birthday.
Having a one-night stand with a colleague from work.
The rash purchase of luxury items you can't afford.
Being left by your wife.
Losing your job.
Suddenly becoming a single parent.
Having a one-night stand with a colleague from work.
The rash purchase of luxury items you can't afford.
Being left by your wife.
Losing your job.
Suddenly becoming a single parent.
If you are coming up to 30, whatever you do, don't do any of that.
It will fuck up your whole day.
So begins Man and Boy, Tony Parson's foray into fiction. Or non-fiction. Rumoured to be a roman à clef, the well-known journalist and broadcaster writes the story of a successful TV executive who brings up his child alone after a failed marriage--much like Parson's own life.
Harry Silver, the book's anti-hero, has it all: a beautiful wife, an angelic son and a high-paying job. His life is just about perfect, until one night he casually sleeps with a slim redheaded coworker who has "that kind of fine Irish skin that is so pale it looks as though it has never seen the sun". After the fateful night, his life falls apart. He loses his job and his wife in rapid succession, and finds himself a single, unemployed parent. It is an excellent education for a man who up until now has been immature and irresponsible, and Parsons has some strong points to make about the puerility of far too many contemporary males: "Being a man is like being chained to the village idiot." At times he piles on the disasters and plot-twists a little too thickly, but the ending is wildly romantic, redemptive and optimistic. In other words, Harry grows up. -- Christopher Hart --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘Wistful, touching and funny, it looks back at the glory days of the family without losing hope for the future. In the end, it is a deeply touching book: a love letter to a son from his father, and to a father from his son’
Mail on Sunday
‘Parsons has written a sharp, witty and wise book straight from his heart. His characters are all nitty-gritty, bounce-off-the-page, real people; his dialogue is brilliant’
Daily Mail
‘One of the finest books published this year… Hilarious and tear-jerking in turns’
Express
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having finished this book I was left with mixed feelings. Whilst it started promisingly enough, the development of some of the characters seemed to stall a little midway through. I was left slightly confused by the actions of Gina, who claimed to be so opposed to any infidelity that she willingly threw away an apparently happy 7 year marriage, yet still felt comfortable in getting involved with a married man. I would also have expected Harry to fight a little harder to save his marriage than he actually did and the time scale in whih everything happened (just over 6 months) seemed unrealistically fast. However I still found this book to be funny, endearing and very very touching. The high point was most definitely Harry's relationship with his Father which was beautifully written and had me in floods of tears far more times that the 4 promised by a reviewer on the jacket. I've always thought of Tony Parsons as a somewhat cynical writer, so this aspect of the story came as a very pleasant surprise.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Cannot believe the hype about this excuse for a book ,all I can say it took up unneccessary space in my bag for my holiday.Any one who has spent more than ten minutes with a man, a boy, or a woman in anytime between 1995 and today can do better than this
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is BLOODY AWFUL!
The Irish Times lied to me!
I got to page 50 and thought, well, if I want to hear people going all sentimental over small children, I can get that at work... and then I remembered that I'd paid UKP3 for it and read it to the end.
Didn't enjoy it.
I don't know any other single parents who can lose their job and still take obnoxious sprog to fancy Italian eateries...primarily to chat up waitresses, of course.
Sorry.
It was that bad. No wonder Amazon have it on special offer.
I only gave it one star 'cos he didn't spell anything wrongly.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great Book
This is a great book with a good story i eally enjoyed it nice plot on the whole it was a really good buy.
Published 20 days ago by Mr. Alan P. Gibson
Superficial connections between characters
Slightly mixed feelings about this novel. Most of the connections between characters are a bit superficial. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Melvin
great read
I have read this book about ten years ago when i was in college. I remember reading it on the bus home and i was so into reading that i have missed my bus stop. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Agnieszka Moczadlo
Not for me...
I quite liked this book, but it really annoyed me. Every other page is either filled with "the pieces of our broken little family," Cyd's "wide-set brown eyes" or the fact that Pat... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Sophie Cross
Contradictory Storyline (spoilers)
I am coming to the end of Man and Boy and wanted to put down my thoughts so far.
The plot centres around a guy called Harry who is married to Gina. Read more
The plot centres around a guy called Harry who is married to Gina. Read more
Published 9 months ago by CC
Kramer vs Parsons
Tony Parsons is a fairly obnoxious, self-righteous, pretentious, hubristic and weasel-faced writer - the kind of man who would accept an award from FHM magazine, then write an... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Russel1311
A good page-turner.
I found the book hard to put down. I am surprised that a lot of people didn't enjoy the book.
The challenge of the book, is that in everyday life, you probably wouldn't... Read more
The challenge of the book, is that in everyday life, you probably wouldn't... Read more
Published 10 months ago by F. HODGKISS
Charming but flawed
This book is charming, if slightly lacking, and to describe it as "chick lit for men" would be unfair but not entirely inaccurate. Read more
Published 10 months ago by BHA till I die
Too many leaps of faith
I bought this book, along with a few others to take on holiday but started to read it early. It is one of those books that you see on the shelves, hear about and think one day I... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Clifford
I'm just wild about Harry!
Harry Silver that is....the main character in this wonderful book. He captures the modern family so brilliantly. I found Tony Parsons' writing to be very emotional... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mrs. L. J. Philipson
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