Tony Parsons’ novel Man and Boy
achieved considerable success in Britain when it was released in 2000, staying
on the bestseller lists for months, and also receiving high praise from newspaper
book reviewers.  However, reading it now, it is hard to see what the initial
excitement was all about.  It is a very standard English novel about the trials
and tribulations of family life and the search for romance, much is the
tradition of a good many other young British writers of the last decade.  The
genre mixes sincerity and pathos with a light humor, making for a pleasing
read, which touches you for a moment, while confirming most of your previously
held opinions.  The master of the genre is Nick Hornby, who has a remarkable
ability to be funny and yet sensitive in portraying the experience of young men
and families in contemporary Britain.  Parsons’ writing is clumsy in
comparison, but it has a brisk pace and readers will keep turning the pages
wanting to find out how it all turns out.

The plot is simple enough.  Harry
is happily married to Gina, and they have a small boy, Pat.  Harry has just
turned 30, and is suffering from some kind of premature mid-life crisis.  He
loves his son more than anything, and he is still in love with his wife. 
Nevertheless, in a few days of madness, he buys himself a sports car and has a
one night stand with someone from his work.  Gina finds out within hours and
leaves him, taking Pat.  But Harry manages to get Pat back when Gina goes off
to Japan, and he is faced with the challenge of being a single parent.  Soon he
loses his job. Faced with an impending crisis, he gets help from his parents
who live fairly close by.  Soon he is encountering new romantic options, and he
is learning to cope with his new situation despite a few moments of drama. 
Some of the problems Harry encounters are all too predictable; almost as soon
as we see him interact with his elderly father, it is clear that a crucial
moment later in the novel will be when Harry faces the end of his father’s life
and finally transforms from boy to man. 

Man and Boy is a case of a
novel where the enhanced expectations due to reviewer and publisher hype
actually spoil the pleasure of reading.  On reflection, Parsons does a good job
at keeping his readers entertained.  His writing is full of dialog and short
paragraphs, and the chapters are also brief, so even for those readers who find
it difficult to sustain their concentration, the book will hold their attention. 
The plot is well-structured, and Harry is a winning narrator.  The novel is
just as good as the hundreds of other similar novels that have come out of Britain
recently, and should be a fun read for those who don’t hope for too much of
it. 

© 2004 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also
editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on
philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Fiction