Product Description

A fabulously engaging and exciting novel about a man who has to learn about life and love the hard way. Harry Silver has it all. A successful job in TV, a gorgeous wife, a lovely child. And in one moment of madness, he chucks it all away. Man and Boy is the story of how he comes to terms with his life and achieves a degree of self-respect, bringing up his son alone and, gradually, learning what words like love and family really mean. It is very well written, pacy, funny, and heart-breakingly moving.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30650 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

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.

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

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 'One of the finest books published this year! Hilarious and tear-jerking in turns' Express '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 'A touching novel! full of quiet tenderness, and written from the heart' Independent

About the Author
Tony Parsons is the author of Man and Boy , winner of the Book of the Year prize. His subsequent novels -- One For My Baby, Man and Wife, The Family Way, Stories We Could Tell and My Favourite Wife -- were all bestsellers. He lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Don't bother. I wish I hadn't!
I did really try to give the book a chance but it's so full of male self pity that I couldn't stand it anymore by the time I got to the end of the book. Throughout the book the main character keeps getting annoyed with his wife for being a bad mother since she left him after finding out about his fling with another woman. Are we actually supposed to sympathise with this pathetic mysogynistic character? The author appears to be fighting some sort of single father cause for all men, but I just felt that it was all a bit lame...

Awful.
Taken in by the dust jacket blurbs, undoubtedly penned by his London media mates, I was soon reaching for the sick bag. I knew I was going to hate this book when the lead character protests his downright unremarkable personality and looks but has managed, somehow, to hook a goddess of a woman for his wife. What a guy! He then has a one night stand with a colleague who just can't resist him - she's only a woman after all - but what got me was how Parsons tried to make this somehow understandable. He paints a thumbnail sketch of what is attracting his character to this forbidden fruit and includes this classic description of her budding taste in music: "CD's of Oasis and U2 next to Stan Getz, Chet Baker, and the softer side of Miles". Well that explains it then - we'd all betray our wife and child for a girl who likes the softer side of Miles, eh? Can there be anyone alive, outside of London, who lead lives as shallow as this set of cardboard characters? I found this book to be moronic, boorish, misogynistic and about as insightful into relationships as the front page of Loaded. Avoid at all costs.

Slightly flawed in places but packs a strong emotional punch
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.