Product Description

Michael Adams shares a flat with three other men in their late twenties. Days are spent lying in bed, playing computer games and occasionally doing a bit of work. And then, when he feels like it, he crosses the river and goes back to his unsuspecting wife and children. For Michael is living a double life - he escapes from the exhausting misery of babies by telling his wife he has to work through the night or travel up north. And while she is valiantly coping on her own, he is just a few miles away in a secret flat, doing all the things that most men with small children can only dream about. He thinks he can have it all, until is deception is inevitably exposed..."The Best a Man Can Get" is written with the hilarious eye for detail that sent John O'Farrell's first book, "Things Can Only Get Better", to the top of the bestseller lists. It is a darkly comic confessional that is at once compelling, revealing and very, very funny.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11199 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Some men are born fathers, while others have fatherhood thrust upon them. The protagonist of John O'Farrell's The Best a Man Can Get belongs indisputably in the latter category. When his first daughter is born, Michael Adams imagines her as the warden of a prison that will permanently deprive him of his youth and freedom. Terrified by his new responsibilities, he regularly escapes to a bachelor pad across the Thames, pretending to be at work. Another child arrives--and with still another on the way, it is only a matter of time until Michael's wife discovers his double life. At that point, he must make a choice between his family and his hedonistic haven.

By turns hilarious and touching, O'Farrell's book delves deeply into the anxieties of modern parenting. Yet the novel is not without empathy for the 21st-century father. After all, it's easy to imagine the lure of a child-proof hideaway, insulated from sleepless nights and dirty diapers. At the same time, Adams often wonders whether "just being tucked up warm and cosy" is really "the best a man can get". With its charming prose and its truant protagonist, this first novel is sure to win over even the most reluctant parent. --Greg Bensinger

Review
"'Excellent...Things Can Only Get Better will make you laugh out loud' Angus Deayton 'Very funny' Mail on Sunday 'Punchline fuelled, relentless humour... I don't think a woman is going to get much closer to the workings of a man's mind than this. Giggling several times a page with plenty of out-loud laughs is guaranteed. Is John O'Farrell funny? Very' The Mirror 'So funny because it rings true...Packed with painfully well-observed jokes' The Times 'This is SO good. It is howlingly funny. Madly well-written, astutely and ruthlessly observed and so insightful about men, women, love and parenthood that you read every page with a wince of recognition. Fab, fab, fab' India Knight 'A hilarious confessional narrative. This wickedly observed page-turner lets bachelor nostalgia joyride to its absurd conclusion...Piquant and irreverently sardonic' Literary Review"

From the Back Cover
Michael Adams shares a flat with three other men in their late twenties. Days are spent lying in bed, playing computer games and occasionally doing a bit of work. And then, when he feels like it, he crosses the river and goes back to his unsuspecting wife and children.

For Michael is living a double life - he escapes from the exhausting misery of babies by telling his wife he has to work through the night or travel up north. And while she is valiantly coping on her own, he is just a few miles away in a secret flat, doing all the things that most men with small children can only dream about. He thinks he can have it all, until is deception is inevitably exposed...

Customer Reviews

Funny book, well worth a read
I really enjoyed this book, it drew me in at the start, and kept me laughing throughout. While the ending is arguably weak, and the funnier parts are at the start, the book is about a journey of self-awareness.

Michael Adams is essentially a good father and a loving husband, caught up perhaps in his own selfishness and always aware of the mess his own father made of being there for him. As he tells the story, O'Farrell adds observational, sardonic humour but still manages to produce a tale that should resonate with any father, or anyone who has ever questioned their commitment in any long term relationship.

Well worth a read.

If there has to be a 'lad dad' genre, O'Farrell's your man.
I really enjoyed "Things Can Only Get Better," and ordered this one not knowing the plot. But quicker than you can say Nick Hornby, I had finished it. Let's put in perspective: is this earth-shaking literature that will stand the test of time? Will they one day be talking about Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and O'Farrell? Of course not. What this is is an incredibly enjoyable, well-observed book that will make you laugh out loud and annoy whoever is around by saying, "Just read this paragraph." The book won't tax your brain, but it will put a smile on your face. And really, what's wrong with that?

Few books make you laugh out loud...
But… this is one. Featuring English humour at its best and similar to, but even better than, Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity”, “The Best a Man Can Get” surrounds a clever storyline with more superb “one liners” than any other book I’ve read. Well written, and genuinely reflective on the dichotomies facing men when their lives become totally disrupted by childbirth, it’s addictive and above all “funny”. How good?... well my wife, children & I watched with great amusement as our male friend (one loving wife, two loving children) completely disrupted a day and a half of a recent holiday as he raced through it, accompanied by regular and wholly disconcerting hoots of laughter. Once finished, I picked it up and read it straight through in similar time accompanied by similarly uncontrolled outbursts. It’s totally “non-PC” but it’s honest, brilliantly witty and, in the end, charmingly tender. If you’re male, if you shared a flat when you were younger and if you’ve had children, you will definitely relate to it – if not, well… treat it as an instruction manual on how men in that situation really think.