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Parsons, Tony – Family Way, The
***1/2
The Family Way is about three sisters ranging from their mid 20s to 30s, pregnancy and children. Oldest sister Cat more or less brought up her siblings when her mother left and doesn’t
want children of her own…or does she? Mid-sister Jessica meanwhile has
a loving husband but they can’t manage to conceive whereas the academically-gifted youngest sibling Megan becomes pregnant
after a one-night stand. The Family Way reflects their different attitudes towards
motherhood though it is also, as much as this, an illustration of the very strong bond between the three siblings.
Tony
Parsons’ fourth novel is good with the author being one of the very best writers on modern families and their relationships
and values, albeit with sentimental and arguably reactionary undertones. The
downside of this though is that, having read Parsons’ previous three novels, The Family Way continues the trend of slowly
diminishing returns. It would be great to see Parsons try something stylistically
or emotionally different like his near contemporary Nick Hornby has with both How To Be Good and A Long Way Down rather than
ploughing the same artistic furrow. The Family Way is still a good, contemporary
lifestyle novel though the author’s unchanging prose style and subject matter is beginning to get a bit tiresome.
First
published: 2004
Read by me: 14.10.06-24.11.06
Parsons, Tony - Man And Wife
B+
The sequel to Man And Boy is written in much the same style as its predecessor. Harry Silver is now married yet his marriage is losing its spark and slowly drifting apart amid
jealosuy and his complex family set-up. Man And Wife examines Harry’s difficult yet loving relationships with his son,
wife, step-daughter and ailing mother with some humour yet it’s often quite depressing. He is perceptive and
sensitive yet selfish and
stubborn - often quite wretchedly yet there is a positive, life-affirming ending. Man And Wife is a good story and no one
can better Tony Parsons in his perceptive wriitng about the modern sensitive father though I feel that he may have to change
his style in his next novel to avoid diminishing returns. Still worth reading.
Read by me: 1.7.04-8.9.04
Parsons Tony - One For My Baby
A-
Like Man And Boy, One For My Baby is
another excellent compassionate and occasionally funny novel about a selfish but sensitive male protagonist in his early 30s.
The story is different from its predecessor covering love, lust, family and death but is written with similar sensitivity
and feeling. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Man And Boy though this was probably because I read MAB first rather than
it being better than OFMB. An excellent, ultimately heart warming story.
First published: 2001
Read by me: 17.8.02-12.9.02
Parsons, Tony
– Stories We Could Tell
****
Tony Parsons’ previous four novels
have been a case of gradually diminishing returns for me though thankfully Stories We Could Tell bucks the trend and is something
of a departure. It is also in many ways his most personal novel to date.
Stories
is a rites of passage for three young music journalists working for a weekly music paper.
It is set in 1977 amidst the exciting rise of “the new music” with most of the action taking place around
the watershed night of Elvis Presley’s death and is clearly influenced by the teenage Parsons' own experiences at the
NME.
The novel mentions real players in the punk movement though some
of the lead characters in the story are given fictional names. I’ve got
a good idea who the “Godfather of Punk” Dag Wood and wild super-journalist Skip Jones are largely based on and
anyone who’s’ seen any documentaries from the period should be able to guess the real identity of deranged fan
Brainiac.
The prose in SWCT is arguably not as free-flowing as in Tony Parsons’
previous novels though this is countered by a more interesting, less sentimental period piece story. A thought-provoking and sensitive though not overtly nostalgic novel about the punk years by an author
who was really there. Well worth reading.
Read by me: 9.2.07-16.4.07
Pryce, Malcolm - Aberystwyth Mon Amour
B
Black comedy about a private
detective and strange goings-on in Aberystwyth. A satire of the "private dick" type pulp novels, it's very clever and funny
at first but becomes slightly disappointing and confusing to me as I read on. Worth reading and great to see a novel name-checking
places I know from my Aber student days but it unfortunately doesn't quite live up to its original promise.
First published:
2001
Read by me: 5.7.02-18.7.02
Pryce,
Malcolm - Last Tango In Aberystwyth
C+
The sequel
to Aberystwyth Mon Amour is once again a satire of "pulp" detective stories with humour so black that it is barely humorous. It's nice to read a novel which name-checks places I know but the series of plots
are very complicated and difficult to follow. This may perversely be the point
though it didn't increase my enjoyment of the book. Just about worth reading
though mainly for the Aber connections – I may not bother if there’s a third volume though!
Read by me: 24.4.04-24.6.04
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