Little black book (Man and Wife - Tony Parsons)

Member Name: kirstymack80

Product:	Man and Wife - Tony Parsons
Date:	18/10/04 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Darth Vader's on the front cover

Disadvantages: Harry's annoying

As I’d read ‘Man and Boy’, it only seemed fair that I read the sequel and found out the latest exploits of our friend, Harry Silver.

The cover of the book is pretty eye catching – completely black with a mini Darth Vader (red light sabre clutched in left hand - was DV left handed?!) and his pretty dolly bride with curly hair. I guess this is partly what drew me to it, but as I’d read a couple of his other books I thought it would be a pretty safe bet that I’d enjoy it.

On the inside cover is a photo of Tony Parsons and a few words about him saying that he was a regular guest on BBC TV's 'Late Review' for six years. He's a columnist for The Mirror and has written for a host of other publications.

* Plot *

Well Harry Silver is marrying his American bride, Cyd. This is his second marriage, his first having fallen apart in 'Man and Boy', after he cheated with a female colleague. This book centres on him being a 'Sunday Dad' to his son Pat, something which Harry isn't overly happy about, especially as Cyd has a daughter, Peggy, who lives with them. Harry would ideally like Pat to live with them but he lives with Gina, Harry's ex.

Parsons writes as Harry, and the reader is expected to sympathise and indeed agree with every little thing Harry does. For example at the beginning of the book Harry decides to be spontaneous and take Pat on a trip to France, after Pat tells him that his friend has been there. Not wanting to be outdone, old Harry whisks him off on the Eurostar and they have a fun filled day in Paris. Homeward bound there’s Eurostar trouble (really?!) and they arrive home very late, by which time Gina is absolutely frantic. A row ensues when Richard (Gina’s new husband) gets involved. Harry genuinely doesn’t see that he’s done anything wrong. Err – hello! Taking a kid to another country and not telling your ex-wife? I’m thinking that’s always going to lead to an argument!

Another example of how annoying Harry is – after this incident Gina tells him that they are moving to New York as Richard has a new job. Harry kicks off – he’s angry at the thought of losing Pat and being so far away from him. Instead of calming down he marches into a business meeting Richard is conducting in a restaurant and punches his lights out in front of his colleagues. Hmm, so Harry’s a real mature guy then! It’s pretty hard to sympathise with this guy when he just comes across as an idiot.

All the while Harry is telling us how he loves Cyd. Only Cyd’s a career gal. She’s got a catering business which she loves. Any guy would be happy to have her at home, she’s gorgeous, legs up to *here* and cooks too! But no, Harry starts to resent her. When Gina and her family vacate their house, Harry goes around. There he meets Kazumi, a Japanese friend of Gina’s who is house sitting.

Warning bells started for me here. Harry isn’t exactly a ‘one woman man’ whatever he tells himself. He starts dropping by and seeing Kazumi, although she doesn’t encourage him. Why oh why are we supposed to feel sorry for this guy when he’s clearly not learned a dang thing since his last fling? (oops that rhymes).

So Pat is now in Noo York and Harry is bored. Cyd’s working hard and even his mum is having a better time than he is, she’s learning to line dance with her male friend, Tex! Harry doesn’t like him. Harry’s dad died 2 years ago and he doesn’t like ANY man befriending his Ma. Then things turn a bit sad – his Mum tells him she has breast cancer. This bit is genuinely moving and one thing Tony P does well is describing what he feels. ‘The really bad times, the worst times of all’.

Harry starts seeing Kazumi, Cyd knows something’s not right and moves into the spare room. Neither of them want to admit there are problems but in the end Cyd leaves, calmly (still without realising he's seeing another woman). Cyd tells him that marriage was never meant to make him feel trapped. It was supposed to ‘set him free’.

I won’t tell you the ending but that’s the general gist of things. The characters are believeable. Harry has a wandering eye – maybe guys would have a different perspective on this book but I'm going to say I did like it, although I found Harry just tried too hard and ended up becoming most tiresome! There was nothing actually wrong with his relationships but he analyses everything to death and ends up convincing himself things could be better with someone else.

The character has his faults but the writing is good. If you don’t like Harry then Tony Parsons must be writing about him well for you to feel that way! As a dad Harry Silver does his best with Pat and Peggy and there are some genuinely funny moments in this book as well as terribly sad ones. I guess the ending is soppy and sugary but it certainly isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read! I read it in 3 days on holiday so managed to read large chunks at a time. It's only 297 pages.

I’ll carry on with Tony Parsons’ books. I just hope he doesn’t continue this particular story line because no doubt the next book will feature Harry Silver having yet ANOTHER fling! Yawn.

Find out if everyone lives Harrily ever after.

I’m going to be a bit mean with my stars because usually I’m SO nice about everything I write about! It’s 3 stars as that’s a fair, sit on the fence type of average rating!

RRP £6.99 – it’s been around a while now and I have seen it in charity shops. Always worth a look on Amazon and Ebay too.

Thanks for reading.

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