wibble (The Best a Man Can Get - John O'Farrell)

Member Name: triplecthegame

Product:	The Best a Man Can Get - John O'Farrell
Date:	19/12/01 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Laugh out loud moments, Lets your imagination run riot

Disadvantages: Hardly any info on what you're seeing

Comedy books are great for that long train journey aren't they?, well they are if you've just missed your train and you're stuck in the middle of Nottingham station for an hour with nothing to do, see I lead a dual life, one side of me is the poor poor (did I mention poor?) student who can't afford anything, the other is the man who stands at the book-stand picking out which will be his next purchase, at the moment in time that I spotted 'the best a man can get' I was leading the latter life.

*So Whats it all about then?*

Imagine the above scenario of leading a dual life on a bigger scale, imagine you're a married man occasionally with 2 kids and a wife one side of town, struggling to pay the mortgage and secretly hating spending time with your children, whilst discreetly leading the 'lads life' on the other side of town, not waking till early afternoon, paying the paperboy to deliver your newspaper to the end of your bed and having huge long discussions about who can guess which songs next from the opening few bars of the song....... Michael leads this life, hes just hit his thirties and whenever hes asked what he does for a living he tells them hes 'in Advertising' when in all fact all he does is create jingles for the latest adverts, most of the time he lives in a flat with 3 lads who don't want to work so basically won't work.

But then theres the other times when hes living the other side of London with his wife and children, to him young children are boring, but he hides that from his wife as he does his activities at the flat - she knows he lives there but she thinks he toils over his jingles all day till the early hours of the morning, when in actual fact he tries to do as little as possible whilst making the outside world believe that he is actually struggling away at his latest masterpiece and when we say outside world that includes his employers too, when he tells them that he n
eeds a week to get the latest jingle done, he really means it'll take him a day maximum and hes going to fart around for the rest of the week, sometimes going as far as putting the phone down on his family and employers before they've even spoke to him, this is Michaels life and hes happy with it.

But it wouldn't be much of a book if that was it would it?, of course not - theres obviously a tale to tell here - its one of family life, coming of age a little later than usual and learning the hard way that you have responsibilities now, you get to see all of this through Michaels eyes as he plays around with his house-mates whilst acting the perfect family man to Catherine, his wife.

* How does it stand up as a story *

Very good actually, and the style that John O'Farrell has used is not dissimilar to that of Nick Hornby, Michael is your everyday lad, and telling the story through his eyes was probably a wise move on the authors part, if he did it any other way then you wouldn't have got the same affection for Michael as you do in the finished product, you would probably find yourself concerned too much with how Catherine is coping with the children than taking time to notice some of the subtle comedy lines that have been included in the writing of the story.

* Its a comedy, did it make you laugh? *

Definitely, its rare for me to get so engrossed in a book that it actually makes me laugh out loud, but on those fateful train journeys lets just say there were a few strange looks given towards me as I sat giggling away at Michaels latest outlook on life, or his daydreams of what a perfect situation would have been - best example I can give is that of when he realises Catherine has gone into labour and he needs to get to the hospital fast, he hails a cab and in the true writing of the book goes on to tell the tale of how he explained to the driver that his third child was about to be born and he needed a favo
ur as he had no cash but could provide a cheque in a couple of days time, before the driver replied 'Of Course you can, have it on the house I've got 2 littl'uns of me own!'...... of course that never really happened, the driver just told him to 'f**k off' before speeding away, but its that type of daydream that makes the story what it is, it adds to the main character in the story.

* The Characters then?, any good *

Well yes and no, the only one who you really get an insight to is Michael himself, after that you get what snippets of information the author chooses to give out, bits such as how Catherine will always try and wind up anybody and everybody, including Jehovas Witnesses, her parents and Michael, or how Michaels housemates all like to make one of the members of the household a laughing stock for a day, but you never get to know who is behind the names and they seem to blend into the background rather than stand out on their own.

I mean there are moments when you can see a scene unfolding involving Michaels daughter Millie playing with other kids from her area and Michael having to put up with boring chatter from his neighbour about their latest purchase in car, but its never followed up on, and these people just seem to drift in and out of the storyline with no real effect on what you're reading.

* Imagery then? *

Again no, once more O'Farrells opted to tell you very little of what to expect, he describes little things but you never seem to get the whole picture, the personal parts that make it ok, if Michaels walking down a street more often than not I was half expecting just a little bit telling you what was going on in the surroundings, but alas no, you've got to make it all up in your own mind, but surprisingly thats not a bad thing...... its a good thing, because you start to make the thoughts of whats going on yourself, it adds to the individuality of each reader, I may
imagine a dog walking down the street, you may see a cat, and thats where the beauty of this book lies.

* Overall *

Its good, but its not great, the lack of Imagery and character descriptions does let it down a bit, but then it does let you use your own imagination, which is the benefit of reading a book, read it with an open mind and you'll enjoy it, read it with great expectations of a grand tale and you'll be sorely disappointed.

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