How To Live a Double Life (The Best a Man Can Get - John O'Farrell)

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Product:	The Best a Man Can Get - John O'Farrell
Date:	26/06/02 (561 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Packed with humour, Insight into men's behaviour?

Disadvantages: Some humour is poor

After finishing a couple of books that I had taken on holiday with me, I was forced to turn to the reading material that my girlfriend had taken. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it at all, as she normally likes girly books like those written by Maeve Binchy.

So, that is how I came to read John O'Farrell's 'The Best A Man Can Get'. The front page shows a goldfish jumping from one fish tank, across the skyline of London (including the River Thames), and towards another fish tank on the other side. There is a quote by India Knight on the cover saying 'Howlingly funny, madly well-written, ruthlessly observed' - which seems like an overuse of adverbs to me, and besides, I don't even know who this India Knight person is.

The book is about an advertisement jingle writer called Michael Adams, who is leading a double life. His family home is in North London, where he lives with his wife and two small children. Michael wasn't ready to have children, and he finds them not only exhausting work, but 'boring'. Don't get him wrong though, he loves them dearly, but he wasn't ready to sacrifice his life by letting a baby and a toddler take over his world. He resents the way that his wife seems to spend every minute thinking about their children, and doesn't appear to have any time left for him. Yet when he tries to get involved in their care, he is made to feel like a failure. He doesn't seem to be able to get anything right from mixing up the baby's milk (he should have used a knife to level off the powder in the measuring spoon!) to the angle that he holds the baby's bottle at. There's always something that his wife is moaning at him for. So, as his wife seems to be coping so well on her own, and he is being made to feel miserable, Michael thinks that he should spend some time away from his family home, in the interests of his marriage, of course.

Michael's wife thinks tha
t the room he rents in a South London flat is purely used as studio. A place where he stores his instruments and recording equipment, and spends hours working on various projects - he is, after all, a musician. In fact, Michael is working so hard, and such long hours, that sometimes he has to sleep over, and won't go home for a few days. In truth, he is doing as little work as possible, just enough to get by, while living a relaxing life with three other blokes in their late twenties. He sleeps in until the afternoon, plays computer games and trivia quizzes, and escapes from the traumas of a crying baby in the middle of the night.

Michael Adams has one life north of the river, and one life to the south. Just a few miles apart, yet a whole different world. Inevitably his double life is exposed, and the consequences are far reaching.


This book is a supposed to be a comedy. It is full of humour, crammed onto every page almost. How funny you find it may well depend upon your sex. My girlfriend found it hilarious and was laughing out loud in places (very embarrassing when you're lying out by the pool!). From a woman's perspective, she found it an amusing look at how men think and feel. John O'Farrell writes it in a manner whereby Michael seems to be making a joke out of some of the 'normal' behaviour traits of men. Maybe I personally could relate too well to the shortcomings of men, but I found myself despairing at some of the humour. I felt that the author had gone for an all or nothing response. You were either going to find the jokes hilariously funny, or you would grimace at what were some appallingly poor punchlines. Unfortunately, I found myself doing the latter all too often.

Humour however, is the big selling point of this book. The back cover has quotes from reviews by The Mirror, The Times, Literary Review and India Knight (again!) singing the praises of the humour that John O'Farrell u
ses. Of course, what people find funny is very subjective, and you and I will probably differ. One of the funniest moments early on in the book is when Michael Adams is portraying his relationship with his wife before his children were born;

"Once Catherine and I went on holiday with another couple, and on the last night we heard them nonchalantly chatting about us through the wall. They were saying they could never be married to anyone as peculiar as Catherine or me. They thought that our relationship was completely weird. Then we heard her muffled voice saying, 'Are you coming to bed or what, because this clingfilm's making my tits sweat.' And then we think he said, 'All right. Hang on, the zip's stuck on my wetsuit.' Every marriage is bizarre if you look under the surface."


The character of Michael Adams is portrayed well, and you really feel like to get you know what he is about and why. This is exceedingly important as it is written in a narrative style, but it does mean that other characters do not get described so well. This results in you feeling that you don't really have a good insight into Catherine (Michael's wife). Perhaps this is inevitable. The story line is simple and uncomplicated initially, and the humour occurs in abundance. Towards the end, after Michael is exposed, the humour lessens, as the plot thickens. And as Michael has to learn his lesson in life, it seems like the reader is trying to be educated, too. There are some unexpected twists at the end which help to maintain interest.

All in all, I felt that this book was more suited for the female of the species. It will give them a chance to chuckle and nod in agreement at some of the behaviour traits of men. But to any chaps that buy the book for their better halves, then it is also worth a read once they've finished with it.

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