This review gives away major plot details.

Tony Parson’s Man and Boy. This is a book I read. Now that is a mediocre opening, but I believe it suits the topic at hand, namely said book. I love having a good book to look forward to reading, it’s one of life’s great pleasures to know you have a real page turner waiting for you. I also find myself slogging through some books, just to get to the end. I always think it will get better. Sometimes so, sometimes not. But I’m usually willing to take the chance. Such is how it was with Man and Boy.

Man and Boy focuses on 1)Man – Harry Silver, an almost 30 year old man having a premature mid-life crisis, and 2)Boy – his son Pat, a four year old with a passion for all things Star Wars. Harry is a man who has a wife (Gina) he loves, a job he’s good at but in an insecure field, and a habit of analyzing the life out of everything possible. He also has a son he loves, but in something of a peripheral manner, a stereotypical portrayal of an out of touch father who leaves all the daily care to his wife. Harry’s unstable job and mid life crisis collide on one fateful night when he makes a mistake that destroys his comfortable little world. His wife leaves him, taking Pat, only to leave the country soon after, with the understanding that she will get Pat when she’s settled.

So here we have our scenario, an uninvolved father who is suddenly thrust into the position of primary care giver to a small child. Sound familiar? It should, it’s Kramer vs. Kramer, for crying out loud. I checked the copyright date, the book is only three years old, but there are so many similarities (Dad can’t cook, loses his job, child injured in an accident, Dad gets better at caring for child, Dad realizes how much he treasures child, custody gets messy when wife returns, one parent makes sacrifice for good of child) that the reader has a continuous sense of deja-vu. Yes, I’ve given away some major details, but we’ve all seen the movie, you can see the plot points coming from a mile away.

The story is padded out with an engaging subplot involving Harry’s relationship with his aging parents. His relationship, especially with his father, is fully developed and quite touching. A less engaging subplot involves a new relationship in his life, but at its core (and well beyond) this book ripped off a movie. Had it been the basis for the movie, it would have been fun to read about those things that are always lost in the translation from page to screen, but as it is, I just kept thinking, over and over; this is Kramer vs. Kramer, this is Kramer vs. Kramer. The author actually references the film toward the end of the book, with Harry’s divorce lawyer telling him “this isn’t Kramer vs. Kramer”, but, well, yeah it is.

The book is not an entirely unpleasant read, despite this glaring flaw, with Harry well developed. The story is told in first person, so we get his thoughts and feelings, not always laudable, but honest. Harry is not portrayed as perfect, nor is his wife, or any of the other peripheral characters. They are all well drawn and believable, they just need to be in a different story.

Overall, I can’t recommend Man and Boy. Tony Parsons writes engaging characters that are honest and believable, but this cannot overcome the “been there, done that” story. I am definitely willing to take a chance on Parsons other novels, One for my Baby (out in hardcover) and Man and Wife (coming out in 2003). Hopefully he will use his talent in a more original story.






Recommended: No