Christopher Hart
Modern Manhood
THE NARRATOR OF Tim Lott's fierce new novel begins by ruminating about the opposite sex. Not the 'other' or the 'different' sex, he points out. The opposite. 'As in diametrically opposed.' From then on the tension never lets up.
Daniel Savage is a bedsit-dwelling fortysomething. He works in advertising, and has recently been divorced from a horrendous first wife called Beth. Beth, inevitably, has custody not only of most of his money, but also their six-year-old daughter. With grim determination, Daniel sets about dating again, reeling from evenings of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'What Bower brings sharply into focus here is how lonely Johnson is, how dependent on excitement and applause to stave off recurring depression.'
From the archive: Michael White analyses the life and leadership of Boris Johnson.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/crisis-what-crisis-3
'Sometimes, dragons’ greed can have comic consequences, including indigestion. We read the 1685 tale of the dragon of Wantley, whose weakness is, comically, his arse. The hero delivers a lethal kick to the dragon’s behind, and the dragon dies.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/terrors-of-the-sky
'We must all "shoot down the canard", McManus writes, that the World Cup is going to a nation "that doesn’t know or appreciate the Beautiful Game".'
Barnaby Crowcroft on the rise of Qatar.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/full-of-gas