Man and Boy
A Novel
by Tony Parsons
List Price: $12.00
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0743225082
Publisher: Scribner
Tony Parsons, who had just turned twenty-nine when he was granted custody of his four-year-old son, is one of the most well-known writers in England. Man and Boy, his first novel, has sold nearly one million copies worldwide. He lives in London.
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BCR: What made you decide to write Man and Boy?
Tony: I had reached a point in my life where I glimpsed the big picture for the first time -- how we neglect important the important things -- love, family, our parents and our children -- for the fools gold of success, money, and ambition. My mother was dying of cancer when I wrote the book, and my son, who I had brought up alone since he was four years old, was now a teenager and becoming a young man. I wanted to write a book that would honor the love I feel for my parents and my son. A critic said that Man and Boy was, "a love letter from a father to his son, and a son to his father," and that's the way it was conceived.
BCR: What was the most difficult part of writing a book based on such personal aspects of your life?
Tony: Every novel is a mixture of experience and imagination. Certainly Harry's story has much in common with my own -- war hero father, first marriage breaks up after one night stand, young dad, then young single dad, then unemployed and looking for love -- but when you write such a personal book -- and nothing has the power of a true story -- you have to reach out to the rest of the world.
BCR: While you were writing this novel did your ideas about father/son relationships change at all?
Tony: I came to appreciate my dad and my son more -- to see them with love, and to understand that the love was unconditional and would always be there. Sometimes our families get on our nerves to such a degree that we lose sight of the fact that we actually like these people!! I grew to feel blessed to be the son of my father, and the father of my son.
BCR: What do you hope readers take away with them after they've read this?
Tony: I hope they see a little glimpse of their own lives in there. When people stop me in the street, they say "your novel made me call my mum." Or "your novel made me remember my dad." Or "your novel made me take my kids in my arms and kiss them goodnight, instead of worrying about what was going to happen at the office tomorrow." Most of all I would like them to have the two reactions that seem most common with Man and Boy -- I would like them to laugh and cry. You can't go far wrong with laughter and tears, because it comes close to reflecting what it's like to be alive on this planet.
Excerpted from Man and Boy © Copyright 2009 by Tony Parsons. Reprinted with permission by Scribner. All rights reserved.
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