The Former Boy Wonder - Robert Graham Blog Tour

‘With his 50th birthday approaching and his career in tatters, Peter Duffy is hard at work trying to

 repair his marriage when an invitation arrives in the post. Caitlin, one of his university friends, is having a party at the country house where he met his first love, the exotic Sanchia Page. If all his old friends are going to be there, there’s a slim chance that – just maybe – she will, too. Faced with this possibility, re-living his time with Sanchia threatens to turn his head and ruin all his good intentions. Set in the new Manchester of the 21st century and the old Manchester of 25 years before,

The Former Boy Wonder takes a wry look at mid-life men and the women who have to live with them.’

 I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It took me through a range of emotions, made me laugh, made me cry and made me think. But I believe I also enjoyed it because of my age, and my affinity with many of the cultural and musical allusions. Music is such a memory trigger, reading a book like this set my heart scuttling down some overgrown memory pathways which was good. I also loved the film script type extracts that were scattered through the narrative, usually at some incredibly poignant moment and seemed to express the situation so aptly that it was the perfect technique to use.

The story is about Peter Duffy,  Belfast born and then studying in Manchester where he settles as a music journalist. As the story begins he is approaching 50 years of age. If you’re keen for a genre or desire to compartmentalise then I guess this is the story of a midlife crisis. Peter receives an invitation which both promises and/or threatens to open up a past which initially we know little about but by the end of the book we know all. 

The title refers to the passion both Pete and his teenage son, Jack, have for the super heroes of DC and Marvel comics but I saw something of a metaphor about someone becoming aware of their self, grappling with being a son, a spouse and a parent and forced to question how all that’s happened has brought him to this point in his life. And somehow we know that the party invitation will be pivotal. The person you thought you were may not be the person that you actually are now.

It’s a first person narrative told purely from Peter’s perspective. Yet it’s clear that wife, Lucy, and son, Jack, not to mention Peter’s friends, would have a different viewpoint of the past and the present. I loved the relationship he has with his friends, friendships fostered from student days and endured through adult life. There’s something deeply satisfying about being with people who know you so well. I got the sense that Bill and Caitlin possibly knew Peter a lot better than he knew himself. 

It’s a very poignant story particularly for those of us who can identify with some aspects of the journey that Pete has been on, unrequited love, eroding career paths and filled with a sense of ‘what ifs’. I enjoyed the author’s style; it was accessible and relatable with a hefty punctuation of realism. The conclusion was very mildly enigmatic but offered more hope than hopelessness. 

My thanks to Isabel Kenyon and Lendal Press for a copy of this book and an opportunity to share my thoughts on a blog tour.

 Robert Graham is the author of the novel Holy Joe; the short story collections The Only Living Boy and When You Were a Mod, I Was A Rocker; and the novella A Man Walks Into A Kitchen. His play about fans of The Smiths, If You Have Five Seconds To Spare, was staged by Contact Theatre, Manchester. He is co-author, with Keith Baty, of Elvis – The Novel, a spoof biography; and, with Julie Armstrong, Heather Leach, Helen Newall et al, of The Road To Somewhere: A Creative Writing Companion; Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Creative Writing; and How To Write A Short Story (And Think About It). He grew up in Northern Ireland and for most of his adult life has lived in Manchester. He teaches Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University. For more information please see www.robertgraham.life and follow Robert on Instagram @robert55graham