The Best a Man Can Get

Easy and entertaining read, with some acute (though unoriginal) observations about marriage and new parenthood. Too tidy at the end, despite attempts to throw in some surprises. Seems too much as if written for film/TV adaptation.

I read this because I found it under the bed of a holiday cottage. I wonder if the owner deliberately ditched it or was sorry to leave it behind?

Michael Adams loves his wife and his two children very much. But he also loves his own space, and that's why he spends a lot of time in his flat which he shares with three other men, where he can be as lazy as he likes, do the odd bit of work, and then go home to his family when he wants to spend time with them. It's not that he doesn't like being with them - it's just that he finds being a father is so demanding. Michael thinks that his arrangement allows him the best of both worlds...but his wife Catherine doesn't know about his other life. She thinks that when he is away from home, he is working hard earning money to support his family. It all works fine, until inevitably Catherine finds out what he's really been doing when he's not show more at home...

I loved this book. Told from Michael's point of view, it was very believeable and touching - and it was also laugh out loud funny, with a good giggle on almost every page. The funny moments are mainly due to Michael's attempts to keep his secret life hidden from his family, and there are many near misses.

Although Michael behaves in a less than admirable way, he is a very likeable character. He is also very well drawn, as are the other characters including the peripheral ones. There are many touching moments, especially where Michael examines the reasons why he feels the way he does about fatherhood.

His wife is also a hugely likeable character, and her sense of frustration at her husband's absences (even when she believes that he is genuinely working) are very well depicted.

The writing flows easily and kept me turning the pages. It certainly caused me to stay up late on a few nights, because I kept thinking "just a few more pages." The story had a surprising twist at the end, which I genuinely did not see coming.

I've read - and enjoyed - John O'Farrell's non-fiction before now, and this was the first time I had read his fiction. It certainly won't be the last. I now intend to seek out all other books by this author! Highly recommended. show less

"I had spent my childhood doing what my parents wanted to do and now my adulthood seemed doomed to be spent doing what my children wanted to do."

Narrator and central character Michael Adams is a 32 year old freelance jingle writer living in north London with a wife and two young children to support. Michael is disillusioned with work and the demands of family life where he feels constantly undermined by his wife, Catherine. On the pretence that he can no longer work from home, he decides to share a flat in south London with a group of bachelors. Thus creating himself a double life. In one he is a free and single young man who spends most of his day lounging in bed, going to parties or taking part in trivia quizzes with his flatmates. show more Then at the weekend he returns home to domesticity and parenthood with all the trials and tribulations which that engenders. Neither his flatmates or his wife knows about the duplicitous life he is leading.

Michael initially believes that Catherine copes with the children much better when he is not about and that he is a better husband by staying away throughout the week returning home well rested and thus more jovial at the weekend. He doesn't notice that Catherine is in reality putting on a front and is struggling with the harsh demands of motherhood with a stay away partner. Michael eventually comes to realise that his double life is having a financial and an emotional cost on his family so decides to move out of the flat and back home permanently. However, in the meantime Catherine discovers his secret and leaves home herself with the kids. Michael finally wakes up to what being a father really entails. He himself had grown up without one as his own had run off with a series of women when Michael was young. This at least gives some mitigating background to Michael's own behaviour whilst at the same time giving the tale a little added substance.

On the credit side there is a restless energy and a pleasing ironic style throughout along with some rather clever ideas. It is a well observed, if grossly exaggerated, piece of work about the differences between the stay at home home-maker and the going out to work partner with their excuses to not rushing home at the end of the working day.

However, on debit side I felt that far too long was often spent on delivering one single joke meaning that many of the gags missed the mark and whilst I might have read this with a smile on my face I didn't laugh out loud.

This is undoubtedly a lads' mag sort of novel, light and none too demanding, ideal for a long flight/train journey, or something to peruse whilst sipping sangria beside a pool somewhere and as such will help fill a certain void. It isn't by any means a bad novel, it is not one that will probably live long in the memory either. show less

A cross between Tony Parsons and Ben Elton, this story follows the double-life of Michael Adams who spends part of the week living with his wife and young family, and the rest of the time living with a bunch of single blokes in a rented flat, sleeping until mid afternoon and behaving like a student. It helps of course that he has a job in which he can choose his own hours. Naturally his wife is unaware of the arrangement (she thinks he's working away) and his flatmates have no idea he is married with kids.

Despite all the laddish antics, I found Michael quite a sympathetic character - his description of the drudgery of early parenthood is entirely accurate. It was hard to blame him for wanting to escape from it. And of course it was show more massively funny throughout.

The only dip in entertainment value for me was the mandatory moment in which our errant hero Sees The Light. It was always going to happen and when it did it was buttock-clenchingly trite. What a relief, then, that there was still plenty of humour, as well as a twist or three up the author's sleeve after that point show less

Songwriter Michael Adams has the perfect life. A beautiful wife ; two wonderful children and a third on the way ; and the best of both single and married life. You see, he has created a way to spend several nights and days per week away from home living in an apartment on the other end of London. He sees his wife and children just enough to enjoy them when he wants while not having to deal with the children when he doesn't.

But his "perfect" life proves illusory when the single life and family life can no longer coexist happily. What is perfect for Michael is not so perfect for the wife he loves more than anything else in the world. Michael is forced to make a choice and learns some lessons along the way.

John O'Farrell's debut novel is a show more British romp through the challenges of fathering and its inherent dangers to marriage. What makes this tale stand out, however, is its whole-hearted portrayal of family's importance in a man's life. Men, married or no, are most often portrayed as philandering, sex-obsessed and unfaithful to their spouses and families. But, from the start of this book, protagonist Adams is a loyal family man.

Unfortunately, O'Farrell dampens this message with sexual material that is too explicit for this otherwise light romp. Michael Adams captures my viewpoint perfectly when he muses, "I didn't disapprove of sex, but Hugo talked with such contempt about the women he had seduced that it almost left as bad a taste in my mouth as it must have done for them." The vulgarity and sparse but prurient content of this book leave me with a sour aftertaste.

That complaint aside, this is a wonderful book. It reads as though destined to become a movie. Not surprising given O'Farrell's background in screenwriting. But only purists will be bothered because this book is funny and poignant at the same time. Sudden surprise twists keep the reader on his toes and lead to an ending that ties up loose ends and finishes with a pleasant gasp. show less

I found this novel aggravating at the beginning, but enjoyable by the end. For me the key theme was about what real love was - his conclusion seemed to be that putting up with the boring bits of people is what it is all about.

Read this as a teenager. I remember being shocked that the main character managed to lead two lives. I hated that he cheated on his wife and his general attitude but there were some funny lines.