The Boys Are Back - Softcover

Carr, Simon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099547384 ISBN 13: 9780099547389

Publisher: Arrow, 2010

Synopsis

When Simon Carr's wife, Susie, tragically loses her battle with cancer, Simon is left to raise his five-year-old son, Alexander, on his own. Soon after, his eleven-year-old son from a previous marriage, Hugo, comes to live with them too. All too quickly, plumped-up cushions, crisp beds and a drifting scent of rosemary from the kitchen are replaced with a floor piled high with video-games, Lego and comics. While visiting mothers deem his parenting 'semi-feral', Simon dryly retorts that his methods are simply 'free-range'.In this new all-male partnership, Simon faces the challenges of parenthood unaided, as father and sons alike learn to become a family again. Carr's emotionally honest, compellingly anarchic and sharply comic story of a single parent's struggle is at once heartbreaking and wonderfully life-affirming. A beautiful book on the difficulties of single parenting, a must read for those that enjoyed the film. This paperback book has 227 pages and measures: 19.7 x 12.9 x 1.6cm.

About this title

Review:

After Simon Carr's wife Susie finally succumbed to cancers dogged enough to defeat even her fiery spirit, he was left to bring up two sons in a domestic set-up he describes as "free-range" and visiting mothers preferred to call "semi-feral". This account of the rocky path of the lone carer is both moving and hilarious. The "Lost Boys" homestead constitutes a socially anomalous enterprise: a domestic world almost completely devoid of female influence. Carr's daringly innovative strategy could be summed up as "least resistance parenting"; where the golden rule is simply that there are as few rules as possible. But whilst his discoveries expose the often-risible rules that underlie some of our fundamental parenting habits, he also recounts his failures with unflinching honesty. Carr manages to trace the familiar territory of the gender divide without succumbing to the now familiar polarity of writers such as Helen Fielding and Nick Hornby. But despite the originality, emotional honesty and wit that set him apart from the platitude peddlers (although to be fair he does still sling the odd whopper into the pot), his achievement is to be as highly entertaining and readable as the best of them. --Rebecca Johnson

Review:

"Achingly funny and almost unbearably moving" (Daily Mail)

"Carr's brilliantly written account of life as a single parent should become a required manual on parenting" (Sunday Times)

"Both men and women need his confident, politically incorrect but thoroughly realistic assertions." (Independent)

"It's about living life to the full. It's full of everyday observations that are about real life, not just reel life." (Clive Owen Daily Mail)

"Compulsive" (Guardian)

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0099547384
• ISBN 13: 9780099547389
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240