- Mayflies, by Andrew O'Hagan. Faber. $29.99.
A novel in two parts, separated by 31 years, the story tells of friendship, growth and obligation. Set in Glasgow, the two main characters, Tully and James ('Jimmy') are good mates, eagerly looking out for each other.
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Tully has a difficult relationship with his father, Jimmy has no relationship at all with his. Indeed, while still a schoolboy, Jimmy's parents leave the home and their son and move to new lives elsewhere.
Tully's mother, Barbara, steps up to the plate, caring for the two boys, with no help at all from her husband. An intimacy grows up between the three of them which will be life-long.
Jimmy, an intelligent and ferocious reader, finds an ally in a teacher who sees his potential and envisages a life for him beyond his own constraints.
The action in the first part of Mayflies revolves around a boys' weekend in Manchester to check out some really magical bands. Taking a bus from Glasgow, with no plans beyond drinking, drug-taking and gigs on two nights, the six boys making up the trip are totally out of control.
Jimmy has by now secured a place at university. During the trip, remarkably, he convinces Tully to return to study at night-school and to ambition for university just like himself.
The scenes of music, drunken parties, sleeping it off in a bus shelter are, indeed, rites of passage. They mark the end of these lads' processes of becoming adult. They do not make wholly pleasant reading.
The novel moves on to show the reader the men the boys had become. Jimmy now lives in London. He is a writer, a quite successful one, the reader concludes. His partner is an actor. Tully teaches in Glasgow, working with disadvantaged kids and making a real difference. His partner is a lawyer.
Disaster disrupts what now seem placid and successful lives. Jimmy must step up to the plate, as Barbara once did, and do all the hard things that the obligations of friendship impose. The bonds between the two men are possibly closer than they ever were as boys.
This second part of the novel is intense, strongly written, wise and very moving. Readers of an age where end-of-life problems loom will be involved with the novel at this point and may find much on which to meditate.
This is powerful writing, deeply felt with contradictions and problems aplenty.
Andrew O'Hagan is a superb novelist with a depth of understanding of the human condition which few writers can rival.
Mayflies is a hard book to read but a really rewarding one. If the point of a novel is to help the reader see life differently, then O'Hagan is succeeded in full measure.