Age Is Just A Number

Disclaimer: No financial incentives were sought or offered for this book review. The reviewer purchased their copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.

It occurred to me over the Christmas period that I had rather neglected my reading of Nick Spalding’s books.
 
Nick Spalding is the sort of author you read when you just want to relax and forget about the cares of the world. Instead, you become immersed in someone else’s problems for a while.
 
These aren’t the great problems of the world. There are no epic quests, no fights against dragons, whether real or metaphorical. There may be some fights against metaphorical demons, but they threaten the individual, not the world as a whole.
 
In other words, you don’t need to keep looking out of the window to assess how close the world’s problems are getting.
 
The problems Spalding’s characters face are the sorts of things we may all face in our lives at some point. Sometimes they are 21st century issues, created by our modern world and modern lifestyles, but often they are timeless.
 
So it is with “Old Boys” which is the book I review here.
 
As with all Nick Spalding books, it is written in a light-hearted style. Because this book deals with quite deep emotions, there are darker moments, but generally speaking it is what you might call a gentle comedy. It isn’t meant to keep you either laughing out loud or wide awake at night for fear of what might lurk beneath the bed.
 
But it may make you stop and think a little bit about your own life and the choices you have made. And there is nothing wrong with that.
 
The story is a familiar one. Will Fairweather is feeling depressed after the loss of his mother. It may have been 4 years earlier, but it is still hurting him deeply and affecting the way he lives his life.
 
Frustrated by this his younger wife, Audrey, asks that they separate for a while to give Will a chance to sort himself out. It felt a little heartless to me, which is why I have only given this book 4 stars. I’m not sure that extreme action like that would be the first thing a loving spouse would suggest when their marriage is in trouble, but I guess it was necessary for the rest of the plot to work.
 
There is another reason for only giving the book 4 stars and it is that at several points I felt like giving Will a good slap, because his wallowing in his grief is self-indulgent in the extreme. Perhaps that was why Audrey asked him to move out, as a way of giving him a metaphorical slap.
 
Anyway, needing somewhere to go, Will ends up moving in with his estranged father, who has had no contact with Will for more than 3 decades.
 
Will’s father, Red Fairweather, is the drummer with a prog rock band by the name of Holy Moly who were big in the 70s and 80s, though they are pretty much retired at the time of this story. Those readers who remember the likes of Keith Moon and John Bonham will be familiar with the stereotype drummer that Nick Spalding creates for Red. Spalding even points out the similarities.
 
Several well known rock bands of that era and later are given name checks in the book, though they play only a peripheral part in the actual plot. I suspect that Nick Spalding may be a fan.
 
I think it is safe to say that Red Fairweather doesn’t so much need a family as a combined nanny and psychiatric nurse. He takes it upon himself to try to help Will mend his marriage by “bringing him out of himself” through a series of bizarre adventures. As Red is now in his 70s the scale and danger of these activities is limited, but they are still enough to scare the highly risk averse Will before he has even tried them out.
 
The book progresses along this amiable path, but things take a much more emotional turn in the second half. Here the home truths start to emerge, the family history, the cause of Red’s break up with Will’s mother and a whole lot more.
 
Keep a box of  tissues handy because you will need them.
 
There is an underlying message in the book if you care to listen to it. I won’t reveal what it said to me, but it is a strong one and one which, perhaps, we should all remind ourselves of from time to time.
 
If you have planned your summer holidays for this year this is exactly the sort of book you might like to take along to read by the swimming pool. It may not be high drama, but it will leave you with things to think about.
 
You can find out more about “Old Boys” by Nick Spalding by clicking this link or the book’s cover image.
 
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