Man and Boy by Tony Parsons

The novel man and boy written by Tony Parsons is a heart warming, at times frustrating book about a fathers fight for his son. The novel is told from the perspective of Harry. He was a man who had it all. A successful job in the media, a gorgeous wife named Gina and a lovely son called Pat, but in one carless action, threw it all away. Throughout this novel, I found there was the strong idea demonstrated that, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Another idea that I found interesting was the theme about love, about learning when to love, and when to let go.

You don’t know what you’ve got, until it’s gone. Harry Silver demonstrated this theme from the first paragraph, until the end of the novel. “From the moment I had scene that car I knew i wanted to drive around with some special person by my side. Now I saw with terrible clarity that the special person had always been Gina”. This was thought by the main character Harry after Gina, his wife had left him after discovering a one night stand he had with a work colleague. I found this theme common, yet intriguing, and relatable. At times, this theme irritated me. I found myself loathing the main character, as I knew his actions would cause great consequences to his life. Yet, I found that those exact actions were the ones that made the novel realistic. I found that this theme was what made the novel believable. For me it dulled down the cheesiness of writing a book about the loving relationship between a father and son. Harry’s mistakes made the novel realistic. By the main character messing up and losing something good in his life, it made it relatable for me as the audience. Growing up in New Zealand in a small loving home, we often got told this popular saying that you don’t know what you’ve got until it is gone. I never really knew what I meant until experiencing it for myself. This novel reminded me