I thought Mayflies was outstandingly good. It is involving, exceptionally well written, touching, amusing and profound.
It’s a book of two halves. The first, set in 1986, is the story of a group of teenagers from Southern Scotland and their friendship, as they first plan and then actually go to a weekend of gigs in Manchester, the centre of the pop musical world at the time. Narrated by Jimmy, it is primarily concerned with his friendship with Tully which is brilliantly evoked, but also with the way in which a group of young men bond and interact. Although my teenage musical heyday was a little before this, I found the sense of its excitement and the relationships within the group incredibly well painted and extremely evocative. I loved the way Andrew O’Hagan writes about it; it is readable, engrossing and has some wonderfully evocative passages – including the final sentence of this part of the narrative where they go for an illicit swim after an inspiring weekend: “The water was cold, but it soon warms up when the boys are made of sunshine.”
Thirty years later, we have the story of the dying of one of the characters. Again, it is superbly done; O’Hagan catches many of the poignancies which anyone who has been close to a dying loved one will recognise, but never strays into sentimentality. The dilemmas and difficulties of loyalty are there, too, as are both the comfort and sadness of long friendship coming to an end. It’s a masterpiece of perception, honesty and the acceptance of the almost impossible choices facing both the dying and those who are close to them. Again, O’Hagan catches so much in some brilliant passages and sentences – and the section where there is a reunion of friends is quite exceptional, I think, including things like one of the original group who has drifted away onto a different path: “No one could accuse him of living in the past. He wiped the past off his new shoes and called it success.”
I don’t often rave quite so unreservedly over a book, but this is one of the best things I have read for a long time. Very, very warmly recommended.
(My thanks for Faber and Faber for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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