One for My Baby

Rating:
Summary: So-so.
Review: "One for My Baby" written by Tony Parsons centers around Alfie, an English as Second Language instructor who has to deal with the tragic loss of his wife, Rose. Alfie returned to Britain after residing with Rose in Hong Kong for several years. Without Rose, Alfie never seem to fit in and frequently wallowed in self-pity. On top of that, his family was torn apart when Alfie's father left his wife for a younger woman.

I read "One for My Baby" after reading "Man and Boy" which I was very impressed. I didn't enjoy "One for My Baby" because I feel that the story seems to drag itself. At times, the main character Alfie seems to be forever wallowing in self-pity and after 50 pages or so, it can get tiring. Regardless of that, the Tony Parsons's writing is still remarkable and he has the ability to make his readers identify with his characters.

Rating:
Summary: Similar to Nick Hornby's writing
Review: I haven't read Man and Boy, but it sounds like it may be better than this one. I enjoyed this one, though. It sort of reminded me of Nick Hornby's About a Boy in parts, although the two main characters aren't very similar.

I gave it three stars because there probably are better books around, but if you happen to find yourself with this one in hand, it's not a bad read. There are some good characters in the book (the Chinese family who run the restaurant, The main character's parents and grandmother, the foreign students at the Churchill Language School, Plum and her obnoxious classmates, etc.)

To wrap up, I liked it enough that I was willing to do enough research to track down Man and Boy, another book by the same author. I guess that's a reasonably decent recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Well written character study
Review: Language teacher Alfie Budd leaves Hong Kong after several years there to return home to London fueled by grief for a lost loved one. However, London may swing, but no where near the way Alfie remembers the town. Everything is different, but mostly his parents act strangely. Alfie thought they shared a loving relationship, but now his father piteously discos with a foreign au pair younger than his son while his mother has a love affair with her rose garden.

Stunned, Alfie fears he will never capture what he once had in Hong Kong so he wanders through meaningless sexual encounters with his students (once a taboo, but more acceptable in this amoral 1993 London). As Alfie wonders about living without love, he descend deeper into a cesspool of immorality that gives him no solace except through the wizened teachings of Mr. Chang.

Alfie is a solid center of this well written character study that leads to fans feeling empathy towards the lead protagonist still suffering from his loss and coping through hollow encounters. The secondary cast enables the readers and Alfie to see that life without love is empty. ONE FOR MY BABY raises philosophical issues of how to live (not just survive) and forge or keep relationships after a loved one dies yet the entertaining story line fails to truly respond to the concerns posed by Tony Parsons; thus readers will ask what's it all about Tony?

Harriet Klausner