You rarely come across a novel in which the central character is a nearly fifty-year-old male having a midlife crisis. One would think it’s not a very relatable experience, but after reading Robert Graham’s The Former Boy Wonder you may just change your mind. Graham provides a refreshing perspective on the mid-life crisis, striking a perfect balance between the legitimacy of the experience while also comically portraying their potential irrationality.
Graham’s novel recounts the psychological turmoil of fifty-year-old Peter Duffy, as the narrative weaves in and out of Manchester in both the twenty-first century and the eighties. If you don’t know Manchester the setting may fail to pack the punch, but there are an array of cultural references cushioned into the novel to effectively set the scene. From Ziggy Stardust to a Nutribullet, Graham perfectly captures the period you have been catapulted into.
Cultural references are closely linked to characters in Graham’s novel. They trigger memories and emotional responses that nurture the journey. It all begins with an invitation from Duffy’s old university friend Claire, for her fiftieth birthday. He is swallowed up by the ambiguity of the letter. All he can think about is: will Sanchia Page be there? Despite having a wife and a child he loves dearly, Duffy cannot seem to get over his first love Sanchia. It seems inevitable from this description that the reader will not get along with Duffy. Nonetheless, from the beginning, you cannot help but root for Duffy, that he will work his way through the conflict. Duffy is the perfect tragic hero!
The intensity and obsessiveness of first love from the perspective of a middle-aged man again is something quite unique — but also wholly relatable. Do we ever really get over our first love? Graham does a fantastic job of portraying Duffy as human and vulnerable. You cannot hate or blame anyone for their behaviour in this novel. There are no villains, just fallible human beings. Fatherhood is a prevailing theme, as Duffy’s father is introduced as a villain who walked out on his son. Then the enemy who attempts to steal the life Duffy is building for himself at university. And finally, with the love and support of the individuals around him, Duffy comes to realise that his father was only doing what he had to do to survive.
The issue with Duffy is that he is a “hopeless fantasist”. He could never just see what was happening in front of him, he had to spin a plethora of stories to render his life more complex. Nonetheless, the title says it all: The Former Boy Wonder. This midlife crisis is more than a moment of melodrama. It is about exploring the past and letting go of beliefs that are only destructive to your life.
I certainly did not expect to relate to a fifty-year-old male as a female in her twenties, but perhpas that was Graham’s intention. Duffy is presented as having no idea about other people that live in the world, but Robert Graham sure does and he wants his reader to have a glimpse into this life. His novel The Former Boy Wonder is a generous look at a middle-aged man trying to make sense of the chaos around him.
Words by Georgia McInnes
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