A novel of love and loss and a beautiful friendship.

This is such a beautiful novel about the friendship between Tully and Jimmy, two teenage Scots in the depths of the 80’s. We’re thrust into a world of music and cinema quotes of pure nostalgia.

Fast forward to the present day and these two men, despite their physical distance, remain close but now face a sadness that both brings them closer but will also pull them apart forever.

I absolutely loved this novel. I loved all the cultural references, ranging from Morrissey to Ru Paul’s Drag Race this was right up my street. I’m placing Andrew O’Hagan in my literary love list along with Kerouac and Welsh, as the dynamic between Tully and Jimmy was reminiscent of Sal and Dean’s from my beloved On The Road with their 80’s lifestyle taking me back to Trainspotting.

Touching, tragic and beautiful.

Andrew O’Hagan presents a novel of two halves; firstly, the sheer joy of a group of young men spending a weekend in Manchester in 1986; secondly, concentrating on the narrator and his best friend Tully over a few months thirty years later. I loved the first half of the novel and found it cinematic in a presentation of reckless, joyful friendships and nostalgic cultural references. I found the thirty year gap left a lot of questions for me, I was delighted to find that the friendships had endured but wanted to know more about their lives in the intervening years. A touching novel of friendship and mortality.

They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.

This quotation from Samuel Beckett kept running through my mind as I read this book. I have never read anything that conveyed the ephemerality of life so shockingly, and so brutally - and so beautifully.
The clue is in the title: the Greek for mayfly is ephēmeron. Tully, the narrator’s great friend, acknowledges the appropriateness of the title to describe his brief life. Yet the title is plural. In describing his friend’s brief life, Jimmy becomes aware of his own mortality. ‘You are a human being’, he says to Tully. ‘And that’s an unstable condition that ends badly for all of us’.
The first half of this semi-autobiographical novel describes the weekend of a lifetime, as Tully and friends travel to Manchester for ‘the best gig in history’: a celebration of punk rock to be held at the G-Mex in Manchester. O’Hagan brings the legendary weekend vividly to life: the excess of drinking, the wit of the banter, the passion for radical politics, the sense that music ‘was a thing you inhabited and which defined you’. The weekend, in retrospect, represents the glory and the joy of being young: ‘if we miss it, we might as well be dead’, says Tully.
For Tully, the weekend marks a line between his old life and a new beginning. Trapped in a manual job, aware of ‘the catastrophic consequences’ if his alcoholic, defeated father’s life becomes his, he resolves to go to evening classes and escape from his council estate in Ayrshire through education.
Exactly half way through the novel, we switch to 2017 and middle age. Jimmy receives a phone call from Tully with bad news. Tully demands the unthinkable from Jimmy, now James, a respected critic and writer: he wants James to arrange his wedding, then his death.
For the reader, it is truly shocking: one minute you’re experiencing a manic weekend with a party of young Scottish men with a wild zest for life: the next, you’re experiencing a sedate weekend in Switzerland as Tully prepares to end his life his own way.
As Tully says, ‘One minute you’re skanking all hours to the Specials, chugging cider and snorting speed, then, before you know it, you can’t make it up a daft wee hill’.
I recommend this novel to anyone who doesn’t appreciate that we are all mayflies.
A brilliant piece of work and a tribute to a male friendship that embraces fear and vulnerability.
Through this tribute, Tully lives on. What more can you do for a friend?

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This is definitely one of the best books I have read this year. It touched me, delighted me, amused me. It presents an interesting picture of the British working class, social and economic divisions, a lot of slang and politics; as well as beautiful praise for life and friendship without unnecessary romances and intrigues. In my opinion, this novel is a wonderful representation of the joy of youth, and the realism of maturity.

My problem with this novel was that I failed to relate to the main characters in the first half with the result that their sad story in the second half equally failed to engage me. Jimmy and Tully are young working-class “lads” when we first meet them and the first half of the book follows them and their mates on a wild weekend at a music festival in Manchester with the inevitable alcohol and generally tedious to read about drunken exploits in the big city. We then switch to the present when Jimmy gets a phone call from Tully telling of his approaching death and we accompany the two friends on their last journey together. The book is obviously heartfelt as it is based on O’Hagan’s own experiences with a similar phone call from a friend with a terminal illness. Certainly the second half of the book is more relatable than the first but I wasn’t fully drawn in, not least because the constant male banter irritated me. There are some poignant moments, admittedly, but overall this wasn’t one for me.

O’Hagan's normal group of people live normal, non-glamorized, genuine lives; "Mayflies" is set in 1980s and the nostalgia hits hard in every page, in every dialogue, musical and social context the characters are put in.

I have read two Andrew O'Hagan books in the past, and really enjoyed both, so I was excited to get to this one. Especially as the premise sounded so good. This is the story of Jimmy and his friend Tully, told over two time periods. In the first, we meet the boys in 1986. Jimmy is 18 and about to leave his Ayrshire home to go to uni in Glasgow. His parents have abandoned him, and he spends a lot of time with his best friend Tully and his family. Well, mainly Tully's mother, as his father is an embittered former miner whose decline and disinterest has cast a shadow over Tully's sense of self. He is in his early 20's and working a manual job, but wants more from life and is repulsed by the prospect of becoming his father. We follow the boys and their friends as they travel to Manchester for a music festival, getting to know them in all their political, aspirational and gallus ways. The second half of the book, we meet the boys again. But now they are in their mid-life, and Tully calls Jimmy to deliver some tragic news.

This story is a deep dive into friendship, and how one person can shape and hold your sense of yourself and the world. The friendship between the two men is equal parts touching and hilarious, and O'Hagan captures the mix of exuberance and bravado that shapes young men's relationships with one another, as well as the vulnerability and passion for the future that they can share when a friendship is solid and secure. I don't think I've read such a beautiful male friendship before, and I really loved that this was the core of the story. The second half, in contrast to the jokes and good times of the first, is like a gut punch. A true test of friendship, Jimmy is asked to make and honour a promise. I thought this was handled so sensitively, but without saccharin and with a really realistic portrayal that stayed true to how both men had come across in the first half of the book.

The themes in this book really struck a chord with me, and I really enjoyed this story. Although neither a man nor old enough to have been at a music festival in 1986, I really identified with that conflicted stage of carefree and irresponsible youth whilst being weighed down by the more adult realisations that come at that time of life. And then I really felt the passing of time and the way life throws things at you that you never expected and which test you in ways you'd never invite. A really touching book.

The first half of 'Mayflies' by Andrew O'Hagan tells the story of a group of lads from Ayrshire; negotiating young adulthood during Thatcherite Britain, and partying at a post-punk music festival in Manchester like they never will again. It is full of jokes, music and film references, very few changes of underwear, a whole load of drugs and a huge amount of camaraderie and affection. Tully Dawson is the hero, while Jimmy Collins is the bookish friend who benefits from being in his friends orbit, in the bosom of his family, and acts as the narrator to the novel.

In the second half of 'Mayflies' life has moved on. Jimmy and Tully are in their 50's with careers and more successful relationships than their younger selves deserve. Tully has bad news, and asks Jimmy a favour that he feels obliged to do. Their comic banter continues, alongside the strength of their friendship, but the tone of the second half is more sombre. It contemplates mortality and the place of male friendships, alongside other romantic relationships. Some of the original group of lads have fallen by the wayside, either through death, becoming an adult, or moving to Dubai.

I enjoyed this novel much more than I expected to. I thought it would be impenetrably laddie and possibly (dare I say it) naval gazing. However, I was really drawn into the banter and depiction of male friendship in the first half. In part it reminded me of the conversations I had with my male friends when I was younger. I also appreciated how much I could hear their Scottish voices, particularly when they were in Manchester and it jarred with the locals voices, sometimes with comic effect.

I was initially less drawn into the second half, partly because the voices of Jimmy and Tully didn't seem to change, despite the 30yr age difference. However, as this part progressed I was really drawn in to the novel, and found myself slightly tearful at the end. I would agree with other reviews that this novel really commemorates male friendships and gives them more depth than is often written about.

This is most definitely a book of two halves. In the first half it is 1986; James and Tully and their mates go on a bender in Manchester. Whilst I enjoyed this part, it did feel a little bit derivative in places, like I‘d read it before.

The second half, when Tully rings James with some terrible news, I absolutely adored. It‘s a heartbreaking paean to male friendship, which then made me want to re-read and reflect on the first part again.

#covercrush

Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan is a beautiful novel. The story. a friendship between two men since childhood is beautifully told with an ending that is exceedingly poignant

Mayflies is a moving reflection on the seminal friendships that guide your formative years, binding you to both place and person. O'Hagan writes effortlessly to enwrap you in the lives of Tully and James as they form a unbreakable bond to the end. Readers of a certain age will revel in the shared memories conjured by the pop culture references, but this book should be read by all. A reminder that it is the small things that matter, the family we choose and the loyalty they inspire. Deeply moving, you will smile, laugh and ultimately shed a tear for the characters whose lives undoubtedly reflect much of our own life experiences.

I absolutely LOVED this book. O'Hagan captures the spirit of male, working-class adolescence and youthful friendship brilliantly. His characters are incredible - endearing, authentic, captivating - while his prose is tender and refreshingly well-crafted. This is such a memorable, masterful highlight of working-class storytelling. It will stay with me for a long time.

Tender and evocative are the two words I would use to summarise this story. O'Hagan clearly understands the fragility of friendships as well as how deep the roots of those relationships can run. I enjoyed in particularly reading about the dynamics of male friendships and getting to know these characters as someone who normally reads about female friendships.

The music and setting were also brilliantly executed and added a real depth to the atmosphere of the story, to understand the story you needed the fabric of the society James and Tully were a part of. The descriptions of the bars, pubs, clubs all vivid and brought back memories of being a student. O'Hagan's writing is absorbing and truthful. Quite different from what I normally go for and an enjoyable read.

Most of us will have known at least one Tully Dawson - cheeky, charismatic, fearless, loyal, intelligent, compassionate etc - the perfect mirror image of our own squirming adolescent inadequacies and doubts. We crouch in their shadow while they glide through locked doors, charming the world with a wit and wisdom that protects them from inglorious pummellings and cringing embarrassments. Jimmy Collins, the narrator of Mayflies, is well aware that his vision of Tully is wrapped in romantic illusion yet he has a duty to fuel the myth, and help his friend face terminal illness.
Tully's identification with Arthur Seaton, as played by Albert Finney in the 1960 film of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, prepares us for a tale in two parts - a grimy 80s trip to Manchester in its heyday where a drunken, druggy weekend in a skanky hosteling becomes a legendary heroic odyssey - a touchstone for the enduring friendships as they face the harsh realities of middle aged frailty in the second part. O'Hagan excels in the second part - Jimmy's adherence to a moral code shaped by bedroom Dansette, The Smiths, Joy Division and reruns of the Godfather, clashes with his existence as a successful writer, with a headful of literary references and academic insight. These characters are born from a working class where intelligence and emotions were suppressed - their blossoming is only possible through cultural and emotional release, through music, dance, wildness and the sharing of feelings and dreams, and humour.
This is an incredibly moving study of friendship. Andrew O'Hagan's skilful handling of the story ensures that by the end of the book we all love Tully as much as Jimmy.

(The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

This book wrecked me. Reading the last page was difficult, because I was crying. After that, for a couple of hours, I didn't do anything, just stayed there with my thoughts, ruminating on what I had just read, the story, the characters, the bright intuitions of this novel, its moving earnestness.

On the back cover, Carol Ann Duffy writes "Mayflies is one of those novels to press into the hands of friends", and I couldn't agree more, and I will indeed try to have them read it, even if most of my friends are Italian and, while some of them well acquainted with the English language, I'm pretty sure they're not ready for all the Scottish lingo in the book. So yeah, I hope we can see an Italian translation ASAP.

Andrew O'Hagan is one hell of a talented bloke. His tone is sensitive and yet never sentimental, the themes tackled are deep and they always ring true and meaningful. And the characters, man, they're so realistic that you feel you can call them and invite them out for a pint or two or six, So well-crafted, all of them, even the minor ones.

I'm far from being Scottish, and yet I felt the places where this novel is set were my places, the groups of friends was my group of friends, their social commentary was my social commentary. And yes, I think I have a Tully in my life, and I'll make sure he knows it.

I give this every star all of them. For fuck's sake, I'd give them even more if I could.

This was just lovely, tender and evocative, a story of a friendship I’ll never have. While I liked the first part for the ‘80s references (I’ve stated this before and I’ll do it again if necessary: 1986 was a perfect year, with respect to music and film), and loved its dynamics and urgency, I had problems distinguishing between the guys. Apart from Tully and Jimmy, I couldn’t tell who’s who, I can’t even remember their names, and it’s such a pity, because books focused on groups of friends are one of my favourite things to read.

The second part, though a bit too sentimental at the beginning, grew on me little by little. It makes you face things you might think are too far or too unlikely to happen to you, and I have to admit, I wept a couple of times. And deep down in my heart, I hope they played "The Whole of the Moon" at Tully and Anna's wedding.

This book is filled to the brim with music, film and books references. If you’re a sucker for them, it might be for you. Also, someone should turn it into a film. Oh, and now I’m slightly obsessed with the illustrations from "Ephemeri vita", and I need to browse a copy asap.

Thanks to Faber & Faber for a copy via NetGalley.

1986 and James and Tully are two Glasgow boys who bond over music. Following an epic weekend in which they travel to Manchester to go to a series of gigs the boys vow to change their lives from the dead end council housing and manual jobs of their fathers. 30 years later and Tully calls James to tell him some news, bad news. Friendships like these never fade and the grown men go into an uncertain future together
At times this book dragged and then at other times it soared. I loved the 1980s Manchester section and felt the trajectory towards the end recaptured that joie de vivre but the missing central part bugged me too much!

Tender, evocative and expertly narrated, one part of Mayflies deals with growing up in Scotland in the 1980s while the other, assisting with the death (euthanasia) of a terminal ill dear friend. Andrew O'Hagan's novel is as much a tribute to the character Tully, who is at the heart of the book, as it is a character study and farewell to a friend who, "decides to make death proud." O'Hagan's narration deals with the complex dynamics and pressures involved in deciding one's own fate - Tully entrusts the responsibility of assisted dying to Jimmy to the despair of his own wife Anna. Immensely moving, yet without an ounce of pathos or sentimentality, Mayflies is a brilliantly told novel large portions of which are filled with wonderfully moving dialogues.

3.5, rounded slightly down. This was a deeply moving autobiographical novel about male friendship that stayed on the right side of mawkishness, watching the lifelong relationship between James and Tully as they catapult from their early twenties into their early fifties.

Having loved all of the same 1980s bands as this gang of working-class Scottish lads, I was vicariously thrilled by the novel's first half, which is a (occasionally repetitious) minute-by-minute account their booze-, drug-, and adrenaline-fueled road trip to a music festival in Manchester, where they lurk in record shops, see an amazing live show by The Smiths, and talk their way into the Hacienda club. Beyond the duo of James and Tully, the other guys they hang out with are undifferentiated, and their rants about socialism, bands, movies, and Top Three Lists felt interchangeable.

The second half, set in 2017, is a more somber affair (no spoilers here), but it will definitely make you call up your old college friends to reconnect, and get a bit misty. But I'm unsure whether O'Hagan is sufficiently self-aware to see through the glib and joking banter of his characters as barriers to (or substitutes for?) masculine emotional intimacy, since so much of this novel is fueled by the same hyper-verbal energy at the level of first-person narration.

Especially in the novel's final scenes, as the main duo and their long-suffering wives eat and drink their way across Zurich for one last evening together, I found Tully's forced bonhomie and gallows humor to be a performance of reality-avoidance that just didn't ring true emotionally for me. Maybe O'Hagan is just working too close to the material of his own life, and romanticizing and mythologizing his own past, to see himself, or his best mate, clearly.

Mayflies tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two Scottish lads. It focusses on two specific time periods in their friendship. The first part is set in 1986 when they are young and have their whole life ahead of them. The second part is set in 2017 when one of them has received bad news and needs a favour.

Tully Dawson is a charismatic fellow who always seems to be at the centre of everything and can charm everyone he meets. Jimmy (Noodles) is the quieter friend who loves books. Both are from working class families and are dealing with family issues, as well as growing up in the political and economic climate of 1980’s Scotland. Jimmy is out looking for a job but is conflicted about whether he should continue at school and go beyond his working class upbringing.

The first part of Mayflies is filled with youthful energy and leads up to a big weekend in Manchester for Tully, Noodles and their mates when they go to a concert. This is the one weekend that will always remind them of their youth. The second part of Mayflies continues the friendship theme, but at that point, they are more settled and are dealing with their adult life, relationships, and parents getting older. The friendship of Tully and Jimmy remains strong over the years and they know that the other will always be there for them.

My favourite thing about Andrew O’Hagan’s writing is how he captures the language of the Scottish people and also the Scottish cultural references. So many times when reading this book, I was reminded of phrases that my Glaswegian parents, grandparents and cousins have used. I enjoyed this story of male friendship and it was a very quick-read for me. I will definitely read more of Andrew O’Hagan’s writing.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. #Mayflies #NetGalley