The hypnotic cover of Leo Robson's The Boys caught me on this one, as well as the relationship between brothers living on two sides of the Atlantic. The male protagonist is lonely, unmotivated, a little needy, kind, generous but stuck in a rut, living a life that's not yet removed from his old student days. Satirical and humorous since I read this novel as a presentation of the dangers of prolonging student lazy living, especially in a metropolitan city that doesn't help with low-key frugality.

I was intrigued to read from a male author offering a character-driven, seemingly very literary novel without a firm direction towards any particular genre. As in, this seems to be a perfect example of what Men's Fiction should be, if we compare with its equivalent Women's Fiction. The novel includes certain intricacies of young male lives, the relationship issues and concerns that crop up when characters meet old flames, friends, estranged siblings, family and haunts from the past. 

I loved the London setting and a lot of this novel reads as familiar to me, having grown up in Kent, very close to London and its environs. 
The opening of this novel is uninspiring though, which is a shame and unfortunately does set up much of the rest of the novel to be a slowly filtered collection of experiences, meetings and conversations.

As a literary fiction reader and knowing Leo Robson to have been one of the Booker Prize judges in 2018, the mundane and unexciting scenes made me suspicious for more! I read vibes of anarchy and the novel's style could be compared with that of The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton. Its underlying subtle social commentary on London living (and Londoners) was brilliant! 

This is a novel that possibly needs to be deconstructed to be fully appreciated and to some extent understood. Is it existentialist? Does its style include meta-fiction? Is London meant to be a sort of speculative fantasy world? I would even be as direct to say that it's a story that's written very much with cinematic TV episodic TV series sequencing and style, with an eye on a screenplay future? The characters are a great diverse selection of people who represent the nature of expatriate, privileged Londoners. 

The specificity of details and contextual references is not lost on me. I was born in 1980, spent my teens living in southeast England during the '90s and thus the fact the novel is set during the 2012 Olympics works well for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and RiverRun and Hachette UK.
@francisgilbert_bookclub

This was an insightful book into complex family relationships however the book just didn't grab me. I don't think I was invested enough in the characters to fully enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

I really struggled to engage with this book. I found that I had very little common ground with the characters and struggled to believe in the depth of their relationship as they also seemed to have very little in common with each other as well. I wanted to really like this book as London 2012 is a nostalgic memory for me but I couldn't get into this book at all. I picked it up a few times and eventually DNF at 30%.

This took ages to get going and even when I found myself more into it I still fully wasn't invested in the plot or the characters. If bring honest I found the relationships boring and not very believable it's a shame as I did like the style of writing in parts. I do think this will do well with more high brow reviewers but it's not for me I look for more wit and drama even in literary fiction

The Boys by Leo Robson is a tale of siblings- Johnny Voghel and his half brother Lawrence- sibling love; sibling one upmanship ; sibling connections in all its forms.
Set against the backdrop of the 2012 London Olympics, Johnny's somewhat mundane life is altered by the sudden appearance of his estranged brother who has been living in the USA
This is the story of what happens over the following fortnight as they navigate the changes between them, growing older and recognising failures and successes in their lives.
With an eclectic bunch of characters, the story explores relationships and the dynamics between them.
The plot is curious- things happen but nothing that gripped
An honest perspective is that it wasn't easy to engage with the characters ( as an older reader) relationships were incredibly fluid and lacked real depth
The interplay between the brothers was the best part of the book.
This is probably a great read for Gen Z.

I wasn't too sure when I started reading The Boys by Leo Robson but by the end it really grew on me. An insightful and sometimes sad sometimes funny delve into complicated family and friendship dynamics.