Mayflies was both a hit and a miss for me. It's a beautiful story about friendship and lifelong bonds told through rich, evocative writing. In a way I wish it was longer as I feel there wasn't enough space to connect with the characters as much as the writing thought we would be connected to them? If that makes any sense whatsoever. But if the only complaint I have of the book is that I wish it was longer that's not too much of a bad thing I guess.

Mayflies is a story of lifelong male friendship split in two parts, first in 1986 and then 2017. Narrated by quiet and thoughtful James, we are introduced to a group of friends drawn together by their love of music and political ideals. Tully is James' best friend, with infectious energy is the life of the party, charming, and charismatic. The first half of the book tells of a weekend away in Manchester where a group of friends are attending a music festival. A booze and drug fueled road trip from Glasgow to see The Smiths and party at the Hacienda. The second half of the book, thirty years later, Tully has devastating news. Tully is diagnosed with terminal illness and entrusts James to help him die the death he chooses.

The latter half of the book was much more impactful to me. It was heartbreaking, funny and poignant in equal measure and a thought provoking take on euthanasia. The first half is so deeply rooted in its context, atmosphere and vernacular of working class 1980s Scotland, a lot of references were lost on me. I had trouble differentiating between the characters that weren't James and Tully with aimless conversations but I understand it to be a reflection of easiness and the closeness of the group.

I wish this book had been longer. The difference in pacing between the halves was jarring and I wish it had been paced like the second half of the book all the way through. I would have loved to see more of the more emotional moments touched up on in depth from the first half.

I really wanted this to be the Scottish "A Little Life", so it was only myself I was disappointing trying to compare the two.

Thanks Faber & Faber and Netgalley for my copy!

It’s the mid 1980’s and a group of Glasgow teenage boys travel to a weekend music festival in Manchester.
A much more ambitious undertaking 35 yrs. ago than now, they join hordes of ebullient youngsters fired up by the music and whatever else they have money for and have no worries about where they will end up for the night.
That’s Part One, in the second section James and Tully thirty years on, have remained friends.
Part One is a full-on, devil-may-care experience, but sadly one I could not connect with. I searched my memory banks for reckless student day activities but to no avail. As a result, by the time I had reached Part Two, overwhelmed, I could not clear my mind to absorb the sad, concentrated discussion on life, love and death.

A spectacular novel. An elegent, funny, and moving coronach to male friendship, bursting with hope, warmth, sincerity and unsentimental melancholy, with the West coast of Scotland precisely realised. A symmetrical story about two brief periods bookending a close friendship that is full of "brotherhood and loyalty" and joyful, earnest love, as well as capturing the excitement of youth and the wide-eyed joy of life streaming on ahead, and the days before death, reflecting on a life well lived, and celebrating all the human experience has to offer - its joy and its pain. The lump in my throat choked me through this exquisite novel's final pages. What a beautiful achievement.

A slim novel that holds staggering weight. O'Hagan writes with calm authority even through the most frenetic of scenes, evoking an extraordinarily vivid sense of time and place. It is the cleanness of the characters and all their complex relationships that truly shines, however - a deft and poignant portrait of change and maturity, of exuberance and resilience, that will stay with me for a long time.

This is two very different novels put together, although the second half could not exist without the first. In the mid-eighties, a time of miners' strikes, Margaret Thatcher and the peak of indie rock, a group of young Scottish men plan a weekend trip to Manchester for a music festival headlined by The Smiths. James, called Noodles by his friends, is the first of his family and neighborhood to be accepted into university. Tully is his best friend, a charismatic, easy-going, always in the center of things guy, whose playful exterior hides anxiety about his future.

This is a joy-filled romp of a perfect weekend and I loved every single paragraph. O'Hagan perfectly captures that moment of young adulthood when the world opens up and music is the most important thing. I'm not that much younger than the boys in this story and their adventures brought back so many memories of small clubs and perfect nights out.

The second half of the book concerns Tully and James, now three decades older. Tully is diagnosed with cancer and he's determined to go out on his own terms and his best friend, James, is the person he most trusts to stand by him. This half has a much more serious tone, despite the unemployed workers and casual racism of the first half. But the fun of the beginning gives an earned emotional depth to this story of a man supporting his best friend.

Mayflies tells the story of a group of young men from Scotland in the 1980’s and their trip to Manchester for a music festival. They discuss topical social issues of the time and there are many references to popular films and bands of that era. Moving forwards, one of the group shares some devastating news and the friendships are reignited.

This novel is very character driven and I found it to be quite slow paced. The 1980’s setting was a little before my time so I also couldn’t relate to the conversations the men were having.

This literary fiction novel has all the elements to be brilliant - and it is, largely, very good. It primarily follows the friendship between two men over two timelines: One in the 1980s when the young men finish school and embark on a celebratory weekend in Manchester, and the other in 2019 when one man phones the other with news of his terminal illness.

I had very high expectations going into this novel. A short, character-focused literary fiction novel exploring themes of friendship and illness, with an emotional, reflective, philosophical tone? Yes please. And this novel did do a lot of things right. I loved the structuring, with the novel split into two halves and seeing the main characters at very different times in their lives. The narrative style was lovely, and reminded me of the wonderful simplicity and perceptiveness of Sarah Winman (a huge compliment from me!). The central characters we also, on the whole, well-drawn. I enjoyed reading about such a precious friendship, and experienced moments where I was totally convinced by the two men's love for one another, and understanding of one another.

But unfortunately, this book wasn't as perfect as I wanted it be. While it did the aforementioned things well, and had moments of excellence, I wanted more. The brilliance of the writing came in singular lines, rather than being sustained all of the way through; the characters' potential weren't always delivered on, and I found myself wanting to see more of them and learn more about them. All of this meant that the book didn't quite have the intended emotional impression on me in the second half, where it really needed it.

This novel was very close to be brilliant, but it just didn't quite hit the spot for me. That being said, if you do enjoy short character-focused literary fiction novels, I would recommend giving a go yourself.

MAYFLIES tells the story of James and Tully, an explosive friendship spanning from the mid-1980s music scene to the present. The characters are distinctive and humourous, but the novel hits a lot of familiar beats about friendship, pop culture, and the fleeting nature of life--while this was enjoyable and tugged at the heartstrings as expected, it just didn't seem to bring anything new to the table.

Andrew O'Hagen's Mayflies is about a friendship between two bright, young working class Scottish lads, which lasts a lifetime. A weekend adventure with a few mates to the 1986 Festival of the 10th Summer in Manchester becomes emblematic of their youth and also their growing up and away from their childhoods. The music, the booze, the speed, the piss-taking jokes and the "top threes" of everything from films to biscuits are brilliantly described.

Both Jimmy (the narrator), and Tully, his friend have things going on at home that make life difficult and this lends a sadness and sensitivity to the early part of the book. The second part jumps forward to 2017, with both men married and in their 50's. Their friendship has endured, as has their love of music and film, their early connection still strong. When Jimmy agrees to do a huge favour for Tully, it tests not just their friendship but both marriages too, particularly Tully's. O' Hagen ends the book perfectly. The ending, like the whole book, is somehow joyful and moving.

I’d heard good things about this book and liked the idea of the musical backdrop and a setting local-ish to me. Unfortunately I personally found it was very dialogue heavy and not the most pleasant or vivid read as a result. It did use dialect well (something I can struggle with when reading books set in particular places ie NE England or Scotland but I found myself eager to finish (to end rather than to find out what happens next).

'They say you know nothing at eighteen. But there are things you know at eighteen that you will never know again.'

People of a certain age will recognise their own lives in this. Scottish men of a certain age will re-live their youth and question their present, all the while trying to hide the fact that they are weeping uncontrollably. This is a raw, deeply affecting and bruisingly beautiful paean of praise to friendship and memory, written with O'Hagan's customary lyricism and attention to character and phrasing.

Part One follows Tully and James (aka Noodles), together with a motley collection of mates, who travel down from Glasgow for a wild weekend at a Manchester music festival. It is a time of hedonism, for this is 1986; a time of simply being young, and of surviving in Thatcher's Britain. The one-liners keep on coming, and the two mis-matched best friends make a pact to escape the chains of their past and build a brighter future for themselves:

'I'm going to do it. I'm getting out. The world's changing.'
'All the way, Tully.'
'Aye. All the way.'

Part Two brings us forward to 2017, and James receives a text from his friend Tully that will upturn his comfortable life and change them all forever....

The two parts are quite distinct, but the structure of the book is perfectly balanced. The long weekend in Manchester is full of attention to detail, and Part Two is agonisingly teased out - one final meal in particular, where every course is carefully described - to prolong what is both a heartbreaking moment and to hammer home the message of living each moment *in* the moment, It is a difficult task, but O'Hagan manages it.

The book is knowingly self-referential (with quotes from films and books thrown in liberally) which helps embed the characters and the story in a world we can all understand. These are friendships that we have all had; these are moments and memories that we all share with our friends, whether we have kept up with them as we grow older or not. It is a joy to read, but it will break your heart. I was in pieces by the end, and still find it quite difficult to come back to review it some weeks after finishing it. It is one of the finest examples of a book about male friendship that you will read, and it is quite clearly a very personal journey for O'Hagan himself. That he has made it universal is a testament to him as a writer. The book starts with an epigraph from WB Yeats which beautifully sums up the whole experience:

'Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
And say my glory was I had such friends.'

Amen to that, I say. Probably my book of the year. 5 glorious stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

This is one of those books that I was always going to adore, the setting, the plot, the bonds and relationships between all of the characters ... chefs kiss!

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.)

This novel opens with a group of Scottish friends in the 1980s. Focusing on Tully and narrator Jimmy, the early parts follow their close friendship and their trip to a Festival; the book vibrates with life and energy. The story then moves on several years to the adult Tully and Jimmy, and the tone of the book shifts completely. This is a book about friendship, love and relationships, about mortality and control. It is a hugely moving and tender book and I loved it.

I think this is the most moving book I have read all year. I absolutely loved it.

Mayflies is a book of two halves. In the first, the main characters - a group of young lads growing up in Ayrshire - are moving into their first jobs but are mainly focused on music, getting drunk and getting out of Ayrshire.

The descriptions of what their lives are like are fantastic. The language in the book is simple but there are so many sentences that I found myself bowled over by and wanted to make a note of. The book manages to combine a very well-drawn reality with a sense that much more is possible in life.

There is so much humour in it too. As they are travelling to a major gig in Manchester, the lads discuss which instrument Karl Marx would play if he was in The Fall. The combination of utterly surreal and mundane, slightly depressing, reality makes this book something that so many people will be able to relate to, and I'm sure it will remind many older people of how it can feel to be young.

There are plenty of hints at the difficulties of life that the characters face already at such a young age. Tully, the character that the book is hung upon, has a difficult relationship with his dad, nicknamed Woodbine, who lost his job during the Miners' Strike and is now bitter at the world.

But when he has to face the fact that his dad isn't well, this brings more focus on how Tully really feels about him. Later in the book it is so sad to hear how Tully had collected for the striking miners, yet his dad had no idea he'd done this. The two characters are so similar to each other, yet feel themselves to be worlds apart.

There is a sense of lost opportunities to connect. Tully describes how when his dad died, he had looked at him as if to say, 'You never really knew me and now it's too late'.

And it's poignant to hear Tully's mum Barbara say how his dad 'wasn't always the way he became'. The idea that people have pasts where they were very different, and are more than they might appear, is a major theme, as Tully worries about turning out as bitter and depressed as his dad did.

It's heartbreaking to dwell on how people set out with hope and happiness in life, only for things to fall apart - and for the same thing to repeat itself over generations.

In the second half of the book, the lads are older and are facing different problems. But the humour and the surrealness and the care they have for each other all remain.

This was such a lovely book to read. It isn't sentimental or maudlin, and nothing is laid on with a trowel. But it is the kind of book that encourages you to appreciate what you have and maybe to be a little bit more honest with the people you love, while you have the chance.

Tully Dawson is the best friend one could ever wish for. When James’ struggles with his parents become unsupportable, he takes him to his home. Their friendship is based on music and the bands they admire and what both of them are sure of: they never want to become like their fathers. Ayrshire sooner or later becomes too enclosed, simply too small for them, so together with some friends they plan a weekend in Manchester, one of 1980s hot spots of music. And they do have the time of their life in only a couple of hours. Even though they all move on afterwards, the friendship between Tully and James goes deeper and even though they live on different ends of the island, thirty years on, James is the person Tully calls first when he has bad news.

“I suppose we could have (...) asked his opinion, but being young is a kind of warfare in which the great enemy is experience.”

Andrew O’Hagan’s novel oscillates between celebrating youth and the time of total light-footedness and the darkest side of human life. In the first part, we meet a bunch of youngsters for whom the Tenth Summer festival at the G-Mex centre in Manchester is the biggest event in their life so far. In 2017, they have not only aged but also acquired another attitude to life. Both have their time and place, it is the privilege of the teenage years to be carefree and live for the moment, harsh reality will come later, and it does.

“ ’It’s like an explosion of life happening and then it’s gone,’ he said. ‘We had our time, buddy. I’ve come to terms with it (...)’”

What I enjoyed most was to see how James and Tully had formed a bond for life. They shared the good times and also the bad ones. Nothing, not even their wives, could come between them since only with each other they could talk openly. Tully is a truly charismatic character which you come to like immediately which makes it even sadder to see how fate does not grant him more time on earth. The end is deeply moving, but seeing how full of emotion and life the first part war, you can accept it even if you don’t like it. It raises some very core questions each reader has to answer for himself, the way O’Hagan confronts us with them, however, is brilliant.

I enjoyed this novel in the beginning but the plot began to drag and I had lost interest by the end. Perhaps I will read it again one day and get more from it on a second reading.

What a magnificent novel, funny and moving and immensely satisfying. It deals with life and death, love and friendship, music and film. It is very much a game of two halves, telling the story of a group of friends from Scotland whom we first meet in the 1980s and revisit 30 years later to discover how life has treated them. The quotations from iconic films and the joy of The Smiths form the backdrop but it is the relationships which form the spine of this tremendous novel. I loved it!

Its really refreshing to read a story rooted in male friendship for a change. All too often books don't analyse this aspect of brotherhood or 'bromance' and it made such an interesting read. It follows the friendship through the years of James and Tully growing up in Scotland and as they move further afield as grown men. They swear to always be there for one another so when Tully gets in touch 30 years down the line its interesting to see how things play out.
The book is really well written and the characters are clear and well rounded. Both are believable and likeable in different measures and I really enjoyed the journey the book took me on :)
Thanks to Netgalley, Faber & Faber and Andrew O'Hagan for the ARC.