The Normal Man

by Susie Boyt

Janey March inhabits a world where food and love are king. Worn down by starvation diets and a series of romances that have raised and dashed her hopes, she longs for domestic bliss, and all the bread and jam she can eat, but most of all for her father, dead now ten years. Spanning one eventful weekend, The Normal Man is a delightful and acute portrait of a singular psychology. Strewn with jokes and eccentricities, and peopled with characters of questionable normality, it marks the debut of a wonderful new talent.

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Susie Boyt (born January 1969) is a British novelist.

The daughter of Suzy Boyt and artist Lucian Freud, and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. Susie Boyt was educated at Channing and at Camden School for Girls and read English at St Catherine's College, Oxford, graduating in 1992. Working variously at a PR agency, and a literary agency, she completed her first novel, The Normal Man, which was published in 1995 by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. She returned to university to do a Masters in Anglo American Literary Relations at University College London studying the works of Henry James and the poet John Berryman.

To date she has published four novels. In 2008, she published My Judy Garland Life, a layering of biography, hero-worship and self-help. Her journalism includes an ongoing column in the weekend Life & Arts section of the Financial Times. She is married to Tom Astor, a film producer. They live with their two daughters in London.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of my most favourite books, if not thee favourite.. As it reminds me of my own life.. Not that I’ve ever dated an actor.. Or have I had a grandmother who made impeccable cakes! But Janey’s father reminds me very much of my own. And there’s a touch of nostalgia in this story for me, of those old times past that I never really lived through. Times with my dad that I could never get back. Janey reminds me of Bridget Jones a bit, but better. More real.. I wish my own love life had been as interesting as hers..

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t understand this book at all. It had some good ideas but the plot wasn’t developed. I thought it was going to be a lighthearted romance but it turned into something quite different. It started as a young woman’s search for a man and then swerved off into an exploration of her grief for her father, and ended uncertainly.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having enjoyed the latest four of Susie Boyt's novels, I tracked back to her first book written in her mid twenties, and what a little gem it is. It was equally good as her later books. It is so well written, with great humour and wit. Janey March lives rent free in a flat in a luxury mansion block off Victoria Street, courtesy of a dead aunt and a cousin who lives abroad. But nothing works so all is not sweetness and light. "The curtains are never drawn in deference to their fragility".

Although the story is told over one weekend, it mostly looks back to her parents marriage and particularly her close relationship with her father. His death still haunts Janey, especially the old songs they used to sing. In those first years after he died, Janey is trapped into looking after her mother. "A solemn little death club was formed (with other bereaved women) for the swapping of tears, stories and handy mourner's tips".

However, an accident at a party over that present weekend throws Janey together with that normal man she meets for the first time. "Casualty, in the small hours of a Saturday morning, had a faintly theatrical air. It smelled like a pub". I have two other of the author's books on my to read list.

[Bridget Bonaparte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Susie Boyt this book is delightful sort of a modern Barbara pym