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Death of a Ladies' Man
Book by Bissett, Alan
- GenresFiction
426 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 9, 2022
Surprisingly thought provoking book about Charlie, a literary English teacher, who after getting married ...became a womaniser! Charlie, steadily goes downhill in a sea of woman, drugs and simply self centredness, as well as a gross lacking of empathy. Yet somehow the book is mostly upbeat as the man himself doesn't really appreciate his lack of empathy or have any awareness of where his life is really heading! When I say thought provoking read, this is what I mean, Three Star, 7 out of 12.
2012 read
2012 read
January 19, 2020
This is the second time I'm reading this novel, the first time being when I was a student at Glasgow University. At the time I was completely enchanted by this novel, and this time around I was only a little bit less so. Bissett absolutely nails this as a character study of a particularly niche type of feminist misogynist. But it's an important character to nail, because it's a type of masculinity that, as traditional masculinities begin to disappear, will only become more common. In Charlie's case, his ideas are mostly fair but his behaviour and sense of responsibility are his real weakness. He lives his life in a fantasy world where he believes he has much more integrity than he really does and he uses left wing and social justice concepts to justify his egocentricity.
The plot and the writing is sometimes spot on and sometimes it feels both overdone and cliche. The use of space on the page feels quite fresh at first but by the end of the novel feels like a bit of a cruch - but that's always a risk with experimenting on the page.
All in all, this is a great Scottish book that accurately depicted a certain type of alt-bro/soft-boi before those terms existed. And in that sense it was very much ahead of the curve.
The plot and the writing is sometimes spot on and sometimes it feels both overdone and cliche. The use of space on the page feels quite fresh at first but by the end of the novel feels like a bit of a cruch - but that's always a risk with experimenting on the page.
All in all, this is a great Scottish book that accurately depicted a certain type of alt-bro/soft-boi before those terms existed. And in that sense it was very much ahead of the curve.
December 8, 2012
Too much name dropping, too many weird experiments with typeface. And, Leonard Cohen is overrated
June 18, 2012
So what have we learned? That every teenager and sad west-end wanker teacher in the whole of Glasgow listens to the same lesser-known local indie bands? I thought I was going to hate this book. I was like aye, very clever with your stream-of-consciousness prose and literary tricks and your ending I can see coming a mile off: and yet, when it did, I was completely and utterly devastated.
April 12, 2018
Absolutely not a book for everyone. That being said, I loved it.
Death of a Ladies' Man is an absolutely thrilling novel, with hilarious and devastating sections alike. Charlie is presented as a character with many, many flaws - so much so, you may almost consider him an antihero of sorts. He is largely amoral, yet at the same time not entirely unreasonable or unrelatable. The novel takes you through the absolute romp that is Charlie's life, and the interesting and dynamic typefaces and methods of conveying the story keep it fresh. There's a few meta jokes (but not overly too many) that left me absolutely floored once executed, and I loved it.
I disagree with other posters about the narrator mentioning banal things like communism and lecturing to the reader too much. You can definitely make the case it was a little abrupt at times, but that was quite clearly the intention and it made sense when you consider the story is being told from Charlie. Part of Charlie's character is being a bit of a lecturer. But I thought it added to the immersion, not detracted.
The ending, without spoiling too much, was great.
Bottom line, if you think you'll enjoy reading a story through which you can vicariously live the life of a 75% slick, 25% screw-up, womanizing asshole who does cocaine and parties but still gets some come-uppance, you'll love this novel. If you think the subject matter is low-brow or vehemently hate womanizers, you might want to just skip it.
Death of a Ladies' Man is an absolutely thrilling novel, with hilarious and devastating sections alike. Charlie is presented as a character with many, many flaws - so much so, you may almost consider him an antihero of sorts. He is largely amoral, yet at the same time not entirely unreasonable or unrelatable. The novel takes you through the absolute romp that is Charlie's life, and the interesting and dynamic typefaces and methods of conveying the story keep it fresh. There's a few meta jokes (but not overly too many) that left me absolutely floored once executed, and I loved it.
I disagree with other posters about the narrator mentioning banal things like communism and lecturing to the reader too much. You can definitely make the case it was a little abrupt at times, but that was quite clearly the intention and it made sense when you consider the story is being told from Charlie. Part of Charlie's character is being a bit of a lecturer. But I thought it added to the immersion, not detracted.
The ending, without spoiling too much, was great.
Bottom line, if you think you'll enjoy reading a story through which you can vicariously live the life of a 75% slick, 25% screw-up, womanizing asshole who does cocaine and parties but still gets some come-uppance, you'll love this novel. If you think the subject matter is low-brow or vehemently hate womanizers, you might want to just skip it.
July 24, 2011
What sums it up best? Perhaps the fact that it comes replete with glowing reviews from as unlikely a pairing as AL Kennedy and the News of the World.
The same linguistic inventiveness, wild typography and stream of consciousness stylings as Boyracers, but with an all-together darker theme. 'Dead Poets Society' meets 'American Beauty' by way of James Kelman's 'A Disaffection'. Bissett deserves to be much more widely read.
The same linguistic inventiveness, wild typography and stream of consciousness stylings as Boyracers, but with an all-together darker theme. 'Dead Poets Society' meets 'American Beauty' by way of James Kelman's 'A Disaffection'. Bissett deserves to be much more widely read.
November 13, 2022
"Adulthood, he now realised, was just adolescence with the stakes raised".
Divorced by 26 and living with his mother in Glasgow, passionate teacher Charlie Bain has failed to develop emotionally past adolescence, a period in which adolescent girls all rejected his advances. His father took up with another woman and left the family when Charlie was 13. This turned him into a womaniser after adulthood brought him attractiveness. But he never came to terms with the raised stakes this brought.
He has no male friends, all the important figures in his life are female: his ex wife (who appears only in italicised streams of consciousness), his girlfriend and fellow teacher Jukie, an older fellow teacher, his mother, an alcoholic divorcee, his sister, married to a man Charlie despises, their daughter, his best friend Nadine, a woman he knew from childhood, and Monise, his favourite year 12 pupil.
He lets them all down because of the consequences of shagging, drinking and drugging , a self destroyer.
The prose is fast paced, with much relying on Charlie's self-obsessed and sex-obsessed thoughts. His drunk and stoned mind is portrayed with ultra-wide spaced prose, used for plot advancement too. This gets tiresome sometimes but is brilliant in the final pages of the book.
The book is named after a Leonard Cohen album, Julie's favourite. Cohen quotes appear hear and there, mostly in a way that doesn’t improve the book. But Charlie is the ladies man obviously.
Very interesting reflections on the profession of teaching, where hem argues with Julie, telling her that professionalism is stifling.
Divorced by 26 and living with his mother in Glasgow, passionate teacher Charlie Bain has failed to develop emotionally past adolescence, a period in which adolescent girls all rejected his advances. His father took up with another woman and left the family when Charlie was 13. This turned him into a womaniser after adulthood brought him attractiveness. But he never came to terms with the raised stakes this brought.
He has no male friends, all the important figures in his life are female: his ex wife (who appears only in italicised streams of consciousness), his girlfriend and fellow teacher Jukie, an older fellow teacher, his mother, an alcoholic divorcee, his sister, married to a man Charlie despises, their daughter, his best friend Nadine, a woman he knew from childhood, and Monise, his favourite year 12 pupil.
He lets them all down because of the consequences of shagging, drinking and drugging , a self destroyer.
The prose is fast paced, with much relying on Charlie's self-obsessed and sex-obsessed thoughts. His drunk and stoned mind is portrayed with ultra-wide spaced prose, used for plot advancement too. This gets tiresome sometimes but is brilliant in the final pages of the book.
The book is named after a Leonard Cohen album, Julie's favourite. Cohen quotes appear hear and there, mostly in a way that doesn’t improve the book. But Charlie is the ladies man obviously.
Very interesting reflections on the profession of teaching, where hem argues with Julie, telling her that professionalism is stifling.
May 12, 2025
So this is basically a cautionary tale about our classic ‘nice guy’.
Reccomend reading with a pinch of salt.. I personally didn’t mind indulging in the POV of a 30-something fuck up who is in dire need of therapy, can’t help but shag anything with a pulse and leans heavily on recreational drug use.
Surprisingly, I reaaally fucked with the way Bissett uses different (pretty unorthodox) literary techniques to move between timelines; stream of consciousness and dialogue. Dare I say I was captivated throughout. That being said, aptly named Charlie does become insufferable towards the end, and it kind of feels a bit too uncomfortable in the final pages from a woman’s perspective - but I can only imagine that this was the intent. (Well done Bissett, you have only fuelled my distaste for men further).
Lastly, although I felt like Leonard Cohen was holding a gun to my head, forcing me to listen to his entire discography while reading, I actually think I’m a more well rounded person for it.
Reccomend reading with a pinch of salt.. I personally didn’t mind indulging in the POV of a 30-something fuck up who is in dire need of therapy, can’t help but shag anything with a pulse and leans heavily on recreational drug use.
Surprisingly, I reaaally fucked with the way Bissett uses different (pretty unorthodox) literary techniques to move between timelines; stream of consciousness and dialogue. Dare I say I was captivated throughout. That being said, aptly named Charlie does become insufferable towards the end, and it kind of feels a bit too uncomfortable in the final pages from a woman’s perspective - but I can only imagine that this was the intent. (Well done Bissett, you have only fuelled my distaste for men further).
Lastly, although I felt like Leonard Cohen was holding a gun to my head, forcing me to listen to his entire discography while reading, I actually think I’m a more well rounded person for it.
June 18, 2021
This is a tragedy as defined in Educating Rita. It has an interesting way for talking the morals of other people, against ones own morals and how we judge them.
I enjoyed the use of fonts, non linear parts of the story, it seemed to reflect Charlie’s mood and pace of the narrative.
I enjoyed the use of fonts, non linear parts of the story, it seemed to reflect Charlie’s mood and pace of the narrative.
September 23, 2018
Predictable and heavily indebted to Irvine Welsh, but still kinda good enough in it's own way.
July 28, 2014
For the whole review: http://lovewritingadventure.wordpress...
Alan Bissett does a lot more than explore the psyche of a womanizer. He plays with the spatial elements of the text as well as with the medium by which it is presented. During Charlie’s coke and weed binges, the text squirms across the page as if you are experiencing his high with him. At some points, however, the massive spacing between words and sentences became a bit “too much” and undermined the experimental sections that did aid the narrative. During particularly tense scenes, the book switches to screenplay formatting, and conversation is delivered to reader in quick bursts, silences made more pregnant by the sheer absence of text.
Charlie’s voice is clear and entertaining, particularly in the bursts of stream-of-consciousness scattered throughout the novel. This method did become stifling towards the end, perhaps because of its more meditative and depressive tone devoid of the humor from the beginning. (My favorite line, page 86: “MY COCK IS HARD AND BROODING AND SHAKESPEEEEEAREAN”).
What this text seems to suffer from is too many characters with the same affliction: cheating and amoral men. There is little variety, and the reader often gets bogged down with yet another sob story about a cheating man in someone’s life. Unfortunately, because of this, many of the characters came off as one-sided. The exception being Charlie’s pupils Monise and Simon. While the school scenes were at times too self-aware of their “Dead Poet’s Society” vibe, this plot thread was the only one throughout that did not end entirely as expected and the only one which seemed to affect change in Charlie and the people close to him.
There is a heavy-handedness to much of the symbolism of the text, and it feels at times as though political discussions are forced on the reader at the expense of the plot.
Overall, an intriguing look into the sexual male psyche filtered through the Glaswegian indie scene, but unfortunately weighed down by its reliance on exterior texts instead of allowing characters’ relationships to speak for themselves.
Alan Bissett does a lot more than explore the psyche of a womanizer. He plays with the spatial elements of the text as well as with the medium by which it is presented. During Charlie’s coke and weed binges, the text squirms across the page as if you are experiencing his high with him. At some points, however, the massive spacing between words and sentences became a bit “too much” and undermined the experimental sections that did aid the narrative. During particularly tense scenes, the book switches to screenplay formatting, and conversation is delivered to reader in quick bursts, silences made more pregnant by the sheer absence of text.
Charlie’s voice is clear and entertaining, particularly in the bursts of stream-of-consciousness scattered throughout the novel. This method did become stifling towards the end, perhaps because of its more meditative and depressive tone devoid of the humor from the beginning. (My favorite line, page 86: “MY COCK IS HARD AND BROODING AND SHAKESPEEEEEAREAN”).
What this text seems to suffer from is too many characters with the same affliction: cheating and amoral men. There is little variety, and the reader often gets bogged down with yet another sob story about a cheating man in someone’s life. Unfortunately, because of this, many of the characters came off as one-sided. The exception being Charlie’s pupils Monise and Simon. While the school scenes were at times too self-aware of their “Dead Poet’s Society” vibe, this plot thread was the only one throughout that did not end entirely as expected and the only one which seemed to affect change in Charlie and the people close to him.
There is a heavy-handedness to much of the symbolism of the text, and it feels at times as though political discussions are forced on the reader at the expense of the plot.
Overall, an intriguing look into the sexual male psyche filtered through the Glaswegian indie scene, but unfortunately weighed down by its reliance on exterior texts instead of allowing characters’ relationships to speak for themselves.
October 12, 2015
First Alan Bissett book I have read. It's been on my to read list for some time. I wish there was a way of recording on Goodreads why I had put it on my list.
Good points - reminded me a bit of The Death of Bunny Munro - but this came first, so either a co-incidence or Nick Cave nicked the idea. We have a 30 something man who cannot keep hold of his libido that (from the title) you can tell is going to be his undoing. Great sense of location in Glasgow and quite a few Scottish in jokes. The story weaves his recent past (divorce) with his present (being a "teaching rock god", partying, on the pull). It all comes crashing down for our ladies in man in quite a sad little way.
Bad points - playing with the typeface just got on my nerves - as did the constant lists of great films/works of literature. Picking up the book at a random page had the ending spelt out in large letters - which could have been more annoying if there had been any mystery - but you could see where the tale was going.
Entertaining enough and I would read another of his books.
Good points - reminded me a bit of The Death of Bunny Munro - but this came first, so either a co-incidence or Nick Cave nicked the idea. We have a 30 something man who cannot keep hold of his libido that (from the title) you can tell is going to be his undoing. Great sense of location in Glasgow and quite a few Scottish in jokes. The story weaves his recent past (divorce) with his present (being a "teaching rock god", partying, on the pull). It all comes crashing down for our ladies in man in quite a sad little way.
Bad points - playing with the typeface just got on my nerves - as did the constant lists of great films/works of literature. Picking up the book at a random page had the ending spelt out in large letters - which could have been more annoying if there had been any mystery - but you could see where the tale was going.
Entertaining enough and I would read another of his books.
August 3, 2014
Recommended to me as a dirty book - I was set up for disappointment from the outset.
300 pages of rambling sub-storylines that don't go anywhere, only for the ending to feel rushed - yet completely predictable. I felt almost as though Bissett thought 'God I'm so bored of this now, best wrap it up quickly.' The postmodern intermezzos were irritating, but a good way to be able to skip a whole half-page. The main character strikes me as a tryhard embarrassing dad with his constant pop culture references and his blase use of coke. I trust this was intentional. We had teachers like that and hated them more than the Mr Prentices and Julies of my school.
I hate indie rock so I found its glorification in the book most grating.
Still, Bissett has a way with language and I kind of liked the book, so two stars.
300 pages of rambling sub-storylines that don't go anywhere, only for the ending to feel rushed - yet completely predictable. I felt almost as though Bissett thought 'God I'm so bored of this now, best wrap it up quickly.' The postmodern intermezzos were irritating, but a good way to be able to skip a whole half-page. The main character strikes me as a tryhard embarrassing dad with his constant pop culture references and his blase use of coke. I trust this was intentional. We had teachers like that and hated them more than the Mr Prentices and Julies of my school.
I hate indie rock so I found its glorification in the book most grating.
Still, Bissett has a way with language and I kind of liked the book, so two stars.
February 3, 2015
I particularly liked this book for the author's inventiveness with presentation. When his mind begins to trail away in thought and the font changes and the size of the type and the letters start to drip down the page, I thought all that was, at times, really effective. However, there were times in the novel when I thought this was overdone thereby undermining its own originality which I think would be helped through sparing use.
The story itself was good, rather than great. The hero's tragic fall, though obvious from the title, was a little too straightforward. But I did find other aspects of the story interesting, such as the comment the author may be making about the presentation of gender roles in modern UK (Scottish) society.
I enjoyed it.
The story itself was good, rather than great. The hero's tragic fall, though obvious from the title, was a little too straightforward. But I did find other aspects of the story interesting, such as the comment the author may be making about the presentation of gender roles in modern UK (Scottish) society.
I enjoyed it.
July 20, 2012
I can't say I liked this one too much. The main character is really not likable. More than just a ladies man, he is a user and a liar.
I guess I just identify with the women too much. In particular, the older woman who he moves in with. I get being older and having been hurt and trying to find a good man.
And the hurt when you find you have been completely deceived.
Yes, it's very timely with the Scottish Indie music scene. That part is fun to read about. The author is a musician as well, so the music references don't feel forced.
But that isn't enough to make me like the book!
I guess I just identify with the women too much. In particular, the older woman who he moves in with. I get being older and having been hurt and trying to find a good man.
And the hurt when you find you have been completely deceived.
Yes, it's very timely with the Scottish Indie music scene. That part is fun to read about. The author is a musician as well, so the music references don't feel forced.
But that isn't enough to make me like the book!
June 18, 2012
Dark, funny, perceptive and clever.
The portrayal of the main characters deeply flawed nature was expertly done and fascinatingly exposed. Through his story a number of carefully crafted insights are revealed that impressed with their brutal, honest truth.
An added, personal, bonus was having the novel set in Glasgow. A pleasant glow of recognition was afforded every time a familiar place, bar or nightclub was mentioned.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
The portrayal of the main characters deeply flawed nature was expertly done and fascinatingly exposed. Through his story a number of carefully crafted insights are revealed that impressed with their brutal, honest truth.
An added, personal, bonus was having the novel set in Glasgow. A pleasant glow of recognition was afforded every time a familiar place, bar or nightclub was mentioned.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
December 7, 2009
i was really impressed at the way Bisset combines really dark, bleak themes and brill experimental writing with humour and accessibility. There's a lot of sex in it, and actually, it got a bit much times for me, but its all totally right for the character, and that's what this is, really, isn't it? A really close up picture of one modern man having a breakdown.
December 8, 2010
One of the best books I've read in a long time. I got really sucked in and didn't stop reading until I'd finished or I was physically incapable, literally. You know it's a good book if you're up at 1am reading it.
April 18, 2013
Loved being able to "place-spot"! - Byres Road, Sauchiehall Street, Kelvingrove. And enjoyed the Glasgow patter. Written in an interesting cannot-put-this-book-down way but with a pretty serious plot. Will deffo be checking out other books by this author.
September 27, 2011
Style was very different. i didn't enjoy perhaps because Bissett got very close to how some 'men' think and behave - immature and boring. So Bissett's writing is perhaps too good
Read
January 14, 2021Bissett's best book, hands down.
January 5, 2015
A clever book - loved the words and the shapes on the page. Excellent characterisation and Glasgow references made it seem believable.
Read
October 2, 2016Did not finish this book since I have a hard time appreciating how the author wrote the story.
May 13, 2012
enjoyed the book, but lots of sex and swearing made me cringe a little.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews