Man and Wife

Citation preview

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"Utterly irresistible . . . w ..... ;J _"""~T"2_0_8_8_0_3_ 7_ 43_8_5_2r-7_--L>[.lith, People magazine "Since Avery Corman's landmark Kramer vs. Kramer, it seems every generation has hungered for a heartfelt novel in which a father discovers what it is to be a mother. Such is British journalist Tony Parsons' easily enjoyed Man and Boy. Man and Boy is a witty, often sweet novel that adeptly sorts immature men from true fathers." -Sherryl Connelly, Daily News "A funny yet penetrating look at divorce, parenthood and generational conflict .. . the strength of Man and Boy lies in its plainspoken honesty." - Vic Vogler, Boston Herald "Tony Parsons' first novel, Man and Boy, hits like a series of quick jabs to the heart. This story of a 3D-year-old finally growing up is told with grace and wit; it delivers laughter and tears without stooping to cheap sentimentality ... a novel that is one in a million." -Robin Vidimos, Denver Post

Praise for Man and Wife "The most eagerly awaited sequel of the year ... true to form, true to him, Parsons doesn't disappoint." -GO (British)

"Man and Wife is a clever novel. . . . Where [Parsons] scores is in his ability to write sentimentally. Nobody squeezes more genuine emotion from a scene than Tony Parsons." -Nicholas Coleridge, The Spectator "Funny, tear-jerking, and reassuringly feelgood ." - The Daily Mail "This is lively stuff: intelligent popular literature for a streetwise yet sentimental readership." - The Independent

523.00 U.S. 536.00 Can.

A novel aboul love and marriageaboul why we fall in love and why we marry, why we slay and why we go. Harry Silver is ready to try again at living "happily ever after." It won't be easy: not when he has to juggle his wife, Cyd, and ex-wife, Gina; his son, Pat, and his stepdaughter, Peggy; his own work and his wife's fast-growing career. When Gina announces that she's relocating to another country, taking Pat with her, and Cyd's burgeoning success has made her rethink having another child, Harry finds his fairy-tale ending moving out of reach . Meanwhile, his mother, who has always been his biggest fan and source of comfort, is battling breast cancer and needs him to be strong . Did Harry commit to a steady relationship too soon? Can you love - really love - a child who is not your own? Can you be a good father to a child you only see on the weekends? And can Harry keep this new and complicated life on track or will it all go wrong? When he meets a woman who makes him question everything, his tangled web becomes even more knotty. In this brilliant sequel to the internationally bestselling Man and Boy, Tony Parsons reminds us why he is a favorite author in over thirty countries. Man and Wife is a story about families in the new century, written with all the humor, passion, and superb storytelling that have made millions across the globe cry and laugh out loud .

TONY PARSONS is one of the most well-known writers in England . In the 1970s, Parsons was a music journalist for of

NME, the British equivalent

Rolling Stone, interviewing some of the

biggest bands in punk music. In the eighties he won awards for his work as a roving reporter with magazines like GQ and

Elle. In the nineties

he became one of the most familiar faces on British television, spending six years as a regular guest on BBC's Late Review. He has also written

The Mirror, The Guardian, The Spectator, and The Sunday Times. Tony is the author of two international bestsellers, Man and Boy and One for My Baby (due out from Atria Books in 2004), for

and lives in England with his wife and their daughter. He also has a son from a previous marnage.

Man and Wife A No vel

TOllY Parsoll s

ATRIA BO OKS

ATRIA _"" • •

1230 'wenue of.he "'",erica> NowYor" NY 10020

"I"" boo/;;•• work fro«;".. , N.." ".. C,>on.

Or'19n.lIy p"I>I,et him back. I glllKcd 11 my wl leh. It WJ.S still ClrlY. Thcy werc still serving Mc Brcakfasts in hcre . ~C01lrC un: [ said. 'Lt,t me help you with your COat. Wc're b'Oillg. Don't forb>et your football and yonr mim'lIs . ~ He looked out the wind()\.\l at the rain,[ ashed streets of north London "Arc "'C b'Oiug to thc park?' "Wr'rt going to Pans:

We could just about nuke it. ! had worked it out. You don't thin k [ won ldJnst rush otT to Paris with Inm, du you? Nu, we cuuld do 1I. Not comfurtably, but just about. Thrcc houTS to Paris Oil Eurost:lr. an afternoon wandering around the sights. and thcrl- whoosh- back home for Pat's bedtime. Nobody would know we had gone to Paris-that is, his mother ,",uu[d nut know- un,il we wcre safely back in London. All we needed werc our passports. Luck was with us. At my place, Cyd and Peggy werc not around. At Pat's place, the only sign of li fe was Uli, the dreamy German au pair. So [did,,'t have to explain to my wife why [ Heeded my p:lSsport for a kickabout 011 l'tirnrose ['[ill alld I didn't ha"c to cxplaill to my c.'\-wifc why I needed Pat'S passport to play SEGA Rally in Funland. It wa., a quick run dnwn to Waterloo and soon Pat had hi., face Pf old today. She w:b growing up fast. The wllls of her bedroom wt"Te co\'ered in the moody images of the latest hunky, hairless boy bands. papering ove r the J>vtnhOIllM posters of a few years ago. alld many of her games increasingly featured Brucie DollLm)' Dull's offieial, moulded-plastic COnStant companion. And the rising boy aWareness was ironic because at mOSt of Peggy's social g little girls, '" tht")' Sl'I abom bursting all the balloons.

Four

My

MO T HE R SL [P T WI T H THE llGf!TS ON .

In the hQuse where she had .peut most of hcr lUarrkd life. where she was a young wife and mother. the house that had been her home for so long, she a{tempted to sleep at night

with all her bedroom lights blazmg.

I (ound out because changing dead light bulbs was one of dtc lil11c jobs dlat I did for her 1I0W, There was a light direct ly above the bed she had shared with my fat her for a lifetime. ! realized I w:os changing it every time I weill round 10 sec her. "1 C1U', s.ecm 10 1100 off. J·hrry. [ lay therd beautifuL And sexy_ And nicc_ All the thillb'S that anyOne conld rver walll. -You nevn met my fnmd Kazumi, did you?" Gina said.

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shared a room in To!.,:yo for a year. She's in London now. Trying 10 mak(" it lS a photographer. She fell in 10\'c with Pat. As you can scc. And all at once J wanted to nK"et her. Thi~ photographer who look..-d al my !iOn and saw wilh 10111 clarity hi .. gende, laughing sp irit. T his stranger who sa w through the c.rdu1. unsmiling mask he had klrHcd to wcar. Thi s wOman who could see my son with exactly the same eycs a~ mc. It was suddcnly alive in my head, the Ihought that "",.sn't all thaI il was cr"ked up to be. 1's more dun thll. In the early pan of our relalion-hip. Gin1 aud I thoughl that we werc completely sd fsllfficiem. We honestly bdkved Ih31 we didn't nttd anyone d". N ot even onr oldest and dearest friends. We let C\'eryone drift away It WlS only when everything fell ap . rt that We saw how wrong we had bet'1t. -Who W:lS Ih31 mall. Kazu l\l i' T ht man ill the garden? The one who was crying?I knew I WaS pushing it. But I WaS curious ahoutthis beautifnl, sc lf-contamcd wOm an w ho cou ld msplTc nervuuS breakdowns un her gard{'\] path.

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"Ah. Crying man? That was my hushand. r Then she was on her feet. She had told me enough. Too much, perhaps. "You want to see more photo of Pat? Just had contact sheet develop." We went up to Gina's old study. The house was almost empty now. The o nly things that were here belonged to KaZllmi. She sp read a sheath of 8 x lOs out on the fl oor. She was technical ly brilliant. Composi tio n, clarity, her choices all seemed sublime to my layman's eyes. The monochrome images of my son goofing around in the garden perfectly captured th e fleeting moments of his child hood. And although the photos were all black-a nd-white, they were infused with real warmth . I fclt agai n that she liked my SOil. "Why did yOll leave Tokyo?" Strangely, I want to know mo re. I want to know why she is so far from home, a story that I suspcct has nothing much to do with Henri Cartier- Bresson o r Robert Capa. " I was like Gina." "H ow's that?" "SIwfll. " I had picked up scraps of Japanese over the years. But not enough . I w as guessi ng now. "A ... mother?" "No, no. That's Qka-satl. SllIifil means literally- Mrs. Inte. " nor. "M rs. Interior?" " Housewife, they say England. Homemaker, they say America. In Japan-slllIfil. BlIt Gina wanted to be Sillifli. No?" "Yes, I gucss. For a while ." Unti l she decided she wanted her life back.

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don'l want it so

much!" She scmlcd to find II highly amusing. But I didu'l know if it WJS Ihe wry idel of her bei ng a housewife tlut licklC"cl her fllnny oolle, or ifil w~s Ihe job desniption o f Mrs. IllIeri or. Or ~rh,ps sh~ was juSt coveri"g hu embarrassment. "A"d it did,,'t work OUl?" Obviollsly it didn', 'vorl: Otl' . Harry. you bloody idio'. Otherwise she wouldn', be here with her h"sband crying in ha front fl:ITden and other sTr.lIS" mCn knockillg On hn door alld lylllg through their tceth. I~tll she had 'old me enough for olle day. ~MarriOO." she s:oid, and I d id n't imlllediately realize tlUI she was talking .bout me now. She waS looking at the thick gold nng wrapped around the third finger of my left hand. "Married again. Married now. "10 some other lady. Not G inl_;;.:.n" " I looked at my weddmg ring, as If noticlI1g il for the first tim(·. ,,,,fit h3d heen planted Ih(·re. I hadn't contemplaled rcntoving it before I Cante to R"t the old Fortune of War pu b," "Graham was an insuran ce salesman: my mum said. - Retired now, of cour",'," Tcx poured tht, tt". "One In mp or (V,o?" ht· askexl mt. - ['m swett enough al ready." My mum snffawl-d al th is as though it was Noel Coward at hi. pithy best. When she wem to the kitchen for the milk chocolatc digestive., I excused m ~ lfto Tex and followed her. "Ilhought you we1lliinc danci ng with Aumic Ethel?" "Ethel's dropped OUI. It's her arthritis. I larry. All that slomping gives her grief Poor old thillg." ~What's John Wayne doing in our front room' What's he doing in Dad's chair?" " j !c's all right , old Graham. D on 't worry abom him. I Ie's harmless. /-Ie gives me a lift home in hi. station wagon. H e's a hit full of him self. I grant you , All the old girls have got a soft spot fOf him: "What abom you?" "Me'" My mum bughl-d with genuine amusement. -Don't worry, I-larry, I'm past all that. When I ask a man in for tt a and biscnits. tim's exactly what I mtan. All he's be in g offend is a custard crc.m.~Met

~ Does

Tex kn ow that?~ I thought of the ohscene risc in the old b'Cnt'S Lc.-vi 's, Although my mum was in her si~ties, I could see how she could c~tch the eye of some randy old git, She WJ.s still a lovely looking WOlllali . "I-I e's not going to start reaching for hi. six_gu", i. he'" I said it with 3 grin, to pretend tll>! I al ready knew the answer. But my mllm wasn't smiling now "I had a husband," she said. "That'l l do me for one life_ IIIlle." "Your mother needs to express her sexuality," 'Ily wi fe said. "She's still a woman: "She's a linle old lady! She should be cxpressi ng-I don't know-ha kmllin g: We were getting undressed for bed. Something we had done perhaps one thousand ti,nes before. It still exciKxI me \0 sec my wife taking otT her clothes. The long limbs, casually reveali ng themselv~os. 1 don't tlnnk she fdt quite the same WJ.y abom watching me pm on my stripy pajamas. "I thin k it's greal she's b'Ot a male friend, Harry. You kn ow how much she mi sses your father. YOll dOll't WJ.nt her to sleep wi th the ligh t 011 for th e rest of her life, do you?" ~Shc waS with myoid man forevcr. She's bound to miss him. And it's right she misS'~"en caring too ",uch and caring too linle. The horror stCf'parcms--thc OIlCS who (lid "I' !II court, Or ill ntwspapt"rs, or ill jail---! the Mtt Ilar wnh the Gallaghers, bm [ knew that n wou ld make Us happ)" 11 had TIIallY tim..,; before. Ilut mayb!: I tried 3 [ittle too hard II) nllke i, [ike the old days. T he movie was god. And "'o late 10 chan!,'!: your order. J can have the d"ck and you can ha\"C the baby~ I was only kidding- wasn't I'- bm he' smile ,-am,hed 111_ .tautly. "01" COme On. Not the baby thing ag:.ill, liar!)'. You IICVeT

shnt up about il. do yo,," "\VIlal arc you tal king abom? It w::t.su', ,he baby 'hing a6""iu, I"m JUSt pulhng your ltg, d ..hug. You usted to have a ste"ste ofhulllor.' "And you used 10 leI me have a lire." "\VIlal docs thaI mean')" "' know you w::t. nI mt to give up the business. It·s true,

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isn't it? Yi,u want me pregnant and in the kilchen, I know you do,I said nothing, ! low could I deny Ihal I would prefer her 10 rmkc dinn~r for her 6mily nther than half of flShiolllbk u:",don' How conld I deny Ih ~1 I wan!Cd a baby, a family and all the old-fashioned dreams? I wamed uS '0 rn, d.e way'''"" were, Hut.t wasn't kcause I wanted to imprison her_ It was because I loved her T he waiter arrived with our Peking Dnek, and plales of small (;ucnmbu, 'pring onion and plum sauc~. I waited unlil h~ had shredded the duck and gone, "I jusl wanl y'>I' happy, Cyd." ~Then leave me alone. Ill rry_ Lei me run my business_ I-s 'roe _Every time we had one of 01lT ran: nights om. it was as if Peggy w as stic king her fingers down her throol. "Look, i f she was really sick, I'd be as worried as ~'Oll ,'

,llan ! ii's like 10 b.- a siugk pafem." "Is thai whal you thmk? That you're a singk par'Ickcd puh. Vim could hear the sound of broken gbss and S,renS. T hen I S3W her. Knumi Shc W;lS in the qucue ou~ide th at elmrch ou Shaftesbury Avem.t they had mrued mlO a club all1losllw~lIty ytaTS ago. Limdiglot. Gma and I had l,'OIIt thn~ a coupk of limes. I didn't even know that limclight was still open. Knumi was with a bnndl of men and WOlllcn. slightly younger than herself, .l1loIl: Tilt Ui'rld's rnlllJllrilf Dolly. But what did I know? She loved poring over the piclllrcS. and thert w:>s page after page of reproduction., from all the lucy Doll catalub"; down the ab':.t had two $ets of grandparents. Gina's mother had died before our son was born, and although her old man was $Iill out ther" and Pat Iud s~"C n him sporadICally down the Y"ars. he had never been a traditional grandfather figure. Glenn WaS what he h~d always bc.:n-a I~oben Plant looblike who had never quite made it nut nf the minor lngue$. There had becn the odd appearauce on Top oj rI~ Pop. at the cusp of the sixties and Ssn't the call I'd been cxpccting-< ursory, formal ~nd ~lIxiolls to b'Cl llIe otT the line ~nd OUt of her life. Inste~d, the c~n> when II C3me, was at midnight, ill te.rs, wllh a h~rd_c"rc ""undtrack boonllng m the b~ckgr"und. " l larr)'?One word and] could tell it w:lS her. even if the word was ~n choked lip with emotion. -Gin~, what's wrong'· C)'d stirred beside mt ~s I s.t up III bed. Sht'd had a latt night. clt~rillg for SOlllt launcJ., and sht had falltn aslttp as soon as her head touched the pillow - H arry. it's aw(ul" ' You're m London? Speak " p. I cau't h~ar you." ·Wr·Te in our /lat . Pat and Illt. In Bdsize Park. l thought II

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would be nIce around hen:. llut the people next doorthey've gOt So Solid Crew !,'Omg 1t full blast." "Yuu W:Ul! me- what? You Waitt 111," to cUlIIe arol1nd?~ I fell my wife_my (urrent wife. that is-pick up her alarlll clock and slam it back down. " Do you know wh" time it is, I larry?" Cyd said. ·Could you, I larry>" Gina said. "It's driving THe nuts alld it sounds like ,hen: an: a lot of them. Some SOrt of party. I' m afraid 10 knock on ,he dOOT." I put my hand ovcr the momhpiccc. "Gina's 111 10wlI. ThtTe'~ a problem with the fln. Noisy neighbors." "'Iell her to ("111 the police," Cyd Sol! up in Ix:d. She was wcaring this old Tom l ....,tty T "shirt. When we flTSt started. even when we were first muncd , she us! she had turned down Ihe olTer 10 sell him Food Glorious r"O no sex after marnab'C, thn" was nOnC m Primrose I lill in the flat that Knurm shart"d with a Swedish ,..:uman who was a second-year student at the I{oyal Academy of Music. It felt like Ollr ki ss in the dusk abow London had opened a door for me, but now I ""as f.c, do }~)U st ill have sex wllh your WIfe?" "I (an Idl you Ihe an~wcr to that now. " "No: She pressed a finger on my lips , "'krause 1 don 't wa nt you to start lyi ng to me. And even if Ihey leave their wife, 11 nevcr worb. I don't know why. !>ricc too h igh, maybe." And I was tom , I watt ted to look afler both of d, elll , To love both of them. Ka1.11mi and Cyd. l n Ihe way that they both deserved. And already I knew that was .mpossibk You can love two women at once, but ,,01 in the way they desCTve. So I was forever looking for d, e exi t sign , tryi ng doors , see king a way om of th is chaos . And I did it with Kazum i as ,,,"e ll as Cyd. In my m.d moments, when it all beca me too much alld th~ music stop~d, I wa1l1~d somcone-Cyd, K~zu mi , o"t" uf Ihem, clIha of th~m - to reveal so melh lllg so pai nful that it woul d drive me ~way, that it would scttle thi ngs on~e and forever. "You se~m to know" lot about sC1l treatment. r five y,'ars. After twO ~...ars, perhaps she would uo longer haw to do excrcises. PnllJps. Sec what ,he donors say. l·hvc to " '3 it and 'c~. And Ihere were lIill many Ilungs she would nO! talk 10 me ahoU!, dungs Ihal I Iud to gue,s ai, 10 wheedle o ut of surgCc Gina." He finally took his eye> off KazLlmi "To be honest. I want her 10 corne b>.ek.~ - T his" Kazomt," I 5CS aud back .gain. She had packed her photo album,. T he one of (\, ggy growing up. The om, of our weddiug day. The OUeS that recorded our holidays over the years. She had stored them all 'way. -Please don't leave.- I didn't want it to end this way. Not any way. Something inside m" recoiled from making the final. neet·s",ry br.·ak. -Why not? This isn't working, Hury. Not for you. Aud not for me.-Please . • I mad," mOve toward her, but she held up hcr h.ud like • traffic cop.

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"You're not a bad guy, !-Iany. Ynu'w ..'Ot a good heart. I 'nlly belil-\'e that , But we could wast(Cthcr? Gim mistook Illy silence for donbts about fertility treatment. "Ifs allth," rab'" these days, Harry, In SOme fenili!), clinics, d,,, really b'OOd ones, yon have 3 bettcr chance of cOIIU'ptiOlI widl IVF (han you have widl regular old-fashioned screwing. It's true."I don't know, G ina , I heard IVF treatment is expensive. And docsn't always work.-Maybe going through it will make uS slronger, Make uS a real husband and wi fe. )sn'llhat what we all want?" "Bul YOIl don"llove him anymore, Gina, You can' t jllst be with SOmeotK~be married to t hem, have a baby with thembecause you're f""hng a bit lone50nK.·Can'l you? What alii I supposed 10 do? Wait for Mr, Hight to come along? Not enough time, Harry, not enough energy. Sometimes this is what I think- the person you're wnh is Just the person you're with. T hat's all. End of story. It's no more than that." "You old TOmantic.' - Ifs not so bad, You're par tners. Yon Slick logether. Yon support each olher. So iI's not like one of the old songs-so wha l? A grown-up can't b'O around falling in lovl' all du" timc like some dumb-ass tttnJb'Cr. WI131 kino of tIless would Ihat make of your life '"You don't choose who yon fall in love Wilh," "How na',,-," you sound. Of COurSe you choose, 1"larry. Of course yon do.I liked 10 think that we we re friends . And I liked to think Ihat I still cared about her, ThaI I would always care aOo111 her. 13U1lhis carmg for my ex-wife, II oulywt'nt SO far, In the cud, my thoughts always Camc back to Iht ';'"UC place.

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,bom my boy?~ "Your boy?~ sh.- s.:ai.. shouting at someone, but I couldn't work out who, and then I ,,'Ot it, It snmcd strange to me that, Out of all the p