Walk

Paperback

English language

Published by Hachette.

ISBN:
978-1-4447-9016-0
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4 stars (1 review)

Stephen had seemed enthusiastic about the walk, when Benny first invited him. He kept going on about how amazing it’d be, the two of them out in the wilderness – the landscape shots, the pubs, etc., etc.

Benny didn’t interrupt this stream of enthusiasm. They were in the car park of the Miners, and Benny was too busy concentrating on his own stream of piss. He didn’t think about it at all until the next morning.

When he remembered inviting Stephen, Benny laughed out loud – a single ha – then spent three minutes silent-screaming into his pillow.

Benny thought that it would be him and his dad doing the walk. Just him and his father, hiking through the Welsh countryside, like they used to.

Only, when his dad got ill, it became obvious that this would never happen. So Benny was forced to consider other options.

If Benny is …

1 edition

A ramble into toxic masculinity

4 stars

A book I found by chance, when a friend saw it on the shelf at a bookshop and passed it on to me. 'm glad she did, this is a really interesting book that starts as an account of two old friends' attempt to walk Offa's Dyke Path. I felt like I knew the sort of story it was going to be then, but suddenly another voice is added into the narrative and it becomes a lot stranger and a lot more interesting. It examines and challenges the conventions of masculinity and male friendship, pitting that within the directionless life of twentysomethings in the current economy, searching for meaning in a world that refuses to give them any. Sometimes the foreshadowing - we know something is going to happen, but it takes a while to come about - is a bit much and there's a bit of wheel-spinning (foot-dragging?) before …