All That Man Is is a collection of nine thematically linked short stories that reflect on the reality, unsavoury as it might be, of masculinity, masculine desire, ageing and failure. The book was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2016. The stories, in my opinion, are uneven. Some are quite riveting and some almost banal. All-in-all, though, most are quite strong and move along in plot and style well. I'm not a huge fan of short stories as a genre, but these are well-written; some are excellent. The stories follow a kind of chronological order, with the first story tracing two 17 year-old British students on holiday in Europe and the last about a 73 year old reflecting on his failing powers. All of the protagonists are failures of a sort, which gives the collection a decidedly gloomy feel. Yet despite the "realism", the writing is not brutal or judgemental. We do care about at least some of the protagonists and can relate to them to some extent. There is also a strong current of wasted motion, of unsettledness in most of the stories, as characters move around Europe looking for.... what? Whatever it is they're after, they generally don't find it.
For a review of the book from The New Yorker, click here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/nine-tales-of-crises-in-all-that-man-is
For a review of the book from The New Yorker, click here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/nine-tales-of-crises-in-all-that-man-is
