The first omen that Caitlin Moran’s new book What About Men? will be an outright catastrophe appears on page 13. Moran is stage-managing some faintly unbelievable reasons for writing it. And then, perhaps with faked incuriousness, she asks: “I couldn’t think of any book, play, TV show or movie that basically tells the story of how boy-children become men.” I mean, hang on a minute: what?
Let’s put aside the fact that the Star Wars films, which Moran references at what feel like ten-page intervals, are about a boy becoming a man. Let’s think for a moment about books that tell “the story of how boy-children become men”. What about David Copperfield? A Sentimental Education and The Red and The Black? Kim? Sons and Lovers and Demian and The Catcher in the Rye? How about The Rachel Papers? Has Moran heard of… Harry Potter? There are seven of those. But this is merely the first surreal claim in a book that itches with them. As the rash spreads, the reader begins – fretfully at first, and then with mounting panic – to wonder if Caitlin Moran has ever met a man.
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