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Title: The Misogynist

Author: Piers Paul Read

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-27-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Jomier has reached the age of retirement, his children are grown up and his wife, after having an affair, has left him. Embittered and humiliated, he lives alone in London, mourning the disintegration of his marriage as he broods about the past and the present. When he falls for Judith, things begin to improve. Yet he still cannot escape his old habits and it is only when his daughter falls ill that he begins to reassess his feelings toward those he loves and his ability to forgive. Darkly humorous, ruthlessly satirical and surprisingly moving, The Misogynist is a perceptive exploration of the ways in which we can unintentionally let past disappointments affect our present, and how difficult it can be to move forward.

Members Reviews:

A Quintessentially English novel about a Miserable Git

Read portrays the life of a retired sixty something divorced Englishman, Geoffrey Jomier, extremely well. A man who only gets invited to dinner parties when a single man is needed, a man embittered by a wife who cheated on him with his best friend, a man who meticulously records every item of expenditure: in short, a man you would avoid meeting. There is a particuarly long and bland account of a 'romantic?' trip to Venice with his new love Judith, followed by a fastidiously detailed account of dividing the cost of the trip to present the spreadsheet of the amount owed to Judith a couple of weeks later. Yes, very English! The society Jomier mixes with is one where you are judged by what school you went to and what newspaper you read. Again, very English. Humour is in short supply but I did enjoy Read's twist at the end. Jomier's London is very mundane and not cosmopolitan and why I found the book dull. However, if you are a person who presents their girlfriend with a spreadsheet of her share of a holiday's expenditure two weeks after the vacation then this is the book for you!

"A Married Man" Thirty Years On

Piers Paul Read wrote a novel called "A Married Man" about 30 years ago about a lawyer in his early 40s and the trials (no pun intended) and tribulations of his domestic life.

It was an easy read, with a somewhat improbable plot about a middle-class barrister called John Strickland* trying to become a Labour electoral candidate, his half-American mistress, bad-tempered English wife and melodramatic ending involving low-class criminals from east London.

Fast forward 30 years to "The Misogynist" and we basically end up with "A Married Man Volume 2" although with a different character (a retired lawyer in his mid-60s called Jomier, this time) but similar frustrations centering on his family, ex-wife, new flame, money, English politics and life in London.

The first part is basically a rant in which the character lashes out at what he hates about modern day life, political correctness etc.

It would be mildly amusing in the Daily Telegraph or Spectator, for example, but is out of place in what is supposed to be a novel and I was about to ditch the book when finally a plot appeared.

Not much of a plot and not a very original plot - basically boy meets girl or rather pensioner meets pensioner - but at least a plot.

From then on we follow a romance that we know is doomed and meet a series of people the two main characters have picked up in their lives - ex-husbands, lovers, ex-wives, children, grandchildren.

Most are totally implausible and disappear as soon as they have played their cameo roles - e.g.