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A review by velmalovesreading
How Not To Be a Boy by Robert Webb
3.0
I like literary non-fiction, writing on gender issues and the work of Robert Webb so I reckon I’m the intended demographic for this book, and I did enjoy the prose. Webb has a humorous turn of phrase, and as I’m a similar age I get that observational comedy buzz of familiar cultural reference. As an autobiography its entertaining, but read ‘Descent Of Man’ by Grayson Perry for a more cohesive male voice on toxic masculinity.
As others have mentioned, this is patchy in structure and revelation, and there is a distinct jarring of tone in the way Webb equates some events with the expectations of masculinity put upon him. He blames much of his strife on his abusive father, with memories rendered in surprising clarity given the man moved out of the family home when Webb was five, to be replaced within a year by a benign stepfather. I was moved by the chapters covering the loss of his mum as a teenager, truly a horrible thing to go through, but beyond that it was hard to cry a river for this white, rural, middle class, grammar school and subsequently university educated, privileged man. What comes through most in his stories -of poor treatment of girlfriends and lazy academic achievement- is his own bad behaviour.
Sometimes it’s the patriarchy, sometimes you’re just a prick.
As others have mentioned, this is patchy in structure and revelation, and there is a distinct jarring of tone in the way Webb equates some events with the expectations of masculinity put upon him. He blames much of his strife on his abusive father, with memories rendered in surprising clarity given the man moved out of the family home when Webb was five, to be replaced within a year by a benign stepfather. I was moved by the chapters covering the loss of his mum as a teenager, truly a horrible thing to go through, but beyond that it was hard to cry a river for this white, rural, middle class, grammar school and subsequently university educated, privileged man. What comes through most in his stories -of poor treatment of girlfriends and lazy academic achievement- is his own bad behaviour.
Sometimes it’s the patriarchy, sometimes you’re just a prick.