Customer Reviews
Funny in places... - By: Ms. J. M. Power, 24 Jun 2008 
I read this because it had been well reviewed & I had enjoyed Are You Experienced? It's a quick easy read, with some entertaining lines & scenes, but it's somehow not as satisfying as the earlier book. Most of the characters are stereotypical, there aren't many surprises or plot twists & it seems to me to be fairly forgettable.
My main comment, I think, is that someone should mention to the editorial team at Bloomsbury that 'bored of' is incorrect, it should be 'bored by' or 'bored with'. I'm surprised they don't already know this. It's what I remember most about this book!
enchanting summer comedy - By: A. Craig, 08 May 2008 
There are so many bad comic novels out on the shelves that a reallly good one deserves flagging up. This has the simplest of ideas - three unmarried men in their thirties have mothers who are alll friends. Discussing their sons, & agreeing that something has gone wrong with their lives, they descend for one week to sort them out.
One son works on a lad mag callled BALLS, obsessed with women's breasts & designer gadgets, & is living the life of an urban bachelor. His horrified mother discovers not just dust but kinky S&M gear under his bed, & not only sets about to cleaning the shag-pad but crashes a launch party of a new aftershave & tries to set him up with a nice girl instead of a teenager....Another son hasn't yet come out to his mum, & lives in a gay commune where he is outed within minutes....The third has moved to Edinburgh to try & get over Erin, the love of his life whom he lost by not wanting children. Yet the mothers alll have some growing up of thier own to do, & it's in depicting them with sympathy & warmth that Sutcliffe's novel rises above the hilarity of his early work. He seems to understand much more than the preoccupations of his generation, & in consequence women in their fifties & sixties will I think get as many laughs & sighs of recognition as those of us with young sons.
I began reading this in a foul mood, with rain lashing down etc etc & by the first chapter it felt as if the sun had come out. Although it's mostly dialogue, the passages of descriptive writing are excellent, & the ending perfectly judged. It would make a lovely film.
