The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Maril... by Andrew O'Hagan

The highlight of the summer is a weekend in Manchester, a trip centred on an indie music festival at the city’s G-Mex centre. O’Hagan excels in capturing the sheer adrenaline rush of being young, a time when your whole life is in front of you, and the possibilities ahead appear endless.

Their lives are defined by music, football, and various cultural references, their conversations peppered with lists of ‘top threes’: the three best goals scored by a Scottish player or the top three films starring Robert de Niro. Tully and Jimmy hang out with a gang of lads – Tibbs, Limbo, Hogg and Dr Clogs – whose defining characteristics range from the techy one to the political one. At that time, he had the kind of looks that appeal to all the sexes and all ages, and his natural effrontery opened people up.

He looked like Albert Finney, all slicked-up hair, but in Tully’s case spiked with soap. He impersonated Arthur Seaton from Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by taunting his boss all week and drinking pints of Black and Tan all weekend. Tully was twenty years old and a lathe turner. There is more than a touch of Albert Finney about Tully – not just in appearance but in personality too. Tully, however, is going down a different path in life, working as a machinist but living mainly for the evenings and weekends.

The book is neatly divided into two sections: the first set in the summer of ’86, when the boys are in their late teens/early twenties the second in 2017, which finds the pair in the throes of middle age.Īt eighteen, Jimmy is being encouraged by his English teacher – the sharp-eyed Mrs O’Connor – to continue his education, mainly as a route out of his working-class Ayrshire background. Central to the novel is the relationship between two men – Jimmy Collins, who narrates the story, and Tully Dawson, the larger-than-life individual who is Jimmy’s closest friend.

The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Maril... by Andrew O'Hagan