Friday Night Club

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View books by Harry Ritchie.

Passable Tale of Men Forced To Grow Up - Rated
Former Sunday Times literary editor Ritchie has crafted a perfectly passable—though by no means special—book about four near middle-aged Scotsmen in London, all of whom are coming to terms with the onset of true adulthood. As schoolchildren, Graham, Ian, and Alastair were drawn into the orbit of Rob, instigator of the formative teenage "Friday Night Club" gatherings. Over twenty years later, the foursome have grown into very different people, but are happy to revive the club each Friday night under Rob's direction. The interim has seen Ian gallivanting across Europe as an English teacher, bedding winsome local lasses, and returning to England with a pregnant girlfriend much his junior. Graham had been an artist of some promise at uni, but is now reduced to mindless freelance illustration work while pining for his ex. Slightly goofy Alastair, meanwhile, has become a sub-editor at the Sunday Chronicle (a thinly fictionalized Sunday Times) and hasn't had sex in almost ten years. The leader of the pack, we are told, is Rob—investment banker, playboy, and owner of a swish Soho flat. We are told this, because whereas the other three are followed intimately throughout the course of the novel, Rob is only present through his absense.

The story more or less begins with Rob's mysterious absence from Friday Night Club. Over the next several weeks, the other three try to figure out why he's disappeared, and where to, while trying not to totally implode. Ian is struggling with the responsibility of impending fatherhood, and the end of the twenty year party that's been his adult life to date. His method of coping is coking—that is to say, steadily increasing lines of cocaine, and a corresponding increase in erratic behavior. The question with him is will he fall into a black hole of selfishness and avoidance, or will he grow up and be a man. Graham's issue is his ex, or rather, who she's seeing now. His attempts to ferret out this information are predictably desperate, and he too must face the choice of descending into depression or growing up and moving on. Alastair's challenge is to break out of the rut of being an unassuming nice guy with zero self-confidence. In Rob's absence, will he be able to find his own path and find happiness beyond gardening, house cleaning, and cooking?

Ritchie presents some pretty routine dilemmas of early middle-age men, not unlike some of Nick Hornby's work. The same old questions of friendship, trust, and growing up are all trotted out. It's a decent take on it, but there's nothing particularly new or exciting about any of it. Alastair's newsroom scenes provide plenty of comic fodder, which helps the pace quite a bit. All in all, it's not really noteworthy, but if you like the subject matter, you could do a lot worse.

A Passable Tale of Men Forced to Grow Up - Rated
Former Sunday Times literary editor Ritchie has crafted a perfectly passable-though by no means special-book about four near middle-aged Scotsmen in London, all of whom are coming to terms with the onset of true adulthood. As schoolchildren, Graham, Ian, and Alastair were drawn into the orbit of Rob, instigator of the formative teenage "Friday Night Club" gatherings. Over twenty years later, the foursome have grown into very different people, but are happy to revive the club each Friday night under Rob's direction. The interim has seen Ian gallivanting across Europe as an English teacher, bedding winsome local lasses, and returning to England with a pregnant girlfriend much his junior. Graham had been an artist of some promise at uni, but is now reduced to mindless freelance illustration work while pining for his ex. Slightly goofy Alastair, meanwhile, has become a sub-editor at the Sunday Chronicle (a thinly fictionalized Sunday Times) and hasn't had sex in almost ten years. The leader of the pack, we are told, is Rob-investment banker, playboy, and owner of a swish Soho flat. We are told this, because whereas the other three are followed intimately throughout the course of the novel, Rob is only present through his absense.

The story more or less begins with Rob's mysterious absence from Friday Night Club. Over the next several weeks, the other three try to figure out why he's disappeared, and where to, while trying not to totally implode. Ian is struggling with the responsibility of impending fatherhood, and the end of the twenty year party that's been his adult life to date. His method of coping is coking-that is to say, steadily increasing lines of cocaine, and a corresponding increase in erratic behavior. The question with him is will he fall into a black hole of selfishness and avoidance, or will he grow up and be a man. Graham's issue is his ex, or rather, who she's seeing now. His attempts to ferret out this information are predictably desperate, and he too must face the choice of descending into depression or growing up and moving on. Alastair's challenge is to break out of the rut of being an unassuming nice guy with zero self-confidence. In Rob's absence, will he be able to find his own path and find happiness beyond gardening, house cleaning, and cooking?

Ritchie presents some pretty routine dilemmas of early middle-age men, not unlike some of Nick Hornby's work. The same old questions of friendship, trust, and growing up are all trotted out. It's a decent take on it, but there's nothing particularly new or exciting about any of it. Alastair's newsroom scenes provide plenty of comic fodder, which helps the pace quite a bit. All in all, it's not really noteworthy, but if you like the subject matter, you could do a lot worse.

Very funny - Rated
This is a very good comic novel, with an engagingly wry style.

The central idea - a mystery surrounding the fourth member of the Friday Night Club - creates suspense and, in the end, makes you think hard about the depth of your relationships with your oldest friends.

It has insights on a par with Nick Hornby, but is much funnier.