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The Man Who Wasn't There
In Pat Barker's The Man Who Wasn't There, twelve-year-old Colin knows little about his father except that he must have fought in the war. His mother, totally absorbed by the nightclub where she works, says nothing about him, and Colin turns to films for images of what his father might have been. Weaving in and out of Colin's real life, his imagined film explores issues of loyalty and betrayal and searches for the answer to the question 'What is a man?'
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Pat Barker
26 books2,639 followersPat Barker is an English writer known for her fiction exploring themes of memory, trauma, and survival. She gained prominence with Union Street (1982), a stark portrayal of working-class women's lives, and later achieved critical acclaim with the Regeneration Trilogy (1991–1995), a series blending history and fiction to examine the psychological impact of World War I. The final book, The Ghost Road (1995), won the Booker Prize. In recent years, she has turned to retelling classical myths from a female perspective, beginning with The Silence of the Girls (2018). Barker's work is widely recognized for its direct and unflinching storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 21, 2023
A rather brief novel from Barker, but cleverly constructed. It is set in the 1950s in the decade after the war and concerns Colin, a twelve year old boy. Colin lives with his mother Vivienne. His father, he knows nothing about and it seems he disappeared in the war. His mother will not tell him about his father which leaves Colin plenty of scope for imagination. His mother works in a night club and is having an affair with her married boss and Colin is on his own a great deal, looked after by an assortment of friends of his mother and neighbours.
Colin imagines what his father may have been like and in his imagination he creates a story which weaves in and out of his daily life and is written as a screenplay. The story he creates involves the French Resistance:
“Colin plodded up the hill, half moons of sweat in the armpits of his grey shirt. In the distance, lampposts and parked cars shimmered in the heat. All around him was the smell of tar.
Gaston jerks himself awake. A sniper is crawling across Blenkinsop’s roof, but Gaston has seen him. He spins round, levels the gun, and fires.
The sniper—slow motion now—clutches his chest, buckles at the knee, crashes in an endlessly unfurling fountain of glass through the roof of Mr Blenkinsop’s greenhouse, where he lands face down, his fingers clutching the damp earth—and his chest squashing Mr Blenkinsop’s prize tomatoes.
Gaston blows nonchalantly across the smoking metal of his gun, and, with never a backward glance, strides up the garden path and into the house.
As he passes through the hall, Gaston taps the face of a brass barometer, as if to persuade it to change its mind. No use. The needle points, as it does unswervingly, in all weathers, to Rain. Madame Hennigan, the landlady, believes in being realistic, and no mere barometer is permitted to disagree.
Gaston clatters up the uncarpeted stairs to the top-floor flat.
Where he becomes, abruptly, Colin again.”
It’s a while since I was a twelve year old boy, but I think Barker captures the time and place well. There are brief glimpses of school and boyhood friendships which rang true. Colin’s longing for a father runs through the whole as he sees those around him struggle. He hears his mother and her boss in the bedroom next to his at night. He sees the adolescent fumblings of his older friends and the petty cruelties of teenagers. It is well written and not sentimental. There are lots of loose endings and nothing is resolved but the whole is compelling. There are messages about identity, adolescence and loneliness. I felt it could have been longer, but that’s a personal opinion, but it’s by Barker, so it’s good!
Colin imagines what his father may have been like and in his imagination he creates a story which weaves in and out of his daily life and is written as a screenplay. The story he creates involves the French Resistance:
“Colin plodded up the hill, half moons of sweat in the armpits of his grey shirt. In the distance, lampposts and parked cars shimmered in the heat. All around him was the smell of tar.
Gaston jerks himself awake. A sniper is crawling across Blenkinsop’s roof, but Gaston has seen him. He spins round, levels the gun, and fires.
The sniper—slow motion now—clutches his chest, buckles at the knee, crashes in an endlessly unfurling fountain of glass through the roof of Mr Blenkinsop’s greenhouse, where he lands face down, his fingers clutching the damp earth—and his chest squashing Mr Blenkinsop’s prize tomatoes.
Gaston blows nonchalantly across the smoking metal of his gun, and, with never a backward glance, strides up the garden path and into the house.
As he passes through the hall, Gaston taps the face of a brass barometer, as if to persuade it to change its mind. No use. The needle points, as it does unswervingly, in all weathers, to Rain. Madame Hennigan, the landlady, believes in being realistic, and no mere barometer is permitted to disagree.
Gaston clatters up the uncarpeted stairs to the top-floor flat.
Where he becomes, abruptly, Colin again.”
It’s a while since I was a twelve year old boy, but I think Barker captures the time and place well. There are brief glimpses of school and boyhood friendships which rang true. Colin’s longing for a father runs through the whole as he sees those around him struggle. He hears his mother and her boss in the bedroom next to his at night. He sees the adolescent fumblings of his older friends and the petty cruelties of teenagers. It is well written and not sentimental. There are lots of loose endings and nothing is resolved but the whole is compelling. There are messages about identity, adolescence and loneliness. I felt it could have been longer, but that’s a personal opinion, but it’s by Barker, so it’s good!
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May 24, 2020This book was terribly short, I had imagined that I could write a review for The Command of the Ocean before I finished this - but it was so short that I finished it before even starting on that review. None of which has anything to do with the book at all, it is just a rambling non-introduction.
This is a short work, from the late 1980s, set maybe in the 1950s or 60s in the north-east of England. The story had a grubby, dirty feel to it, but maybe that was simply transference as my copy had unattractive yellowed pages, it certainly is though a shabby little story. In truth it is not that much shorter than the novels in Barker's Regeneration trilogy and not written that much before the first one; 150 pages to less than 300, and 1988 to 1991 but it feels as though this is a work from much earlier in Barker's writing career. It is not that it is unsophisticated, rather I felt that it is heading in a different direction artistically.
The story seems largely about fantasy. The central character, grammar school boy Colin, dreams a fantasy life in which he is a twelve year old operative in the French resistance during WWII, while his mother works as a hostess in a nightclub dressed up as a fawn, the man who owns the sweetshop dresses up as a woman - this features in Colin's Resistance fantasy. Meeting with the woman who runs a spiritualist meeting, she confesses to being a fraud, offering up soothing fantasies for those who attend her meetings, but she also confesses to having a gift and seeing it in the main character too. It is just the gift is irregular and unpredictable. Perhaps the main character is haunted by his future self, or selves.
Short but with many facets.
This is a short work, from the late 1980s, set maybe in the 1950s or 60s in the north-east of England. The story had a grubby, dirty feel to it, but maybe that was simply transference as my copy had unattractive yellowed pages, it certainly is though a shabby little story. In truth it is not that much shorter than the novels in Barker's Regeneration trilogy and not written that much before the first one; 150 pages to less than 300, and 1988 to 1991 but it feels as though this is a work from much earlier in Barker's writing career. It is not that it is unsophisticated, rather I felt that it is heading in a different direction artistically.
The story seems largely about fantasy. The central character, grammar school boy Colin, dreams a fantasy life in which he is a twelve year old operative in the French resistance during WWII, while his mother works as a hostess in a nightclub dressed up as a fawn, the man who owns the sweetshop dresses up as a woman - this features in Colin's Resistance fantasy. Meeting with the woman who runs a spiritualist meeting, she confesses to being a fraud, offering up soothing fantasies for those who attend her meetings, but she also confesses to having a gift and seeing it in the main character too. It is just the gift is irregular and unpredictable. Perhaps the main character is haunted by his future self, or selves.
Short but with many facets.
January 15, 2024
Still looking for the plot.
January 25, 2021
This is a short book, only 158 pages, but Barker manages to convey a lot in that space. Colin is a 12-year-old boy in post-war Britain, on the cusp of adolescence, longing to know anything about his father. He passes time by watching and reading about films, and starts to weave the films in with his own reality.
Barker’s prose is stripped back and bare, reflecting the austerity of the post-war setting. She manages to create complex characters of Colin and his mother, even with sparse dialogue.
This was a clever novel about coming-of-age and learning that some things in life will always remain a mystery.
Barker’s prose is stripped back and bare, reflecting the austerity of the post-war setting. She manages to create complex characters of Colin and his mother, even with sparse dialogue.
This was a clever novel about coming-of-age and learning that some things in life will always remain a mystery.
November 12, 2020
This short novel manages to be quintessentially Pat Barker and utterly different from anything else she’s written. I think that’s down to having a child as her protagonist. That different viewpoint, not much explored by Barker, makes this little book stand out.
I’m reading Barker out of order and it’s interesting to read her earlier works after her later output. In this one, you can see where some of her ideas (Bertha Mason) for Noonday originated. What I hated in Noonday works much better here and feels organic and not shoe-horned in. This was an original read and along with Blow Your House Down is probably Barker’s most critically overlooked and under-appreciated work to date.
I’m reading Barker out of order and it’s interesting to read her earlier works after her later output. In this one, you can see where some of her ideas (Bertha Mason) for Noonday originated. What I hated in Noonday works much better here and feels organic and not shoe-horned in. This was an original read and along with Blow Your House Down is probably Barker’s most critically overlooked and under-appreciated work to date.
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March 4, 2025I loved Barker's Regeneration series, and when this book didn't measure up I abandoned it.
January 3, 2015
This is an intriguing, and ultimately a puzzling, book. I liked the premise: a few years after the end of World War II, a boy with mysteries where his father should be fills the gap with an ongoing daydream based on war movies. The role played by a character based on a local transvestite--or rather, the reason for this character and whether we are meant to share the boy's worries in connection with him--are left somewhat ambiguous. The turn the daydream takes in regard to the boy's counterpart is strange and not really explained. These are perhaps "literary fiction" tropes--and may be appreciated more by those who appreciate literary fiction in general.
January 15, 2023
What an unexpected and wonderful story. I liked the way Barker wove fantasy and reality together, and included elements of spiritualism. And I enjoyed being in Colin’s head as he goes through what ends up being a series of puberty rites, trying to make sense of a confusing world where there’s a shortage of appealing male role models. Barker captures that post-WWII atmosphere of people - mainly women - trying to make a life in the rubble, and where most adults are either wounded or grieving. But it’s also very hopeful - Colin has a delightful 12-year-old boy’s resilience.
January 13, 2009
Interesting book that will probably reveal more upon re-reading. It leaves plenty to the reader's imagination, and although that can be intriguing, it also makes the themes and main storyline hard to grasp at times.
October 6, 2021
Another fine book by Pat Barker. It is short, a novella rather than a novel, but brings together many themes that emerged in her previous novels and would culminate in the Regeneration trilogy that followed this and brought her wide acclaim: the bleak plight of the English poor in the shadow of a war (this time the Second World War), spiritualism, and the strained and rather tragic relationship between the sexes. The men in Pat Barker's books are just as fascinating as the women and just as tragic victims of their predicament, with few resources to see their way out. Colin, like Billy Prior in Regeneration, does have a way out and he has "the gift", which may turn out to be just as much as a curse as anything else. There is a very moving passage when he sees himself visiting his own home as a young man. He is changed, unrecognisable to his childhood self, and it is only later that he realises that he is visiting on the occasion of his mother's funeral. It takes a while for the reader to realise the tragedy implied in the episode but never articulated directly, that his mother never escaped the life that Colin, the boy, is now living. Such deft, moving writing.
October 14, 2020
A short book along the lines of Pat Barker's earlier stories - 1950s working-class life - from the view point of the women (and their children) who have been consistently short-changed by the men in their lives - often single mothers.
Women's woes in this era were enforced by limited employment prospects denying them self-respect and financial independence.
The story focuses on Colin, 12 years old, a resilient and likable young lad. One could have wished that Colin's teachers and family had been more supportive - parental advocacy was lacking.
Colin's mother (Vivienne) and her friends are cautiously affectionate (strong immigrant family bonds seem sadly amiss in these English families).
Colin was left to wonder around by himself too much - today there are free lunches, homework help and after school activities.
Endearing and heart breaking - next book Regeneration - about soldiers in WW1 who again need understanding and empathy.
Women's woes in this era were enforced by limited employment prospects denying them self-respect and financial independence.
The story focuses on Colin, 12 years old, a resilient and likable young lad. One could have wished that Colin's teachers and family had been more supportive - parental advocacy was lacking.
Colin's mother (Vivienne) and her friends are cautiously affectionate (strong immigrant family bonds seem sadly amiss in these English families).
Colin was left to wonder around by himself too much - today there are free lunches, homework help and after school activities.
Endearing and heart breaking - next book Regeneration - about soldiers in WW1 who again need understanding and empathy.
March 30, 2019
Listen, I don't want to give any book a 1-star rating. I write, and it would hurt my feelings if someone read what I wrote and was like, "Oof. That was not good." But The Man Who Wasn't There is not good.
There is nothing to be gained by detailing all of the reasons I disliked this book. Suffice to say that I do not recommend it.
There is nothing to be gained by detailing all of the reasons I disliked this book. Suffice to say that I do not recommend it.
December 7, 2025
Coming-of-age story set in 1955. Three days in the life of 12-year old Colin Harper who lives with his single mum, who works in a night club. His dad supposedly died in the war. As his mum refuses to tell him anything about his dad, Colin makes him into a war hero in his fantasies
The atmosphere and characters are well drawn, but there is not much of a plot.
The atmosphere and characters are well drawn, but there is not much of a plot.
September 21, 2023
Read the Regeneration Trilogy recently and loved it. I wonder when she'll disappoint me? The best modern writers can write more than just their gender, and are comfortable with all ages too. For Pat Barker that's barely an inconvenience. Or so it feels to the reader, and that's all that matters.
March 6, 2019
This won the Booker prize? Really, must have been a slow year.
June 11, 2019
A quick read, good mixture of a child’s imagination and his real life. I particularly liked the ending. Pat Barker, as always, gets you into the heads and emotions of her very believable characters.
January 14, 2023
An early whimsical Barker novel.
July 4, 2023
Couldn't see the point
April 18, 2024
3.5 enjoyed reading it but think i may have missed something as i'm unclear in my feelings.
December 14, 2023
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Pat Barker is a Booker Prize winning author whose novel Union Street I've previously reviewed. This is a slight novel, a slice of post war England about a young boy raised by a single mom, his Nan, and other women of the neighbourhood.
Colin is left on his own most of the time, as his mom Viv works nights at a club - waitress is a polite word for her job serving drinks in a sexy fawn outfit. Sometimes Mrs. Hennigan from downstairs looks in on him, but he has plenty of time to wander down the carnival, sneak into the latest war pictures with his underage friends, or play combat games in the bombed out houses nearby. Always wondering who his father was, he skipped out when Colin was born, a secret his mother won't discuss. One night a neighbour takes him to her spiritual meeting, where a spectre is seen behind him. That is the closest he will get to a man who wasn't there, and there is talk at school about a boy being raise without a male presence. His story is interspersed with a fantasy of being a resistance fighter against the Gestapo and evil Kommandant von Strohm - a story peopled with characters from his real life including Bernard, the sweetshop keeper who likes to dress as a woman. Together the resistance tries to outwit the Nazis by burning codebooks - although there may be one amongst them who is a traitor, and must be silenced.
Barker weaves these stories together seamlessly, and it seems the walls are paper thin - Colin and the neighbours around him are woven into each other's lives as easily as his spy fantasies come and go. It's a vivid story of the time and place (she's an excellent writer with a keen ear for dialogue) but this doesn't move very far forward. Taking place over three days, it's easy to see it continuing on into the unforeseen future without much change.
Pat Barker is a Booker Prize winning author whose novel Union Street I've previously reviewed. This is a slight novel, a slice of post war England about a young boy raised by a single mom, his Nan, and other women of the neighbourhood.
Colin is left on his own most of the time, as his mom Viv works nights at a club - waitress is a polite word for her job serving drinks in a sexy fawn outfit. Sometimes Mrs. Hennigan from downstairs looks in on him, but he has plenty of time to wander down the carnival, sneak into the latest war pictures with his underage friends, or play combat games in the bombed out houses nearby. Always wondering who his father was, he skipped out when Colin was born, a secret his mother won't discuss. One night a neighbour takes him to her spiritual meeting, where a spectre is seen behind him. That is the closest he will get to a man who wasn't there, and there is talk at school about a boy being raise without a male presence. His story is interspersed with a fantasy of being a resistance fighter against the Gestapo and evil Kommandant von Strohm - a story peopled with characters from his real life including Bernard, the sweetshop keeper who likes to dress as a woman. Together the resistance tries to outwit the Nazis by burning codebooks - although there may be one amongst them who is a traitor, and must be silenced.
Barker weaves these stories together seamlessly, and it seems the walls are paper thin - Colin and the neighbours around him are woven into each other's lives as easily as his spy fantasies come and go. It's a vivid story of the time and place (she's an excellent writer with a keen ear for dialogue) but this doesn't move very far forward. Taking place over three days, it's easy to see it continuing on into the unforeseen future without much change.
November 18, 2009
A short novel/longish novella that's in a way an extension of the Walter Mitty idea. Young Colin knows nothing of his father except that he must have fought -- and died? -- in Europe during World War II. His mother won't tell him anything; neither will any of the other adults around him. So, as he wanders around his postwar neighbourhood, Colin acts out some of what he believes his father's glorious adventures must have been -- and making of them a mental movie whose script Barkers offers us intertwined with the main narrative. The effect's often very funny, sometimes extremely moving. Still, I think Barker was wise not to try to extend this to a full-scale novel; The Man Who Wasn't There is just long enough the way it is.
Oh, and it has nothing to do with the Coen Brothers movie of the same name.
May 22, 2015
More like 3 and 1/2. Pat Barker is becoming one of my favorite writers. Her style is spare, but always vivid, never lacking. She doesn't shy away from the meat of the story. She doesn't shy away from the humanity of novels. I am always impressed by the subtle darkness she brings to everyday moments, and there are so many in this book. The main character is living on the edge of understanding himself, but his world is a mess. Literally. He crawls over bombed out houses, lives among rubble and ruined lives. He's a wonderful character, who could have a much longer novel devoted to him. My problem with the book was the "movie" sections, not that they were dull, they weren't, but I sometimes felt annoyed by them. I understand the point, of course, but I just didn't enjoy reading them. I am looking forward to reading more of Barker's novels, as I'm sure they will stun me and move me.
March 4, 2013
I've only given it three stars because I like Pat Barker so much and there are some moments of her usual brilliance in this book. She can capture an expression and character like no other. However, I didn't really get this story. I didn't like the way it changed mid-scene between the real and the imagined. It felt like she was playing with a different style in this book, one which she thankfully has not employed in her other novels. It also didn't really go anywhere and took a long time to 'warm up'. I kept finding my thoughts drifting away.
I would say it's one for die hard Pat Barker fans who want to read her complete works. For anyone new to Pat Barker, she has written so many other wonderful novels, and not even necessarily the prize winners, don't start here.
I would say it's one for die hard Pat Barker fans who want to read her complete works. For anyone new to Pat Barker, she has written so many other wonderful novels, and not even necessarily the prize winners, don't start here.
November 22, 2011
I feel like I should have liked this book more than I did. The idea of it, an adolescent boy filtering his confused feelings and experiences through the movies he watches, is an appealing one but somehow I couldn’t get in sync with the rhythm of the story. By the time I got acclimated to it the book was already over. Maybe the fault is in me as the reader but this feels like a missed opportunity for a really interesting story.
August 4, 2014
This would have to have been baked longer for it to be worthy of being called 'half baked'. It's about a boy who never knew his father. He doesn't find out much about him in these 150 or so pages. The boy imagines himself in a WWII resistance situation (the book is set in the 50s). And that's it. I'm surprised at how poor this is given that Barker's earliest novel (Union Street) is so powerful and her later work (Regeneration onwards) is mostly excellent. This one is nowhere near that level.
December 28, 2014
The author did a good job in describing the context. I enjoyed the unmistakable Britishness of the story.
I was not so fond of the ending, though. Too sudden; I got the impression the characters were not given enough space to grow. I am also not sure I like the turn the story took: again, too sudden, and not very satisfactory.
I was not so fond of the ending, though. Too sudden; I got the impression the characters were not given enough space to grow. I am also not sure I like the turn the story took: again, too sudden, and not very satisfactory.
March 19, 2015
I really enjoyed the beginning of this book - couldn't put it down. Loved reading about Colin's life interweaved with the adventures of his alter-ego Gaston. But then part way through it started getting weird, and I found myself enjoying it a little less. I also feel there are a lot of loose ends that never got tied up. Still worth a read though.
May 15, 2009
While the actual story of this may not be the most gripping thing ever told, Barker's use of screenplay as a look into the mind of the protaganist is so damn interesting that I really couldn't put it down.
November 12, 2007
Not as gripping as the Regeneration Trilogy, but gives an intimate view into the stifled life of a young Brit.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews