Single Men

by Dave Hill

Single Men. Who needs them?

Dave Hill follows the lives of four vastly different personalities in Single Men , a witty and insightful novel perfect for fans of David Nicholls' Us or Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project . This is the story of 24 year-old Marie who does domestic chores for three single 20-something Marlon, a currency trader, who is finding his love life and work life a strain, and is indulging in potentially self-destructive means to compensate; 30-something Daniel, an antiques and erotic art dealer, between boyfriends at the moment but the father of an 8 year-old daughter who lives with him; and 40-something Guy, a heart surgeon and divorced father of a teenage son, dynamic, charismatic, macho but ultimately juvenile, with a complex private life. The story revolves around the dynamics of Marie's relationships with these very different men and asks the crucial questions - do men need women? Do women need men? What are the mysterious dynamics that draw and repel the sexes? The answers in Single Men are very surprising and entertaining indeed... What readers are saying about Dave Hill's ' Enjoyable, witty and well observed ' 'The quality and depth of the characters see this book through with flying colours ' ' Narrative drive, gritty realism and sheer laugh-out-loud wit '

Genres: Modern

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

There are multiple authors in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Alessandra Cahill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very basic feeling romance story where the central female character is poorly fleshed out. She's constantly worrying about what other people think of her or how they perceive her, yet also left the father of her child for no reason that she seems able to articulate? Yet spends half the book hating his guts? And falls in love with a guy at a campsite in 3 days, has sex with him in a tent next to her sleeping son but is too shy to get undressed in front of him? Oh and she somehow manages to live on 3 private cleaning jobs a week while living in the middle of London. She has no hobbies but is able to send her son to nursery full time, so god knows how she pays for that. There was a lot about this book that didn't really make sense, and you could tell it was written by a man - who seems to have little to no understanding of what women are really like.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read a Dave Hill book and it was ok but I couldn't get into this one. Not for me.

[Corinne]

The description above, and the blurb, make this book sound far more complex and interesting than it is. It's a simple romance story, in the genre with Bridget Jones but without the diary entries that made that feel so personal, and without any of the humour that you usually find in basic "chick lit". To be fair, it was refreshing that the heroine never fell over, got her knickers out, or humiliated herself in any other way; the formulaic "gosh what a moron" self-deprecation isn't really present here - but it wasn't replaced by anything more unusual or enjoyable. No depth, no wit, no reason to read this book.