‘Mayflies’ by Andrew O’Hagan (2020) – 277 pages
‘Mayflies’ juxtaposes two stories from a Glasgow man’s life, one from 1984 and the other from 2017.
In 1984 a group of six young Glasgow men barely out of high school head to Manchester, England for a music festival with some of the indie bands that were big at the time: The Smiths, the Fall, New Order, etc. The six guys are:
Tully, Tibbs, Clogs, Limbo, Dave Hogg, and Noodles
All are from working-class families, all somewhat to the left of Karl Marx, and all disgusted with Thatcherism.
“Thatcherism had passed through the town like the plagues of Exodus. We’d had blood and frogs, and we were waiting for boils and locusts.”
It’s a wild and crazy drinking-and-weed weekend, and it is told by one of the young guys, Jimmy or Noodles as he is called, who is known to read novels during raucous rock shows.
“Six Scottish Pricks Get Wasted in Major European City.”
Although I’m quite familiar with a lot of 1980’s music from perpetually listening to MTV at the time, I am not too familiar with the groups listed above. As part of my research for this review, I asked Google what kind of music the Smiths played: “Indie rock jangle pop post-punk alternative rock”.
There you have it.
While the six are wandering the streets of Manchester, they see the two most famous members of the Manchester music group The Smiths, Morrissey and Johnny Marr, riding away in a Rolls-Royce. One of our guys from Glasgow picks up a cigarette one of the Smiths has dropped.
“I took a puff. The filter was wet. I passed it to Tully and told him whose fag it was as he had the last drag.”
“He cow’s-arsed it,” I said.
“Fuck it,” he said. “I don’t mind a bit of saliva. The guy wrote “How Soon is Now”.
In the second half of ‘Mayflies’ its 2017, and one of these formerly young guys, Tully, tells Jimmy that he has terminal cancer and will probably die within the year. Tully and Jimmy then set about planning Tully’s exit which includes Tully finally getting married to his long-time girlfriend Anna.
This second half of the novel is darker than the first half, probably necessarily so and that probably is the point that Andrew O’Hagan is making. There is always an end to the good times.
O’Hagan handles both of these vastly different times in a man’s life in an engaging fashion.
Grade: A-
Tony's Book World 
Posted by Annabel (AnnaBookBel) on February 21, 2022 at 8:10 PM
I loved this book, one of the best evocations of male friendship I’ve read. You really should listen to ‘How soon is now’ one of The Smiths’ greatest.
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Posted by Anokatony on February 21, 2022 at 10:34 PM
Hi Annabel,
I just listened to ‘How Soon is Now’. I will have to listen to it a few more times to fully appreciate it. This is the music that was big just before MTV went on the air, and I apparently wasn’t listening to the post-punk bands at that time.
Yeah, ‘Mayflies’ does capture a wild weekend with these 6 guys.
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Posted by Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead on February 22, 2022 at 3:13 AM
I’ve considered reading this a couple of times, mostly because I read some great blog reviews (I can’t remember if one was Annabel’s; I do think Jacquiwine posted about it). It’s on my list, but it has many entries ahead of it . . .
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Posted by Anokatony on February 22, 2022 at 6:37 AM
HI Janakay,
Andrew O’Hagan has been nominated for the Booker three times, so his next novel could well be the winner. I suppose you could wait for that next novel.
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Posted by kimbofo on February 22, 2022 at 7:23 AM
When I was at uni you were either a Smiths fan or a Beastie boys fan. Lol. I fell into the former. I’ve long wanted to read this book because of the music references. I was mildly obsessed with New Order and still listen to their Best Of album (my music tastes are very “new wave”) to this day.
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Posted by Anokatony on February 22, 2022 at 8:46 AM
Hi Kim,
Somehow I missed those New Wave English bands before MTV. I was listening to the Athens, Georgia band REM almost to the exclusion of everything else. Then when MTV came along, I picked up on the English groups again like Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Queen, etc.
By the way, I hated the Beastie Boys, and still dislike most rap. I love R and B and soul, but could never stand rap.
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Posted by kimbofo on February 22, 2022 at 12:07 PM
I’m with you re: rap. I grew up during era of New Romantics, Australian pub rock and New / Permanent Wave. My fave bands are an eclectic lot: U2, Midnight Oil & Depeche Mode but I’m also partial to Irish folk (Christy Moore, Sinead O’Connor et al) and Brit Pop from the 1990s (Blur, Oasis, Pulp etc). We are lucky in Australia because we have a strong music scene but also get all the Brit & American music.
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Posted by Anokatony on February 22, 2022 at 6:38 PM
Australia has had some great rock bands starting with the BeeGees. I particularly liked Divinyls and INXS and Little River Band.
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Posted by Lisa Hill on February 22, 2022 at 8:58 AM
I borrowed this from the library but I gave up on it. It’s not the book, I just wasn’t in the mood for nostalgia about rock bands I’ve never heard of.
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Posted by Anokatony on February 22, 2022 at 9:36 AM
Hi Lisa,
Andrew O’Hagan is young; he’ll be writing more novels, some of which may have a subject that interests you.
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Posted by Ayr Shire on January 14, 2023 at 6:10 PM
They are not from Glasgow.
That’s like saying 6 guys from London when they are from Southend.
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Posted by Anokatony on January 14, 2023 at 6:37 PM
Hi Ayr Shire,
So where would you say these six guys were from? Being from Minneapolis, Minnesota, I’m not at all familiar with the geographical terms used in Scotland.
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