A New Era For Manny Youngman

Mike Murphy

Michael Murphy

ISBN: 9780994414809

Description:

Manny Youngman has some unconventional ideas on feminism and the effects it has had on our society. He thinks there is an imbalance and men also need to find a new role for themselves to stop the growing spiral of domestic violence, broken marriages and male suicides. His ideas sound good in theory, but they are sorely put to the test when he is confronted with a teenage daughter he didn’t know he had and her militant feminist mother who is going to jail.

Manny’s world is turned upside down, drawing his parents, his professional colleagues and his associates in the New Era Men’s Support Alliance, as well as the friends of his new-found daughter and her mother, into a sequence of events over which it seems no-one has any control.

Funny sometimes but always with a serious undertone, A New Era For Manny Youngman is a very different novel with something to say about male-female relationships.

My View:

Mike Murphy presents some interesting view points and scenarios in this contemporary novel. Undoubtedly the role of men and women in today’s society is one that is complex; there are no “Golden Rules” to making a relationship work – or is there? Manny and his band of cohorts, family – immediate and extended, eventually prove that honesty and the use of passive listening techniques go a long way to understanding and living in harmony. Sounds easy doesn’t? Tricked you – life is never easy but it could be a lot easier for some of us if we just took some time to truly listen to someone else’s view; switch off, turn off, power down and listen.

Mike Murphy’s writing demonstrates his high level of listening skills; the voices of his characters are realistic, their actions credible. The scenarios are a little complicated but then, so is life.