I had never heard of Matt Dunn before reading this book but I am glad that I gave him a chance. I was given this book
by my little sister, who is usually a very good judge of what I will like to read.
This is actually Matt Dunn’s third novel, his other books being ‘Best Man’ and ‘The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook’.
‘From Here To Paternity’ centres around a character called Will Jackson. Will is a life coach. He owns a lovely flat in Richmond and earns £100 an hour. Oh, and his office overlooks Ann Summers. Every young man’s dream life, right? Not if you’re Will. Will has decided that he is fed up of being alone and wants to become a father, as soon as possible. Will’s main problem is the fact that he has no one to be the mother of this child so he sets out to find a suitable woman by his next birthday. Cue some amusing moments with online dating nutters, blind dates and cleaning ladies.
Will is aided with his endeavours by his best friend Tom and his wife, Barbara . This couple have the life that Will aspires to yet he is completely incapable of taking any of their advice when it comes to how he can get the same thing.
I had two complaints about this book. Firstly, I didn’t think that the issues between Will and his father were very well dealt with. These issues are used as a convenient excuse for Will’s relationship history and, as such, I would think that Will and his father’s relationship should be an important part of the story but it is dealt with far too quickly.
Secondly, the book ends very suddenly with everything sorted out in the last couple of chapters. I appreciate that this is often the case with this sort of easy read but it seemed excessively so with this one. A bit like Matt Dunn realised he only had 15 pages left to sort out the whole novel and couldn’t be bothered to rewrite.
However, despite these criticisms, I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was engaging and I read it in two sittings. Will’s character is endearing and his mother is mad but great. The only characters that I didn’t really like were Barbara and Tom .
The ending is lovely, and really heartwarming. It’s just the ticket if you want to curl up with in an armchair with a cup of tea. It’ll will make you laugh and feel a lot better about the world!
Published by Simon and Schuster in 2007. 390 pages.