The plight of a man in a world questioning masculinity is, understandably, a very hot topic. Michel Houellebecq’s tortured and lonely men continue to wonder about how communication with women is in any way possible. In what he says will be his last novel, Annihilation, one reflects: “The maintenance of any kind of sexual activity in an established couple is in itself a real success, the exception more than the rule.” David Szalay’s Booker-nominated Flesh centres on a taciturn tough guy, perhaps the least expressive character in all of literary history. Tony Tulathimutte’s satirical story collection Rejection looks at desperately sensitive men in a world that they feel condemns them no matter how feminist they are. Men in fiction are generally embarrassed these days. And they really don’t have a clue how to behave.
The lacklustre hero of Ian Williams’s You’ve Changed is no exception. A carpenter called Beckett, in a miserable...
Russell Smith is the author of many books, including, most recently, Self Care.
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