Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh: Growing up is hard to do

The blurb for John Patrick McHugh’s Fun and Games came garlanded with praise from a slew of starry Irish literary names, not least Sally Rooney. I often wonder how that might feel for a writer; a kind of euphoric anxiety, perhaps. Set in the summer of 2009, McHugh’s novel follows seventeen-year-old John and his footballing mates, all four determined to play for their club in the Championship.

Life careened into you and there was nothing you could do about it and so what was the point? Life, he wrote in a notebook, was pointless! He wrote: I hate my family and I hate my life!  

Even before his mother inadvertently texted a picture of her breasts to the wrong person, becoming the talk of the Island, John spent much of his time consumed with social anxiety, second guessing his every move not least with Amber, his colleague at the hotel where he’s working over the summer, definitely not his girlfriend but they seem to secretly hook up more and more. His father has moved out at his mother’s request but he still relies on them both to ferry him back and forth to his job and training practice. John’s thoughts are fully taken up with himself – his prospects with the team and Amber, what his friends think of him, how horrible his body is in comparison with theirs – leaving little room for his parents or his sister, about to get married, or any troubles that Amber might have. As the summer wears on, he’s faced with a few home truths, coming close to thinking about other people and their problems.

In his heart, John could thus argue he had protected Amber and the sanctity of them. John could feel less bad and once you begin to feel less bad, you basically have washed the error and the fault away.

I wasn’t sure if I would stick with McHugh’s novel at first; there are some lengthy football passages, not something I’m at all interested in. That said, John’s character drew me in to this funny, poignant coming-of-age story which smartly nails late adolescence with all its excruciating discomforts. Oblivious to the difficulties of everyone around him, John agonises over texts sent, replies received and not received while labouring over witticisms he plans to deliver. His parents are loving and solicitous of him yet he’s only concerned with how their split will affect him. He wants Amber but looks down his nose at her, lies to his friends and endlessly self-dramatizes. It’s a tribute to McHugh’s characterisation that he managed to engage my sympathy for John let alone have me rooting for him. His novel lived up to all those starry puffs for me, and its ending is a masterstroke.

4th Estate Books: London 9780008517342 272 pages Hardback (Read via NetGalley)