On Episode 5, Amanda Craig and Jack Aldane and discuss Andrew O'Hagan’s ode to male friendship in his novel Mayflies, published in 2020. Craig argues that male friendship begins early in life and has a remarkable capacity to survive the rub of time.
By contrast, she adds, women tend to discover the true nature of friendship after childbirth when female solidarity means more than ever.
O'Hagan's intense interest in the subject of friendship makes Mayflies a rare examination of the seasons through which male chums discover the true depths of their love for one another. The novel is an exhilarating celebration of youthful lunacy and the hungry for knowledge and female affection that drives men forward both together and as individuals.
The Lit Path's mission is to engage with the crisis of masculinity head-on by looking to the transformative power of the novel for wisdom. Each episode will feature a guest — they could be an athlete, a musician, a writer, broadcaster, comedian, entrepreneur or public servant - reflecting on the novel that has resolutely altered their perspective and made them wiser as a result. Whether an episode involves a man telling his story, or someone telling that of someone they know, love or admire, the show will uncover how fiction not self-help manuals, not productivity guides, not scientific explanations of phenomena) can change the depth and texture of a man's inner and outer world.
Against the broader backdrop of men's mental health challenges, The Lit Path addresses two main concerns:
While such books have their value, The Lit Path asks instead: What happens when men turn away from the quantifiable world and towards the psychological, moral, and emotional vistas opened up by great works of fiction?
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