Advantages of the Older Man by Gwyneth Lewis: a review

When I set out to read this book, I didn’t exactly know what to expect. I was ready for light comedy featuring the ghost of Dylan Thomas and what I got was so much more. There are explorations of life after death, dealing with what appears to be unrequited love and the struggles of being a writer (albeit a dead writer attempting to make a comeback).

            Advantages of the Older Man centres around Jennie, a twenty-something looking for a little more in her life. She’s had to move back in with her parents in Swansea and is pining after a Dylan Thomas adoring poet, Peter. She starts attending Peter's poetry sessions and does all she can to impress him, though she isn't entirely sure that it's going well,so, she makes a pact with the ghost of Dylan Thomas: he helps her to win Peter’s affection if she helps him to become relevant again. Though, his area of relevancy isn’t exactly what any of us, especially Jennie, would expect. They end up taking a trip around the USA to help the pair of them achieve their goals.

            I think this book is so engaging due to Lewis’ way with characters. I easily fell in love with them, despite their flaws. In only a hundred pages, Dylan Thomas gets a brilliant character arc. I can’t say that I was warmed to his character much at first but the more I learned about his life after death and how he struggled with the truth of how his wife, Caitlin, felt about him, he really grew on me and I felt a strong attachment to him. He certainly grew on me more than I thought given that he did have quite creepy tendencies when he first appears. I felt for him when he had to break awful news to Jennie. That news, which I'm not going to share because it's one hell of a spoiler, broke me. It also left me beyond shocked. There were two key moments towards the end of the book where I felt real surprise. The way that Dylan tried to help Jennie through hearing the worse news of her life is utterly endearing and an absolutely fantastic character arc.

For me, there’s always a worry in a romance that an awkward lead can feel like all the little character quirks are thrust upon the reader and it feels like this sort of person could never really exist. Jennie felt real to me though; she gave me that ridiculous feeling of a book character being a friend. She just struggles to find a way to impress someone she’s into. While we can’t all summon up a writer’s ghost, we do ridiculous things to give us the slightest bit of hope. The fact is that Dylan Thomas is somewhat useless when it comes to helping Jennie but he does try his best and means that only endears him to me more.

I cannot write a review on this book and not talk about the Niagara Falls scene. While on their U.S road trip, Dylan and Jennie head to Niagara Falls because Jennie has always wanted to go there. The pair find that Dylan isn't the only dead writer on the boat. We only get to see one but we hear of another. We see Edgar Allen Poe who is perfectly written like a skulking moody teen. Of course it isn't likely that Poe was ever like that but his character killed me. He's the perfect caricature. The relationship between him and the guy he was with, Harvey, is absolutely fantastic. It's a cliché but they're like an old married couple. They bicker at each other over silly little things and I was giggling the whole chapter. It turns out that writers' ghosts attach themselves to those who need them, just as Dylan did for Jennie. The whole chapter was truly brilliant but there was one line that killed me. Harvey is complaining about being stuck with Poe but says that things could be worse. When asked how, he says "that poor sod got Wordsworth". I can't quite put my finger on why that line got me the way that it did but, even days after finishing the book, I still think about that line.

I absolutely adore this book and know that I’ll find myself in its pages countless times. I cannot recommend this enough. Get your hands on this, trust me.