#Blogtour: Being Simon Haines by Tom Vaughan MacAulay @RedDoorBooks @TomMacAulay80

Book description:

Meet Simon Haines.  For a decade he’s been chasing his dream: partnership at the legendary, family-run law firm of Fiennes & Plunkett. The gruelling hours and manic intensity of his job have come close to breaking him, but he has made it through the years and is now within a whisker of his millions: in less than two weeks, he will know the outcome of the partnership vote. He decides to spend the wait in Cuba in an attempt to rediscover his youthful enthusiasm and curiosity, and to clear his mind before the arrival of the news that might change his life forever. But alone in Havana he becomes lost in nostalgia and begins to relive his past…

Set against the backdrop of an uncertain world, and charged with emotion, Being Simon Haines is a searching story about contemporary London and aspiration, values and love. Painting a picture of a generation of young professionals, it asks the most universal of questions: are we strong enough to know who we are?

My review:

Being Simon Haines is an interesting journey through a man’s life, the choices he makes and his quest to accept who he is.

Simon is a very interesting and complex character.  I started off not liking him much as he came across as quite arrogant but as the book goes on and I learnt more about his life I grew to like him.  He seemed a very realistic character as he makes quite a few mistakes in his life and a few wrong decisions.  He also suffers from paranoia and often has to reassure himself that everything is OK.  The internal struggle that I’d described in the book was very interesting to read about and often provided some rather comic moments. His boss at the London law firm he works at was another interesting character with someone unusual character traits such as whispering all the time and finding excuses not to go home all the time which were quite amusing!

I enjoyed reading about the different parts of his life but I especially liked the description of his trip to Havana as Cuba is a country I have always wanted to visit.  It was fascinating to learn a little more about the country’s history, specifically what it was like under Castro.  The author describes the ways in which the citizens survived and made money to live on when so much was outlawed.  It was interesting to read about some of his experiences at university and some of the traditions and secret clubs there were there.  It was nice to read a book where being clever was described as being cool and celebrated instead of being dismissed as geeky.  His work at the London law firm was a bit of an eye opener as it’s hard to believe that people work like that and that it’s considered legal.  Unfortunately I do know this to be true as my sister used to be a lawyer in London and had a similar experience.  As the author used to be a lawyer himself I do wonder if this part was based on his own experiences.

This book does read like a memoir, like other reviewers have stated and the author manages to keep the readers interest with interesting antidotes, and humor.  There were a few bits which, to me, were a little descriptive and I felt deviated from the plot a bit though this didn’t stop my overall enjoyment of this book.

I really liked the ending as it was lovely to see how much Simon had grown and the type of person he had developed into.  There wasa part of the ending that I wish had ended differently but that would probably have made it too perfect and not so realistic.

This is Tom Vaughan MacAulay’s debut novel and i look forward to reading more from him. It reminded me a bit of Any Human Heart by William Boyd so if you liked that book I think you’ll probably like this one.

Thank you to Red Door Publishers for my copy of this book and the chance to be on the blog tour.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Being Simon Haines is out in eBook and paperback on the 22nd June 2017.

About the author:

Thomas Vaughan MacAulay was born in Chester in 1980.  Tom is a solicitor and has worked both in London and Milan during his career.  He currently lives in North London and is in the process of completing his second novel.

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