Review of SECOND BEST by David Foenkinos

 3.5 Stars

This book has a very interesting premise. It imagines the fate of a fictional 10-year-old boy, Martin Hill, whose life is shaped forever when he loses out to Daniel Radcliffe for the role of Harry Potter in the film versions of the books. Devastated, Martin tries to move on with his life but he can’t escape his feelings of failure.

The book opens with background on Martin’s parents and how he was invited to audition for the role because of his physical resemblance to the character. Then we see him grow from a young teen to a man in his thirties, always struggling with not being the chosen one and being, instead, second best.

Initially I had sympathy for Martin. As soon as the audition invitation is issued, “Martin was looking far off into the future, in terms of the possible consequences of his success.” And he becomes very connected to the character: “Martin was . . . good at imagining something better, good at dreaming about his life instead of living it. No wonder he felt so connected to Harry Potter; he had inherited a sort of incompatibility with reality, an ease with the world of the imaginary.” He is unprepared for the rejection: “Human life can perhaps be summarised as a constant trial through disillusionment, which culminates in a successful, or unsuccessful, way of managing pain. But at the time, Martin was just eleven years old. It was insurmountable. The promise of a marvellous adventure had just been ripped away from him.” And of course, “Soon, there would be no corner of the planet which wouldn’t remind him of this erasing of his destiny.”

My problem is that Martin, for decades, is unable to move on. He is offered help, but he doesn’t take it. “His disappointment at least had the merit of remaining secret,” and he refuses to discuss his failure with anyone. His self-pitying whining goes on and on and becomes so annoying. He does achieve a level of success yet he sees his life only as a failure. He sees the world as a hostile place and so protects himself with solitude. He does meet others who have also found themselves placing second and those stories give him solace, but after a while he reverts to his old behaviours. His lack of growth left me feeling frustrated with him.

In some ways, this book reminded me of another of David Foenkinos’ books, The Mystery of Henri Pick, which also explores how recognition and fame affect people and how people deal with a lack of recognition. I enjoyed the writing style. There are many tangents like the story of Pete Best who is remembered as the man who had almost been a Beatle and a synopsis of the life of J. K. Rowling. I also enjoyed the touches of humour: Jeanne, Martin’s mother, decides to stop trying to convince her son to talk of his feelings, “And it went without saying that she no longer used a broom to sweep the apartment.”

The ending is fairly predictable. Near the beginning, there’s a comment that foreshadows the resolution: “There were, then two ways of considering the same situation.” It just takes Martin a long time to be able to see things from someone else’s perspective and, unfortunately, I found parts of his story repetitive and tedious.