On this episode, the writer and men's mental health ambassador for Movember, Harry Cleary, speaks to Jack Aldane about what Nick Hornby's High Fidelity meant to him as a younger man, the problem with self-help books that claim to 'fix' rudderless male lives, the healing power of Oasis's 2025 reunion, and how his relationship with his father began a quest to provide boys and men with more and better ways to live well.

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:

That male literacy, including pleasure in reading, lags significantly behind that of women and girls, and

That many male readers demonstrate a marked bias toward non-fiction titles that trade on facts, systems thinking, and broadly rational solutions to life's myriad challenges.

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?

Follow The Lit Path and Subscribe to our Substack

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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:

1. That male literacy, including pleasure in reading, lags significantly behind that of women and girls, and
2. That many male readers demonstrate a marked bias toward non-fiction titles that trade on facts, systems thinking, and broadly rational solutions to life's myriad challenges.

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?

Follow The Lit Path and Subscribe to our Substack

X: @thelitpathpod

BlueSky: @thelitpath

Instagram: @thelitpathpod

TikTok: @litpathpod

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the fourth episode of The Lit Path, Jack Aldane sits down with journalist and author James Bloodworth to discuss George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936).

This novel is less about poverty (Orwell's focus in so many of his later works) than it is about what poverty does to the soul of a man convinced he's better than his circumstances.

Set in the shadow of pre-WW2 Britain, the novel follows Gordon Comstock, a would-be poet who declares war on what he calls "The Money God", the quiet tyranny of respectability, security, and the middle-class values he's convinced are killing art and integrity alike.

Jack and James examine how Orwell uses Comstock's shabby rebellion to expose the anxieties of a generation caught between fading Edwardian propriety and the hard economics of capitalism closing in on every side.

They also delve into what poor old Comstock shares in common with frustrated young men in 2026, and how Comstock’s idealism hides his cowardly ignorance towards and suspicions about women.

About The Lit Path

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:

1. That male literacy, including pleasure in reading, lags significantly behind that of women and girls, and
2. That many male readers demonstrate a marked bias toward non-fiction titles that trade on facts, systems thinking, and broadly rational solutions to life's myriad challenges.

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?

Follow The Lit Path and Subscribe to our Substack

X: @thelitpathpod

BlueSky: @thelitpath

Instagram: @thelitpathpod

TikTok: @litpathpod

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.