Afternoon Men
A Novel
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword
Part I. Montage
Part II. Perihelion
Part III. Palindrome
Part I. Montage
Part II. Perihelion
Part III. Palindrome
Review Quotes
Blake Bailey | Slate
“The funniest novel you’ve never read. . . . Afternoon Men is a revelation to sophisticated readers of every stripe, but especially to a certain kind of artist manqué on the brink of discovering that life is a more difficult business than he ever had reason to expect. . . . The subject matter is ‘relatable,’ as my students like to say. Better still, though, is what you can learn about the craft of writing from this marvelous book. . . . Indeed, if you’re looking for a funny, nonportentous Hemingway, then the early Powell is your man.”
John Warner, aka the Biblioracle | Chicago Tribune, Printers Row
“Ooh, ooh, ooh, I'm excited because I recently read a reissue of Anthony Powell's Afternoon Men, and just know that this is the right book for . . . one of my most frequent correspondents.”
James Wolcott | Vanity Fair
“[A] still-too-little-acknowledged comic masterpiece.”
John Bowen | New York Times
“In its dead-pan comedy and its ultimate despair, Afternoon Men belongs with Cyril Connolly’s The Rock Pool and Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust. These books describe a part of England that no longer exists.”
Times Literary Supplement
“Good entertainment. . . . Powell has a rich fund of irony and humour to support his extravagance and a humorous veracity of observation.”
Elizabeth Janeway | New York Times
“Looking back at Powell’s earlier novels, it is possible to see him discovering there how to use his razor-sharp satirical sense until it is purged of bitterness and extravagance.”
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