Lad lit typically concerns itself with the trials and tribulations of white, heterosexual, urban twenty and thirty something men, faced with changing romantic mores and the pursuit of a desired lifestyle.
[5] The figure was created in contrast with the then current stereotype of the pro-feminist, well-groomed new man and, beneath the crass surface, the lads are attractive, funny, bright, observant, inventive, charming and excruciatingly honest.
But lad lit never really took off: promoting novels as part of a subculture that celebrated boorish behaviour and to a demographic (young men) that rarely bought books was, arguably, an idea doomed to failure.
His early novels, Fever Pitch (1992), High Fidelity (1995) and About a Boy (1997), each have a protagonist dominated by a typically masculine obsession (football, pop music, gadgetry) that reflects his inability to communicate with women.
Other authors associated with this new wave of fiction include: John O'Farrell, Things Can Only Get Better (1998); Tony Parsons, Man and Boy (1999); Tim Lott, White City Blue (1999); Mike Gayle, My Legendary Girlfriend (1999); Mark Barrowcliffe, Girlfriend 44 (2000); Matt Dunn, The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook (2006); Danny Wallace, Yes Man (2008); Kyle Smith, Love Monkey (2009); Zack Love, Sex in the Title (2013).