You're a Big Boy Now

You're a Big Boy Now is a 1963 satirical novel by the British author David Benedictus. It was adapted into a 1966 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with the setting changed from London to New York City. Dedication Benedictus dedicated the book to "the only girl I've ever loved—wherever they may be"; in a preface, the author describes the novel as an examination of "the deadliest form of self-destruction, which is love". Plot The central character of the novel is Bernard Chanticleer, a shoe salesman at a London department store at which his father is a manager. The Chanticleers live in a suburb, and "are type-cast as ridiculous bourgeois". At the store he meets a girl, Amy, who is rejected by his mother as "that terrible blatant girl with such common legs too". Bernard, described by one reviewer as "comically neurotic", then becomes infatuated with a stage actress, Barbara Darling. He sends her an impassioned note and they agree to meet. Barbara wants to victimize Bernard in revenge for her being ill-treated by men in the past. Eventually Barbara tires of Bernard and marries a window dresser. They have a child who bears a suspicious resemblance to one of Barbara's former lovers.