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peebee's review against another edition
3.0
What kind of social lives do the people who review books professionally lead? I honestly looked at the back of the book more than once to make sure I read it right. Anyone who thinks Sebastian Dangerfield is a 'Rougeish cad' and this story is 'picaresque' have all the frame of reference of a 13 year old kid who idolizes the out of work greaser who hangs out by the 7-11 getting stoned as the coolest guy in the world. I have tons of friends who get drunk and loud and make parties happen. I've got a friend who had a bottle broke over his head for one too many wisecracks. I have a friend who chased a 17 year old who didn't kick in for a shared cab three blocks at 3 AM down the shore, screaming he'd kick his head in, because he was so drunk he'd forgotten he was the one who offered to let the kid ride free in our cab in the first place. They're all pretty great boyfriends, husbands, fathers and friends. You have to be pretty desperate for excitement in your life to like a tiresome, abusive, boring sociopath like this, even vicariously through fiction.
If you read On the Road or Big Sur, and WEREN'T constantly furious with how the main characters treat the women around them as walking sexdolls/ATM's you'll like this book. If you read House of Leaves and had a hard time getting to the awesome parts through the scenes where a character inexplicably plows his way through half the females in LA, you might find it a tough hang.
Knew after about one chapter what I was in for, but stuck it out anyway. Not really sure what life was like back in the 50's, but if this guy was considered at all fun to hang around with, then fuck that whole generation. The guy is basically a meth-head, but for a much lamer drug. If you're going to rip fixtures out of the bathroom to pawn for intoxicants while your baby goes hungry, at least set your sights a little higher than booze. Nothing that he did seemed all that funny or redeeming, The only friend we actually see him interact with, O'Keefe, he uses the same as anyone else, but the rest of his buddies seem to think he's the greatest guy they've ever met. Especially the one who magically gets fabulously stinking rich in London, as were poor Irish drunks wont, back in those days.
Well written, but a type of story I loathe. Maybe something else by the author would be better.
If you read On the Road or Big Sur, and WEREN'T constantly furious with how the main characters treat the women around them as walking sexdolls/ATM's you'll like this book. If you read House of Leaves and had a hard time getting to the awesome parts through the scenes where a character inexplicably plows his way through half the females in LA, you might find it a tough hang.
Knew after about one chapter what I was in for, but stuck it out anyway. Not really sure what life was like back in the 50's, but if this guy was considered at all fun to hang around with, then fuck that whole generation. The guy is basically a meth-head, but for a much lamer drug. If you're going to rip fixtures out of the bathroom to pawn for intoxicants while your baby goes hungry, at least set your sights a little higher than booze. Nothing that he did seemed all that funny or redeeming, The only friend we actually see him interact with, O'Keefe, he uses the same as anyone else, but the rest of his buddies seem to think he's the greatest guy they've ever met. Especially the one who magically gets fabulously stinking rich in London, as were poor Irish drunks wont, back in those days.
Well written, but a type of story I loathe. Maybe something else by the author would be better.
sakisreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
✨ Gifted ✨
I’m so confused. I didn’t love this book at all but I couldn’t stop reading it 😂
A friend’s dad gave it to me and said it was full of Irish humour… Which maybe because I don’t have enough experience with it, I didn’t understand it 😳
The brazen sexuality was going to send me over the edge, but I understand this book was written decades ago and might have been deemed appropriate for then 🫠
2 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
I’m so confused. I didn’t love this book at all but I couldn’t stop reading it 😂
A friend’s dad gave it to me and said it was full of Irish humour… Which maybe because I don’t have enough experience with it, I didn’t understand it 😳
The brazen sexuality was going to send me over the edge, but I understand this book was written decades ago and might have been deemed appropriate for then 🫠
2 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Misogyny
jennyag09's review against another edition
1.0
Awful. The main character is a horrible person, the plot is dull, and the writing style is grouped paragraphs of fragments. I picked it off the list I have of funniest books ever and I'm only finishing it because I can't leave it half read.
jetia13's review
2.0
This book was sooo weird. Shockingly vulgar at times. I really have no idea what it is about.
ajreader's review against another edition
3.0
Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.
Another book about a lecherous, careless European man. I'm getting tired of these.
Another book about a lecherous, careless European man. I'm getting tired of these.
brdgtc's review against another edition
1.0
I've been trying to formulate a review for this for a couple of days. I read it because it is on the Modern Library Top 100 Novels list - otherwise I would have put it down after the infamous page 29: "He drove his fist into Marion’s face [his wife]. She fell backward against the cupboard… In tattered underwear he stood at the nursery door. He kicked his foot through and tore off the lock to open it. Took the child’s pillow from under its head and pressed it hard on the screaming mouth." (please note: this book is considered a comedy)
In addition to probably being the most misogynist book I've read thus far on the Modern Library list (this was my 68th, so I know that is actually saying a lot) I found it incredibly derivative and unoriginal, like a poor man's Ulysses. What I have struggled with explaining is that I don't necessarily oppose books with unsympathetic characters - I do believe that Lolita is one of the best novels I've ever read, for example - but in these cases, we have to ask - to what point is the author using the character? If it's to romanticize the bad behavior, then it's lazy and uninteresting to me - that's how I read The Ginger Man.
In addition to probably being the most misogynist book I've read thus far on the Modern Library list (this was my 68th, so I know that is actually saying a lot) I found it incredibly derivative and unoriginal, like a poor man's Ulysses. What I have struggled with explaining is that I don't necessarily oppose books with unsympathetic characters - I do believe that Lolita is one of the best novels I've ever read, for example - but in these cases, we have to ask - to what point is the author using the character? If it's to romanticize the bad behavior, then it's lazy and uninteresting to me - that's how I read The Ginger Man.
amanova's review against another edition
Seven months. I’ve been trying to slog through this for the past seven months and I just can’t do it anymore. Recommended by a good friend so I made an effort, but I’m done. No, it's not because the protagonist is unlikeable (although he is, truly), I can get past that. I think I it's the style. I want to appreciate it, but I don't. So I quit. As I'm sure I've said before, life's too short to read books you really can't stand!
simonmh's review against another edition
5.0
Very, very funny book about an American going to school at Trinity College in Dublin after WWII. He’s incredibly broke (steals toilet paper form pubs and pawns it) and drinks like a fish, waiting for his father to die so he can inherit money.
Maybe in part because it’s so vulgar, it feels like something that could still be written today. The blend of low-brow content with modern form works quite well to make something entertaining, easy to read, and still interesting structurally.
Maybe in part because it’s so vulgar, it feels like something that could still be written today. The blend of low-brow content with modern form works quite well to make something entertaining, easy to read, and still interesting structurally.
billybookmark's review against another edition
4.0
read as part of the serious book club for boys
dangerfield is a sausage man, either sizzling one in the pan or trying to stick his into every other woman in dublin
dangerfield is a sausage man, either sizzling one in the pan or trying to stick his into every other woman in dublin