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Mar 09, 2010

DRM rated it:

I couldn't help but think of the fine British comedy Withnail And I while reading this. Much like the dialogue in that film, Donleavy's witty, loosely constructed vignettes might be a bit disorienting at first bit they grow on you and you find yourself chuckling more and more especially in the more bizarre stream of consciousness moments (kangaroo costumes, public transportation "wardrobe malfunctions"). The other point of reference for me was Tropic Of Cancer as the narrator is also More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2008

Joe rated it:

this is # 99 on my list of 100. i received the greatest joy when i read the last page and didn t have to spend any more time with ,sabastian. is this a great novel cause donleavy describes in great detail one of the worst characters in literature ? he is cruel to women and yet they keep coming back to him. he doesn t work, barely studies his law books, has no redeeming qualities. he reminds me of the college drunks who wasted their education in college. there are so many bad books on thi More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Ensiform rated it:

A great big stream of consciousness slice of life book about the boozing, lazy, nasty, cruel, selfish Sebastian Dangerfield, an American in Dublin who is supposed to be studying law at Trinity but instead drinks all day, chases women and exchanges abuse with his wife.

To be sure, Sebastian is an unpleasant character, but that doesn’t bother me. I was simply bored by the events of the novel. I didn’t find it, as all the blurbs promised, an exuberant, witty, wildly comic escapade. Donl More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 11, 2011

Judy rated it:

The long and tortured history of J P Donleavy's first novel parallels the trials and tribulations of Sebastian Dangerfield, anti-hero and bad boy, aka the Ginger Man. Because of sexual content, Donleavy had a heck of a time getting published and until 1965, all versions were expurgated (obscene or objectionable passages deleted.) It is considered a classic as well as Donleavy's best work.

As the story opens, Dangerfield is unhappily married to a woman whom he had hoped would bring More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 17, 2011

James rated it:

I became aware of this book after recently reading a Hunter S. Thompson biography, wherein it describes how Hunter discovered the book in New York, and did his best to imitate Dangerfield's lifestyle. After reading the Ginger Man it became apparent that Hunter had at last found a hard act to follow in terms of womanising, alcohol abuse and empty promises.

Apparently the Ginger Man was turned down by something like 40 publishers before finding it's way to the mainly pornographic publi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2010

Alli rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 02, 2010

F.R. rated it:

How important is it for the reader to like the central protagonist of a novel? Obviously if one is going to spend hundreds of pages in – or around – a character’s head, then it is preferable to empathise with him or her. However there are some books, Dostoyevsky’s ‘Notes From Underground’ say, where clearly we are not supposed to like the central character and yet the passion of the prose is such that we can’t help but admire the work anyway.

These thoughts were high in my mind as I r More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2009

Mick rated it:

I have to be careful when I talk about this book. Especially with women. Most women despise The Ginger Man. Actually, what they despise is the Sebastian Dangerfield character for he is a drunken, misogynistic, lecherous scoundrel, the very kind of man they are terrified that their daughters might someday meet. The more open minded among them, however, appreciate the quality of Donleavy's rendering, the richness and inventiveness of the language and the out and out hilarity of the story.

More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2011

Ash rated it:

It's hard for me to admit I enjoyed this book even a little, as it reveals nothing about human nature and sheds no light on its characters. Infact, its characters, specifically the protagonist, Mr. Dangerfield, remain as loathsome as ever from start to finish. As he lies, steals, drinks, and takes advantage of numerous women, engaging in adulterous affairs, the reader is forced to sit back, entirely helpless, watching with horror as an increasing amount of chaos ensues.
And yet, m More...

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Feb 16, 2011

zxvasdf rated it:

What a book. The Irish have a way with words.

A likable feller, then an unlikable feller, Dangerfield is the hero of this story. A very bad bad hero, as he womanizes, boozes, and is a inveterate liar. You follow his misadventures, marvel at his sheer tenacity at the face of utter bankruptcy of coin and moral spirit.

This book is a mass of seething contradictions. It must be said of the Irish, or at least the Irish I read in books written by Irishmen, that they revel in the co More...

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Feb 10, 2011

Lauren rated it:

I found the stream-of-consciousness style of The Ginger Man to be fairly hard to read, although I got used to it as the book went on. The book is told from the perspective of Sebastian Dangerfield, who I suspect was losing his sanity as the novel progressed, thereby making his descriptions of events unclear. Sebastian frequently daydreamed, and these daydreams were interspersed with his descriptions of current events, so that it became difficult to tell what was real and what was not. No doubt t More...

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Jun 20, 2011

David rated it:

JPD launched a storied literary career with a masterpiece in The Ginger Man. Sebastian, which means "venerable," is a man perpetually on the brink of utter madness brought largely upon himself. He is a Trinity College Dublin man whose condition is given to "staving off starvation" and whose only option when things always get worse is to "cheer-up or die." When you consider that JPD was first a painter, it's understandable that his writing style is pointillistic. The More...

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Apr 17, 2010

carl rated it:

I always say an author's job is to make you love the characters or
hate them, either way it should be counted as a success. So I think folks who
say they don't like a book because character soandso was a horrible
fellow or whatnot are missing the point.

So dangit! my turn to miss the point- I found this fellow so
despicable, and maybe too close to some folks I know, that I couldn't like it.

On a more practical side it is a comedy written in 1 More...

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Mar 04, 2011

Zach rated it:

"She leaped into my arms and knocked me to ground and screamed into my mouth." So says the narrator of this novel, the equal parts loathsome and winning Sebastian Dangerfield, the Ginger Man, as he begins to recount one of his sexual conquests in the decidedly anti-sexual climate of post WWII Ireland, and that is how the reader feels, accosted and defiled by his exploits. The novel follows Dangerfield as he drinks, steals, fights, and screws his way through Dublin. He is a pretty mu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2011

Tim rated it:

The stream of consciousness prose style mixed in with the ribald dialog and well drawn settings, raises the bar on judging this book on its other merits, because frankly this reader finds little to like as far as the main character is concerned and his cronies are no great shake either. Even the abused women he routinely takes advantage of are hard to understand since one wonders why they would fall for such an obvious cad. But this is fiction, not a historical memoir and I suppose the author is More...

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May 21, 2009

Josiah rated it:

I feel like a traitor giving this even three stars, but the writing is brilliant. Each line tends to have its own weight and sense of being. There is poetry and music in the flow of the text. The author changes from first to third person and back, apparently randomly, but somehow even that makes sense after a while. So with all this going for the book, it seems as if the author has squandered his abilities on a squalid, sordid tale, of no remarkable consequence. It rather reminded me of bei More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 08, 2008

Abailart rated it:

I wonder if neuroscientists will ever be able to analyse tears that contain the byproducts of great happiness and great sadness at the same time. And what is such an intense feeling called? Even to think of this book brings a tear to my eye, and reading it I cry buckets. This horrible, loveable, picaresque hero and antihero, this moonchild of Irish imagination. Wow

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2011

Nicky rated it:

The ramblings of a young man as he tries to destroy himself and others with drink, debt, and women, while supposedly a law student with young wife and child in post ww2 Ireland. This book was very hard to read, the style is utterly different from anything I've read. It has lots of choppy phrases and unattributed dialogue. Often times things skip from past the present, thoughts to actions and things happen during the time span of the book which are not discussed but simply reffered to later on More...

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Dec 08, 2010

Brian rated it:

J.P. Donleavy's "The Ginger Man" was Hunter S. Thompson's favorite novel, mentioned often in the first volume of his letters. The main character in "The Ginger Man" exhibits pretty much every annoying quality that Thompson himself exhibited in his early career (and none of the good). It's interesting to speculate how much of his gonzo lifestyle Thompson might have cribbed from Donleavy's characters. I have to say I didn't much enjoy this book. It's well written (though Donlea More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Stuart rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 25, 2008

Sid rated it:

wow....I hated this guy, but sped through the book. The main character would sell the clothes off his back for a drink. The depths of depravity the character sinks too...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 11, 2011

Alan rated it:

The magnificently named Sebastian Dangerfield is an American, down and out in Dublin, his marriage falling to pieces and his law studies failing. Dangerfield is a cad, a heavy drinker, a womaniser, a woman beater.

The Dublin setting is evocative, and gives the reader a feeling of what it was to live in that city at that time. Dangerfield's antics, his continued railing against a world he sees as greatly unfair, are sometimes rougishly amusing. His continued appalling behaviour, his t More...

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Oct 20, 2010

Thorne rated it:

"Some say that it will always be this hard for me but they are mostly bastards." - Sebastian Dangerfield, from Donleay's The Ginger Man.

I've only read about a half dozen books in my entire life that made me laugh out loud, by myself, involuntarily. This isn't one of them. But it's pretty funny in parts. Humor is hard to pull off in writing. It is especially uncommon to find humor that has aged well after sixty years. I think Donleavy's managed to do it partly by creatin More...

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Mar 09, 2009

Shay rated it:

I wanted to like this book because it came so highly recommended. It was okay, but I felt like it ran on too long. It's the same thing over and over - Sebastian Dangerfield treats women badly. He begs his friends for drinks. He opens accounts, runs up bills, and then runs out. I felt like 346 pages was too much of Sebastian Dangerfield.

I also couldn't help but draw comparisons between Dangerfield and Henry Miller in his Rosy Crucifixion triology. They are similar characters, More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Meter added it

I'd started reading this a few years ago and put it down. It was ribald for my tastes that day. Last night Lauren and I were having a "how few comedic novels there are" conversation after seeing a NY times thing on it.

Anyway, this book was mentioned several times, so from about 2am to 7am I read it. I did laugh. The liberal use of language in conversation by the main character and company was the highlight. Some character situations were a bit boring. The style is unique leavin More...

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Aug 13, 2011

Sallyparadise rated it:

“All I want
Is one break
Which is not
My neck.”

I think I missed something. Even if I don’t personally care for an acclaimed novel, I can usually understand why it’s considered so. This book doesn’t break any new ground stylistcilly. The back cover would have you believe it’s a humourous story about a loveable cad. It wasn’t the least bit funny, and this loveable cad is actually a jerk. The only thing I have to report of any interest are he ends each chapter More...

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Jun 09, 2007

Graeme rated it:

Drunken, mouth-watering anarchy.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Laura rated it:

Oh my Irish stars, I'm glad as hell to be done with this novel. I did laugh. But I also cried at how long I had to spend in the head and world of Sebastian Dangerfield, an American with the English, no Irish, accent of the permanently inebriated. I'm no delicate flower, but Dangerfield's gross debauchery left me "cold as a eunuch's balls on the quays." At one point he calls one of his adulterous escapades "bestial bedlam." And it is. Wife and baby at home, too busy freez More...

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Jan 22, 2011

Jeremy rated it:

I tremble for my daughter when I reflect that there are actually men like Sebastian Dangerfield. I can't recall ever feeling such revulsion for a protagonist. I realize that he is a caricature and not necessarily meant to be taken seriously...but still. The book follows the (mis)adventures of nominal Trinity College law student and American expat Sebastian Dangerfield, whose life consists mainly of fighting violently with his wife, sleeping with any woman he meets, drinking around the clock, paw More...

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May 04, 2008

El rated it:

Sometimes I am absolutely baffled as to why certain books are on the Modern Library Top 100 book list. This is certainly one of those. Sebastian Dangerfield is an American studying law at Trinity College in Dublin just after WWII, married and with a daughter, and with a serious drinking problem and a really, really bad attitude. He is a 100% unredeemable character, beating and humiliating his wife and trying to smother his daughter in one of his rages. He very occasionally studies or goes to More...

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