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The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B
The New York Times Book Review called The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, J. P. Donleavy's hilarious, bittersweet tale of a lost young man's existential odyssey, "a triumphant piece of writing, achieved with that total authority, total mastery which shows that a fine writer is fully extended...." In the years before and after World War II, Balthazar B is the world's last shy, elegant young man. Born to riches in Paris and raised by his governess, Balthazar is shipped off to a British boarding school, where he meets the noble but naughty Beefy. The duo matriculate to Trinity College, Dublin, where Balthazar reads zoology and Beefy prepares for holy orders, all the while sharing amorous adventures high and low, until their university careers come to an abrupt and decidedly unholy end. Written with trademark bravado and a healthy dose of sincerity, The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B is vintage Donleavy.
416 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1967
49 people are currently reading
835 people want to read
About the author
J.P. Donleavy
48 books207 followersJames Patrick Donleavy was an Irish American author, born to Irish immigrants. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II after which he moved to Ireland. In 1946 he began studies at Trinity College, Dublin, but left before taking a degree. He was first published in the Dublin literary periodical, Envoy.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.P._Don...
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.P._Don...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
January 10, 2020
Finished this a while ago and to add to my initial half-way-through reactions.
Once a darling of the literary world due to his first novel, The Ginger Man, he is now of that period, only old enough to be out of fashion, and I don't know if he'll get to be classic. I was put off Donleavy long ago by failing at my attempt to read The GingerMan and then later by failing also with The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners.
Late last year, however, I went to an English booksale in Geneva, which had the following rule: once you had 30CHF of books in your bag, you could continue to fill your bag with books at no further charge. I have not been buying books at fairs and fetes and sales and op shops since I could walk to no effect. Stuffing books in bags? It is a skill I could put on my CV. Knowing the rules of the game, I bought various books that otherwise would not have made the cut and this was one of them.
Evidently somebody had died and his books had been donated to the sale. He was clearly a man of literary taste and I hated to see so many of his books just sitting right at the end of the sale, not the sort of thing read these days. Hrrrrumph. There I was, therefore, practically obliged to take this book, by a writer with whom I had no affinity. I wanted it to have a home.
Twenty or so pages into the book, my opinion had not wavered, my previous judgement of him more or less confirmed. I might have stopped reading....but I didn't. And suddenly things turned around. Far from wanting to stop, I couldn't put it down.
The fact is one might criticise this, and perhaps others of his, since I gather Donleavy tends to write about the same thing, for various 21st century crimes. His hero, a tragic hero no less, is a young rich white male. One feels the misogyny of Donleavy and a patronising of 'the lower classes' which goes with his image. He bought a big country house in Ireland and dressed in the outlandish way Balthazar does.
And his comic pieces, which are oddly thrust into the book here and there, once they are set in Ireland, are coarse caricatures. The harridan of a wife, who sets upon her husband and young women, who sees the merest thought of sex as rape. Really? Now we would think like this: that these poor women were divided into those who had to keep becoming pregnant with all the attendant risks and the ones so young they didn't yet understand those risks.
But then I think of the Irish couple I used to know, the tough woman with her eye fixed on her husband, the fact that it was with good reason, since he had lust perpetually in his face, though he may always have been too scared to act upon it.
And in any case, with the bulk of the book lyrically, if harrowingly sad, perhaps these pieces of silliness were essential to provide some balance.
rest is here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
----------------
And earlier, whilst reading:
I speak too soon, I haven't finished this yet and maybe it will yet disappoint me.
But how I feel right now: this is an extraordinary book, the style of which is exquisite, haunting, and simple. I've never seen anything like it. And I am in love with it. Quite literally. My heart feels the way a heart does in the headiness of falling for a person, or in this case, some printed pages.
I know that sounds embarrassingly corny, but nonetheless, I feel obliged to record it. And now I'm taking it to bed.....
Once a darling of the literary world due to his first novel, The Ginger Man, he is now of that period, only old enough to be out of fashion, and I don't know if he'll get to be classic. I was put off Donleavy long ago by failing at my attempt to read The GingerMan and then later by failing also with The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners.
Late last year, however, I went to an English booksale in Geneva, which had the following rule: once you had 30CHF of books in your bag, you could continue to fill your bag with books at no further charge. I have not been buying books at fairs and fetes and sales and op shops since I could walk to no effect. Stuffing books in bags? It is a skill I could put on my CV. Knowing the rules of the game, I bought various books that otherwise would not have made the cut and this was one of them.
Evidently somebody had died and his books had been donated to the sale. He was clearly a man of literary taste and I hated to see so many of his books just sitting right at the end of the sale, not the sort of thing read these days. Hrrrrumph. There I was, therefore, practically obliged to take this book, by a writer with whom I had no affinity. I wanted it to have a home.
Twenty or so pages into the book, my opinion had not wavered, my previous judgement of him more or less confirmed. I might have stopped reading....but I didn't. And suddenly things turned around. Far from wanting to stop, I couldn't put it down.
The fact is one might criticise this, and perhaps others of his, since I gather Donleavy tends to write about the same thing, for various 21st century crimes. His hero, a tragic hero no less, is a young rich white male. One feels the misogyny of Donleavy and a patronising of 'the lower classes' which goes with his image. He bought a big country house in Ireland and dressed in the outlandish way Balthazar does.
And his comic pieces, which are oddly thrust into the book here and there, once they are set in Ireland, are coarse caricatures. The harridan of a wife, who sets upon her husband and young women, who sees the merest thought of sex as rape. Really? Now we would think like this: that these poor women were divided into those who had to keep becoming pregnant with all the attendant risks and the ones so young they didn't yet understand those risks.
But then I think of the Irish couple I used to know, the tough woman with her eye fixed on her husband, the fact that it was with good reason, since he had lust perpetually in his face, though he may always have been too scared to act upon it.
And in any case, with the bulk of the book lyrically, if harrowingly sad, perhaps these pieces of silliness were essential to provide some balance.
rest is here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
----------------
And earlier, whilst reading:
I speak too soon, I haven't finished this yet and maybe it will yet disappoint me.
But how I feel right now: this is an extraordinary book, the style of which is exquisite, haunting, and simple. I've never seen anything like it. And I am in love with it. Quite literally. My heart feels the way a heart does in the headiness of falling for a person, or in this case, some printed pages.
I know that sounds embarrassingly corny, but nonetheless, I feel obliged to record it. And now I'm taking it to bed.....
January 12, 2015
How in the world to describe this book??? It's like one of those abstract paintings, where you get too close and it's just blobs of colour. As a reader, I needed to hold it at arm's length, so to speak, disengage my analytic mind and just go with the emotion and enjoy the words. I started reading in analytical mode and was nearly driven to distraction by the sentence fragments, the minimal puncutation, the constant changes from first person to third person.
Once I quit trying to focus too sharply and just let a fuzzy swarm of words entertain me, things went much better. Balthazar's story is very much a period piece--how the rich lived in Europe and Britain just after the second World War. Raised by nannies, never required to anything for himself or figure anything out, Balthazar becomes a confused young man, unable to figure out what he might want (beyond a woman to sleep with), how to negotiate adulthood or how to stand up for himself. Drifting on the current of life, never really taking command of the vessel.
Balthazar can only be called sympathetic when compared to his childhood pal, Beefy, a man in search of pleasures of the flesh in any of their forms, wine, women & song. Heavy emphasis on wine and women. Eventually, Beefy's grandmother cuts off his money supply--and like many folk who believe that they should not have to bother with work, he sets off to find a rich woman to marry. Meanwhile, Bathazar's life seems to disintegrate around him as well.
I would like to think that there is a deeper message to this novel--like the value of working toward goals or the enduring nature of friendship, but I haven't been able to produce one yet. In the end, I just have to accept it as an artistically written historical document.
Once I quit trying to focus too sharply and just let a fuzzy swarm of words entertain me, things went much better. Balthazar's story is very much a period piece--how the rich lived in Europe and Britain just after the second World War. Raised by nannies, never required to anything for himself or figure anything out, Balthazar becomes a confused young man, unable to figure out what he might want (beyond a woman to sleep with), how to negotiate adulthood or how to stand up for himself. Drifting on the current of life, never really taking command of the vessel.
Balthazar can only be called sympathetic when compared to his childhood pal, Beefy, a man in search of pleasures of the flesh in any of their forms, wine, women & song. Heavy emphasis on wine and women. Eventually, Beefy's grandmother cuts off his money supply--and like many folk who believe that they should not have to bother with work, he sets off to find a rich woman to marry. Meanwhile, Bathazar's life seems to disintegrate around him as well.
I would like to think that there is a deeper message to this novel--like the value of working toward goals or the enduring nature of friendship, but I haven't been able to produce one yet. In the end, I just have to accept it as an artistically written historical document.
June 21, 2018
"'Yes sir, I know that my redeemer liveth. I know it.'"
One of the most unforgettable books I have read in my life! J.P. Donleavy's The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (1968) combines breathtaking prose, lyricism, and biting humor with sobering reflections on the human condition. It also has the potential to offend many readers on many levels. Descriptions of pre-adolescent sexuality, numerous risqué scenes, and taboo topics make the novel perfect fuel for barbecues in fundamentalist communities. There have been documented cases of Slaughterhouse-Five burnings in this Land of Freedom of ours; Mr. Donleavy's work is a way more deserving book-burning material but - fortunately - not many people have heard about this wonderful novel.
In the grim days of Internet-generated uniformity of opinions, intimidation by political correctness, "safe zones" on campuses and the like, I found this novel a refreshing deviation from the safe-to-read-for-everybody, lukewarm, agreeable pap that dominates the so-called culture these days. We need more rather than less of controversial art to prevent the inbreeding of popular ideas - ideas that most everybody likes.
The novel recounts the first twenty-something years of Balthazar B's life beginning with his early childhood in Paris when he was raised by nannies in a very rich family. His father had died in the boy's early years and the mother was mainly focused on preserving the vestiges of youth. The boy attends exclusive public schools in England and the famous Trinity College in Dublin, and faces the tribulations of the early adulthood. Ostensibly the author focuses on the romantic and sexual aspects of Balthazar B's life: a boy's coming-of-age usual stuff - masturbation, school pranks, pubic lice, first love - but a discerning reader will notice that underneath the titillating facade of the novel the author tackles more important life issues.
The novel is exceptionally rich in humor in its entire range: subtle and understated funny phrases, sentences, and passages are intermixed with laugh-out-loud fragments. From the childhood memory of the Enema Anglaise, through the utterly hilarious scenes of public school housemaster excoriating smuttiness ("concerning things between the legs") and combating boys' masturbation, the live demonstration of dangers of pubic lice for medical students at the Sorbonne, to one of the funniest scenes I have ever read - the neighborhood vigilantes interrupting a carnal coupling:
The portrayal of Balthazar B is subtle, nuanced, and realistic. A child, a boy, and a young man in search of love. "While others are cunning and deceitful," Balthazar "remains always [...] kind." B's best friend is Beefy, also an unforgettable, vivid character, always in search of "pleasurings." For reasons of public decency I can quote only one of the many beatitudes coined by Beefy:
Four and a half stars.
One of the most unforgettable books I have read in my life! J.P. Donleavy's The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (1968) combines breathtaking prose, lyricism, and biting humor with sobering reflections on the human condition. It also has the potential to offend many readers on many levels. Descriptions of pre-adolescent sexuality, numerous risqué scenes, and taboo topics make the novel perfect fuel for barbecues in fundamentalist communities. There have been documented cases of Slaughterhouse-Five burnings in this Land of Freedom of ours; Mr. Donleavy's work is a way more deserving book-burning material but - fortunately - not many people have heard about this wonderful novel.
In the grim days of Internet-generated uniformity of opinions, intimidation by political correctness, "safe zones" on campuses and the like, I found this novel a refreshing deviation from the safe-to-read-for-everybody, lukewarm, agreeable pap that dominates the so-called culture these days. We need more rather than less of controversial art to prevent the inbreeding of popular ideas - ideas that most everybody likes.
The novel recounts the first twenty-something years of Balthazar B's life beginning with his early childhood in Paris when he was raised by nannies in a very rich family. His father had died in the boy's early years and the mother was mainly focused on preserving the vestiges of youth. The boy attends exclusive public schools in England and the famous Trinity College in Dublin, and faces the tribulations of the early adulthood. Ostensibly the author focuses on the romantic and sexual aspects of Balthazar B's life: a boy's coming-of-age usual stuff - masturbation, school pranks, pubic lice, first love - but a discerning reader will notice that underneath the titillating facade of the novel the author tackles more important life issues.
The novel is exceptionally rich in humor in its entire range: subtle and understated funny phrases, sentences, and passages are intermixed with laugh-out-loud fragments. From the childhood memory of the Enema Anglaise, through the utterly hilarious scenes of public school housemaster excoriating smuttiness ("concerning things between the legs") and combating boys' masturbation, the live demonstration of dangers of pubic lice for medical students at the Sorbonne, to one of the funniest scenes I have ever read - the neighborhood vigilantes interrupting a carnal coupling:
"'Sir, gurgling and groaning and some cries have been heard out in the garden.'"Yet underneath all this ribald humor there is so much understanding of human foibles, so much compassion that there is no doubt whatsoever about the author's intentions.
The portrayal of Balthazar B is subtle, nuanced, and realistic. A child, a boy, and a young man in search of love. "While others are cunning and deceitful," Balthazar "remains always [...] kind." B's best friend is Beefy, also an unforgettable, vivid character, always in search of "pleasurings." For reasons of public decency I can quote only one of the many beatitudes coined by Beefy:
"Remember, blessed are they who are willing victims of the whip for they will scream to high heaven."It may seem that the novel is light-hearted and fun all around. Absolutely not! It is full of lyricism, melancholy, and even sadness. Miss Fitzdare thread is bittersweet and makes an old man want to cry. And I have left the best thing for last: the extraordinarily accomplished prose. When I read books I mostly care about the beauty of the prose and the author's mastery of the literary craft. This is what makes me round my rating up to the rare maximum, reserved only for masterpieces.
Four and a half stars.
June 21, 2011
Balthazar B. is an aristocrat bewildered at every turn by life. His picaresque journey from Paris to Trinity College Dublin and visitations to country estates and among women of high and dubious social standing is hilarious to behold. The randy foil figure of Beefy may stand as one of the greatest comic figures since Shakespeare's Fat Jack Falstaff. The literary style of Donleavy is itself richly laden with lyricism and poetry and comedy. It is a uniquely pointillistic style in which brush strokes are applied to the canvas with precision and clarity in truncated and non-traditonal but accessible syntax. Like most truly great writers Donleany evokes all of the reader's senses in his work. He also succeeds in arousing sympathy, hilarity, tenderness, grief -- a full range of sensibilities that engage the reader. Each character is roundly drawn and speaks with a unique voice and range of experience. Donleavy's Ginger Man is named among the Random House Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. He is a supremely talented story teller with an enchanting narrative style that will leave you wanting to read more. Don't miss this novel, The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman and the Singular Man -- they are all pleasant and richly satisfying literary treasures.
July 22, 2017
Much like The Ginger Man this novel housed the irreverent, the gross out, and the just plain funny. Loads of disgusting sexual antics, pervs, and frigid marms. Four or five vignettes through the book are straight up classic. A really entertaining and humorous read.
November 18, 2007
Oh the heartbreak of apathy and folly! This book is beautiful; truly one of my favorites. From the first page Donleavy's prose astounded me.
July 23, 2018
I bought this book because the cover and the title struck me as funny. I had no idea it was going to be such a sad book! It took me some time to get into the rhythm of Donleavy's abnormal sentence and paragraph structure, but once I figured it out I enjoyed the book much more.
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December 16, 2022This isn't of the same caliber as Donleavy's masterful The Ginger Man, nor as Joyce's not-too-dissimilar portrait of a man, who happened to be young, and who likewise went through Trinity College Dublin. But it's still pretty fun, with all the descriptions of schoolmasters whose mustaches quiver at the faintest hint of popery, the looming specter of assorted sodomies, a Falstaffian figure called Beefy (ew) who would fuck anything with a pulse, and good craic of all sorts.
August 21, 2017
The Life of Pi novel shares a thematic basis with J.P. Donleavy's The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, a literary wonder. The protagonist, Balthazar, is studying zoology, while his friend Beefy studies theology. Balthazar and Beefy come of age while exploring their hedonistic and spiritual natures. I love the way Donleavy breaks all the rules of grammar and goes straight to the funny bone.
I recommend both of these books to readers who enjoy beautifully crafted stories that take on animal vs. spiritual themes.
I recommend both of these books to readers who enjoy beautifully crafted stories that take on animal vs. spiritual themes.
December 5, 2015
One of my all-time favorites. Beautiful, funny, sad. I am a big J.P. Donleavy fan, and I believe this book was my first introduction to his work. He somehow manages to be hilarious, bawdy, and poetic all at once. If you have never read his stuff, dive in! His style is extremely idiosyncratic, entirely his own. Push through what may at first seem a mannered style and you will be richly rewarded. As he has written, "Bash on, regardless."
February 22, 2009
This book doesnt leave you feeling happy, it leaves you amazed at the writers ability to write something so beautiful about a life so hazardous. It makes you miss those friends who always cause trouble, get drunk and make asses out of themselves while making witty comments the whole time and not giving a shit. Alot of fun =)
April 18, 2012
At the time I read this I was also reading another book with an obsession of using fragmented sentences and beautiful descriptions of landscapes. I can say that while this book was not necessarily uplifting, it was truly entertaining especially due to the role of Beefy (whose sexual escapades cannot go unnoticed). If you know Donleavy's writing, you will love it even more so than the Ginger Man.
January 14, 2015
back in my twenties I read a number of Donleavy's books and loved them. Re-read this for book club and was reminded why.
even named my cat after reading this book.
have put him back on my list of books to re-read
even named my cat after reading this book.
have put him back on my list of books to re-read
February 9, 2020
4.5 to a book I almost gave up on a quarter of the way into. I stuck it out and it ended up being one of the funniest and saddest books I've read. I really enjoyed the friendship between Balthazar and Beefy.
November 24, 2008
My favorite of his books. Funny and Sad and Beautiful. The Irish have a way of infusing more poetry into their prose then most poets put in the best of their poetry.
April 28, 2009
Classic, irreverant Donleavy. I would have enjoyed, or so I suppose, sitting in a Dublin pub and quaffing a few with him. Would have had an escape route ready, of course.
July 18, 2012
A fantastic read. Donleavy writes with a vulnerable voice and its that very voice that keeps you entertained the whole way through...can't wait to read the rest of the work of this brilliant man.
December 17, 2022
“boring…. sloppy….. lazyyyy” y’all I’m so sorry but british literature is the WORST!!!!! this man went PAGES without a new paragraph, would switch from first person to third person, back to first person, ALL IN ONE SENTENCE!!! and I couldn’t tell you what the last 100 pages were about. in one ear, out the other!! disturbed male characters just suck compared to the disturbed female counterpart. also very weird grooming and SA within the first like 100 pages?? horrendous
February 5, 2021
The most unique writing I have read. Beautifully descriptive as it shifts between third person and first, sentence fragments and stream of consciousness: 'All these lonely Sunday evenings. Dublin shut. Odd lights here and there in college. To stare out the window. And wait for commons. Put on one's gown for warmth. the bell rings. down the dark stairs. Gas lamps glowing along the dark squares ...' One is transported into the narrative, we experience it as though we are there, our eyes moving about the scene.
Balthasar B has financial security but searches longingly for love and when it finds him as it does three times in the novel, once with a nanny, once with a prostitute and once with a classmate, love slips tragically through is fingers. Abandoned as a young child - by his father through death and his mother as she seeks a new life with various lovers, Balthasar needs the emotional security which no amount of money can buy. His failed marriage is the proof. Beefy, his friend and perfect foil finds love shallow and deep around every corner but longs for the financial security which would allow him to lead the life he believes he deserves. At every point in his life, high and low, he is never despondent. for him, the game is the thing. They play off against each other perfectly and their exchanges are at times hilarious - reminiscent of PG Wodehouse but with the focus on Jeeves.
While their is plenty of pathos in the book, it never becomes maudlin. While Beefy leads Balthasar repeatedly astray, Balthasar never loses sight of his moral compass and maintains a certain nobility. Beefy is the lovable rogue - loyal and never one to take advantage.
This is a very unique book. Not a fast read but one to savour.
Balthasar B has financial security but searches longingly for love and when it finds him as it does three times in the novel, once with a nanny, once with a prostitute and once with a classmate, love slips tragically through is fingers. Abandoned as a young child - by his father through death and his mother as she seeks a new life with various lovers, Balthasar needs the emotional security which no amount of money can buy. His failed marriage is the proof. Beefy, his friend and perfect foil finds love shallow and deep around every corner but longs for the financial security which would allow him to lead the life he believes he deserves. At every point in his life, high and low, he is never despondent. for him, the game is the thing. They play off against each other perfectly and their exchanges are at times hilarious - reminiscent of PG Wodehouse but with the focus on Jeeves.
While their is plenty of pathos in the book, it never becomes maudlin. While Beefy leads Balthasar repeatedly astray, Balthasar never loses sight of his moral compass and maintains a certain nobility. Beefy is the lovable rogue - loyal and never one to take advantage.
This is a very unique book. Not a fast read but one to savour.
January 23, 2024
I read The Ginger Man with delight in Belfast, shortly after it was published - finally unexpurgated- in the UK - and banned in the woman-hating, 'illegitimate'-baby-quelling-and-selling Irish Republic...whence lovers of literature crossed the Border (mostly by train from Dublin to Belfast) to buy it from Erskine Mayne's or Mullan's, the only two non-religious bookshops in Belfast city centre.
Almost sixty years later, in a free sidewalk-bookstand in a small French town, I found a tattered Penguin edition of this wonderful masterpiece, redolent of Flann O'Brien, Evelyn Waugh, Joyce and Rabelais. It reads now (2024) not just as a literary tour-de-force and social parody, but also as a laugh-out-loud parody of fantasy-heterosexuality, a post-Victorian (hence more subtle) scion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, which had even this old, 'illegitimate' gay man (now asexual) clutching his groin with glee.
"My God! it makes one wish one had been born a butler."
Almost sixty years later, in a free sidewalk-bookstand in a small French town, I found a tattered Penguin edition of this wonderful masterpiece, redolent of Flann O'Brien, Evelyn Waugh, Joyce and Rabelais. It reads now (2024) not just as a literary tour-de-force and social parody, but also as a laugh-out-loud parody of fantasy-heterosexuality, a post-Victorian (hence more subtle) scion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, which had even this old, 'illegitimate' gay man (now asexual) clutching his groin with glee.
"My God! it makes one wish one had been born a butler."
April 23, 2017
اگر شما جزو آندسته از افراد نيستيد كه معتقدند، «پول الزاماً شادي نميآورد.» خواندن اين كتاب را به شما توصيه ميكنم. جي. پي. دانليوي در اين رمان، پرترهاي از نجيبزادگي ناشاد را به تصوير ميكشد كه با بسياري از نمونههايي كه در زندگيمان مشاهده كردهايم همخواني دارد. از سوي ديگر، زندگي فارغ از نيازهاي مالي - اما سراسر ناشادي - نجيبزادگي را از گوشهاي امن به عنوان خواننده به تماشا نشستن، لذت خاص خود را دارد كه با مطالعهي اين رمان، دستيافتنيست. جهت ايجاد تعادل، با پرسوناژ اصلي رمان (بالتازار بي)، دانليوي شخصيت نقش مكمل (بيفي) را خلق ميكند كه با گزيدهگوييهاي مختص طبقهي نجيبزادهي عاطل و باطل، زندگي خاكستري بالتازار بي را رنگآميزي كرده و به مايههاي شادتر زينت ميبخشد. شخصاً اعتقاد دارم كه «سعادت ددمنشانهي بالتازار بي» به لحاظ طنز تلخ و سياه، با شاهكار ابديِ دانليوي يعني «مرد زنجبيلي» پهلو ميزند
December 19, 2010
Well, this was quite different than I thought it would be. I thought it would be something along the lines of Three Men in a Boat or Wodehouse, but while it was often comedic, there were long stretches of sadness, and the overall tone of the book is somewhat sorrowful. I also thought it would be something I could recommend to my mother, but it is far too vulgar for that. I did enjoy the book, however.
November 12, 2024
My English teacher used to read us extracts (carefully selected!) from this book nearly 50 years ago and I was intrigued to read the unexpurgated version for myself. Strange quirky writing style, but leaves tre reader with a vivid picture of Balthazar B and his young love life. Definitely odd, definitely worth reading.
January 14, 2008
Not quite the Ginger Man, but worth a try.
March 1, 2008
Coming of age hilariously. You can end ever chapter with a couplet and it feels reassuring not ridiculous.
August 20, 2011
Another college read.
April 26, 2012
Laugh out loud funny -- which I did. And people around looked at me like I had lost my mind. Which I had -- cause this is So funny!
When I time I'll re-read for sure.
When I time I'll re-read for sure.
August 10, 2012
Funny and at times heart-wrenching. Completely different. I got used to the unique writing style by the second chapter, I think. Push through the first pages and you get the rhythm. So worth it!
November 9, 2012
Once again JP Donleavy takes us on a bawdy adventure. Highly recommended.
September 21, 2015
Great book. Great characters. Tugs at your heart at times and has you laughing hysterically at others.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews