This novel does have some great lines that are funny and also poetic and it shows off the gritty and elegant corners of New York in technicolour.
I found the switching from first to third person confusing and made the novel hard going and Cornelius Christian was impossible to like or even feel sorry for. ( )

My first Donleavy....and sadly, i did not like it. It took forever to get through......a quirky story about an unfortunate fellow returning from Europe with his new wife, who tragically died en route on their ocean liner....and what then transpires is just bizarre.......weird story, odd characters, and while occasionally you cheer for poor Cornelius Christian, for the most part, i just did not like him, which obviously leads me to not give a hoot or a holler what happens to him.......YAWN!!!! Boxing, undertaking, sleeping with anything that walks, blowing every opportunity for work offered him.....blah, blah, blah.....too many juvenile escapades for my sensibilities........probably just over my head..... ( )

This is one of those books where the narrative of the protagonist (and oddly, the protagonist removed from self at times) really takes over. He's disarming, insightful and despairing...much older and more manipulative than a Holden Caufield and more jaded too. The major similarity is the fact that he sees the phoniness in people. He wants them to be better but when they aren't, he's not going to cry over swear words in an elementary school. He's simply going to move on becoming more and more apathetic and not caring how much he hurts others. At the same time, he really does care. The city (NYC) clearly gets to him much more than any woman is capable of.


This one, this Cornelius Christian is the kind of shady character you want to try to love...you search for a redeeming sense to him just like all of the characters in his life that run into him. Donleavy puts you in their position in a way. You want to keep giving him chances even knowing he'll disappoint. He's honest about the disappointment as well. At the end, however, he can't give anyone what they'd like from him and if you were a character in this story, he's abuse you right along with the rest. I'm pretty convinced of that.


This novel has some fantastic lines...Christian too, though his thoughts, his memories of his cruel childhood, are usually even better. At times, you get a feel for action and metaphor like few writers can usually give you. At other times, this is crude and brash but the poetic insights are worth it.



Favorite quotes:

pg.9 "We like to make friends with sorrow Mr. Christian. That way we come to know it."

pg.12 "Someone else's house is more your own if it's filled with strangers"

pg.19 "Window full of refrigerators there. Say they're giving them away for nothing, almost. Just step inside for bargains beyond belief. I feel like there's nothing around me in the world."

pg.37 "..And my short wave says there's someone ready to jump on Fifth and Fiftieth. If the snow stays and gets deeper they'll be a lot more. They go out of the windows like pop corn off a red hot pan. Happens every time there's a blizzard."

pg. 108 "Sadness is a private garden. With high stone walls. And I would never leave it."

pg 164: "I am an orphaned prince."

pg. 183: "I don't have a degree. O k. Maybe I was too distracted by human nature in college. I got disappointed in human nature as well and gave it up because I found it too much like my own."

pg. 216: "Without crime this city would collapse....God is what your desires are."

pg. 256: "It taught me death is better than dying. Better than hapless Better than glee The cat's Meow in this midnight Sea"

pg. 302: "And anytime I ever saw anything floating in the sky, even a scrap of paper, I stopped to watch till it was gone."

( )

I love the pathos ( )