The Ginger Man

After finishing the Donleavy autobiography "The History of the Ginger Man" I returned for the fourth or fifth time to reading the novel since my first encounter with it as a teenager some forty years ago. I felt a new appreciation of it this time. "The Ginger Man" is a masterpiece of bedlam: a triumphant liberating joyous despairing ribald life-filled tragi-comic treasure. The first chapters are good but then Donleavy begins to drive the action and his main character to ever wilder pitches of intensity outrageousness and lyricism until the "terrifying heart" of the Ginger Man threatens to spill over and drown us all in its terrifying dsrkness.The novel written by Brooklyn -born Bronx-raised Donleavy offers a unique record of one of the most grotesque unbelievable bizarre and unprecedented literary universes ever to exist: that of economically-deprived Catholic -repressed Dublin in the late 40s early 50s, and of which Donleavy was a prime mover and this novel perhaps its most extraordinary expression. After Joyce Beckett and the extraordinary Flann, Dublin surely belongs to the American boy.I have only two laments. One, that the novel did not cause an avalanche in a later younger generation of indigenous Irish writers; you could roll your Barrys Bolgers McCabes and even Banvilles up in a dark corner of Donleavy and still not see them there. Sadly. The censoring Irish State did far too well its castrating work.My second lament: reading so many petty spiteful uncomprehendingly negative reviews on Kindle and other book sites. The world Donleavy raised his impertinent first at has not gone away. As recorded in the autobiography this narrow-minded narrow-hearted world would have smothered Donleavy's liberating novel at birth were it not for his own dogged and indomitable belief in its value and determination to see it published.I despair to see the eyes of the narrow uncomprehending and censorious touch "The Ginger Man"... If looks can kill well then the eyes of such readers have been killing real writing and real writers since the days of Shakespeare., And before.... Can't they find some anodyne lair in which to nuzxle and suckle?... And leave real writers and real novels alone...And God's mercy on the terrifying heart of the real Ginger Man!

This book is great! My book club decided to read it because we wanted a good Irish book to review on St Patrick's Day. We were sold on the book when we read a review on Amazon comparing it to Catch 22 and Confederacy of Dunces...two of my favorite books of all time.The Ginger Man is nothing short of wonderful. It's a hilarious romp through the streets of Ireland all seen through the eyes of Sebastian Dangerfield. Sebastian is an American living in Ireland post WWII, and he will stop at nothing to bed women, drink booze, and not pay his bills!! Sebastian has absolutely no desire to find a job or settle down. He always ends up on his feet, and his view of the world is smart and poignant.JP Donleavy's writing is brilliant. He doesn't spoon feed the story to us, he writes with a combination of 1st Person and 3rd Person point of view and he switches between the two in the middle of a sentence sometimes. This book is a piece of literature and should be enjoyed by future generations to come

Its just not that engaging, (or funny ) at least to me, though why it was ever considered pornographic seem laughable today--- is stream of consciousness somewhat similar to James Joyce, so this may be something about Irish literature of this period. I am also reading "A Singular Man", and so far would say the same.

... you can't catch me, I don't get the humor of this man!Number 99 on the Modern Library's top hundred books is J.P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man. It took me a month to finish The Ginger Man is that after while I really had no desire to pick it up and finish it. I've read other reviewers calling it a comic masterpiece, but for the most part, I just didn't get it. A lot of negative reviews focused on the reader's dislike of the main character's debauchery and low moral conduct. This is not what turned me off to the book... The fact it had no real central narrative is what did it for me. For the first few chapters, The Ginger Man was an interesting read; however, after a while I became bored as the plot simply went nowhere. The story is about an Sebastian Dangerfield, a broke American veteran in Ireland who is studying law at Trinity College. He is married with a small child and basically spends his days drinking and cheating on his wife.The story is a rinse, wash & repeat of Dangerfield drinking to excess, racking up massive debts, pawning possessions and then being left/leaving the woman he is currently with.There are admittedly a few funny scenes which come to mind: an indecent exposure in a train, an attempt to buy condoms, his first encounter with a shy girl at a party who turns out to be a bit of a nymphomaniac. However, these scenes are far and few between and all we're left with is a boring narrative of an unappealing main character who really doesn't do much of anything. In the end, perhaps the most humorous part of the book is the striking resemblance the man on cover art looks like Conan O'Brien. I ended up buying a physical copy just for the posterity.Save your time and money on this one.

Love it

Great book

This book has sold more than 50 million copies so anything else that I write would be too less to describe this masterpiece by Donleavy.

Misogynistic.. misanthropic.. in places hilarious.. fabulous writing.. Henry Miller meets James Joyce.. a classic.His best work. A rollercoaster ride.

Like all of Mr Donleavy's books, this is a cleverly written work that will keep you thoroughly entertained. Very good value for money.