A Singular Man

By: J. P. Donleavy

Narrated by: Robert G Slade

Mysteriously rich and desperately lonely, George Smith appears to be under attack from all quarters. His former wife and four horrible children are suing to get his money, and someone is sending him threatening letters. Despite some very elaborate precautions, he remains worried. So he builds a mausoleum in which to live.

©1963 J. P. Donleavy (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Poetic and Hilarious

Read the review on this app by Daryl from Cedar Rapids. It really is spot on!

not what I expected

you'll probably see an overwhelming reference to Hunter T. and they are mostly all right. This book a refreshing change, and you'll likely feel cultured, smarter or go back to your medication. Either way you'll be changed at the conclusion.

unique & talented & ribald with a touch of genius

never quite sure what's real what's imagined what's exaggerated and it matters not a bit, just enjoy it.

while the first 1/2 - 2/3 had gut bustingly funny moments and the second 1/2 not so much, it may also be that i wasn't quite in tune with 2nd half and so some slipped by me, however, what i found myself latching onto more in second half is the beauty of the writing.

he has a unique style.( after looking at others of his it appears this is his style) a bit stage direction-ish : "A black car coming down the street. Paper blowing in the wind." statements of fact at times a bit fragmentary sounding, but once you get in the with it it works.

i think everything in the novel is filtered through george smith's point of view. (all of it perhaps totally unreliable like Humbert)

sometimes he thinks about himself in the third person (fitting in a way because he is a little detached from others and himself at times) and describes what george smith is doing etc.

at times we slip into his stream of consciousness and so we pick up less exposition to ground us in the details of a situation. fragmentary sentences and images and also poetic descriptions.

and at other times we get only straight dialogue between him and others with no indication at all of what they are doing while they're talking, not simply tone of voice nor facial expressions etc., but sometimes you realize they might be having sex that takes a bit to reveal itself through their dialogue. and then at times he seems to fall into euphoric dream states or fugue states while they're having sex.

the style really makes your mind work overtime visualizing and figuring out "plot" (such as it is, and i'm still not sure of everything that's happening, and ultimately the "plot" may be totally irrelevant) but I have really been drawn in by the poetic passages, sometimes in sexcapades, sometimes in his stream of C musings, sometimes just in his descriptive passages. i think it's a beautiful if bawdy and zany novel and the style works wonderfully.

and ultimately it is a great love story.

i want to "study" him more now that i have a handle on how to get into the style, but i don't want to burn out on someone so interesting. maybe i'll wait a bit and come back to the other one, hoping meanwhile that they do a third one or more. Hoping for his classic Ginger Man.

so i guess i'm recommending you try it and see if you like it. it will take some focus to get immersed in the world but i hope you'll at least appreciate the style if not the novel.

free stream of thoughts

Donleavy endings often are not a linear flow of the story! But a good read and good fun.

Protagonist might as well be from another planet

Published in 1963, in the era of Don Draper and Mad Men, the humor went over my head. I was vaguely aware that things were supposed to be tongue-in-cheek funny, that the protagonist is a womanizing narcissist, and that maybe I'm supposed to like him... or am I supposed to think that he's an idiot, or both? I lack the cultural orientation to 'get it'. I'd only recommend to people older than 80 and to cultural anthropologists of the 1950s-60s who want to study the book like a pre-Columbian pot shard.

I read many novels and literature from earlier decades/centuries, so maybe this one is just too close to my milieu. It is well past its 'best by' date.