The Ginger Man
by J.P. Donleavy
read: 2018
Modern Library #99
The plot of The Ginger Man (as well as that of Money, which I read right after), isn't linear so much as a spiral. Sebastian Dangerfield's marriage, debts, drinking, and love life wheel further and further out of control as the novel progresses. He's not really a sympathetic figure; part of the reason things go so far is Sebastian doesn't really seem to care about anything, abandoning his law studies, not holding down employment, unconcerned about his wife and child, vandalizing the property he's renting, dodging creditors, and sleeping with everyone he can. Despite that, Dangerfield ends up oddly sympathetic, with something of an artist's soul:
And at times in my heart there is a music that plays for me. Tuneless threnody. They called me names. I was so afraid of them. And they could never look inside me and see a whole world of tenderness or leave me alone because I was so sad and suffering. Why did you do it. And hearts. And why was love so round.
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