Vastly entertaining and outright hilarious, Paul Murray's debut heralds
the arrival of a major new Irish talent. His protagonist is endearing
and wildly witty-part P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, with a
cantankerous dash of A Confederacy of Dunces' Ignatius J. Reilly
thrown in. With its rollicking plot and colorful characters, An
Evening of Long Goodbyes is a delightful and erudite comedy of epic
proportions.
Charles Hythloday observes the world from the comfortable confines of
Amaurot, his family estate, and doesn't much care for what he sees. He
prefers the black-and-white sanctum of classic cinema-especially
anything starring the beautiful Gene Tierney-to the roiling and rumbling
of twenty-first-century Dublin. At twenty-four, Charles aims to
resurrect the lost lifestyle of the aristocratic country
gentleman-contemplative walks, an ever-replenished drink, and afternoons
filled with canapés as prepared by the Bosnian housekeeper, Mrs. P.
But Charles's cozy existence is about to face a serious shake-up. His
sister, Bel, an aspiring actress and hopeless romantic, has brought to
Amaurot her most recent-and to Charles's mind, most
ill-advised-boyfriend. Frank is hulking and round, and resembles nothing
so much as a large dresser, probably a Swedish one. He bets on
greyhounds and talks endlessly of brawls and pubs in an accent that
brings tears to Charles's eyes. And, most suspiciously, his entrance
into the Hythlodays' lives just happens to coincide with the
disappearance of an ever-increasing number of household antiques and
baubles.
Soon, Charles and Bel discover that missing heirlooms are the least of
their worries; they are simply not as rich as they have always believed.
With the family fortune teetering in the balance, Charles must do
something he swore he would never do: get a job. Booted into the mean
streets of Dublin, he is as unprepared for real life as Frank would be
for a cotillion. And it turns out that real life is a tad unprepared for
Charles, as well.
