Book cover of The Ginger Man

Book description

*Accompanied by unseen photographs from the Donleavy archive
*Includes a poignant memoir of Gainor Crist, the man who inspired Sebastian Dangerfield, by his daughter, Mariana
*The Lilliput Press will publish Donleavy's 27th book, the novel 'A Letter Marked Personal' in the spring of 2019.

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Ginger Man as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Sebastian Dangerfield, a scruffy Yank studying at Trinity College Dublin under the GI Bill, loses his wife, finds a lover, and talks to himself–“In my heart where no one else can hear me.”

The book was banned for decades after publication in the 1950s, not so much for indecency (though there is that) as for sheer insolence. The Irish writer Sean O’Reilly asks: “Is there, even after all this time, something risky, illicit perhaps, about Sebastian Dangerfield whispering in your ear while your heart is bursting with laughter?"

Another 1950s anti-hero in the same gang as Holden Caulfield and Jake…

From Adam's list on books that helped me to grow up.

In 1955, the only publisher who would touch The Ginger Man was the Olympia Press in Paris. Its bawdy prose and its highly original style made it an immediate classic. Donleavy took one of the experimental styles that Joyce used in Ulysses and turned it into this black humor novel following Sebastian Dangerfield, an American in Ireland, maneuvering his way through college, marriage, fatherhood, and friendships in a roguish, outlandish manner. Time magazine considered him “One of the most outrageous scoundrels in contemporary fiction.” Rarely have I finished reading a book and then picked it up to read again. Donleavy’s…

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