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Sebastian Dangerfield, an American student at Trinity College, Dublin, pursues drink and women in post-war Dublin

The Ginger Man

by J. P. Donleavy

1955Moderate readFast pace
★ Modern Library 100 Best Novels (editors' list, 1998), No. 99

An American student in post-war Dublin and his chaotic misadventures

Sebastian Dangerfield is a young American student who arrives in post-war Dublin in 1947 and enrolls at Trinity College. The novel follows his drinking, sexual and occasionally violent misadventures, along with his troubled relationship with his English wife Marion and their daughter. It is a picaresque comic novel. Olympia Press published it in Paris in 1955.

More about this book

Who

Sebastian Dangerfield and his wife Marion.

World

Post-war Dublin, Ireland, in 1947.

What makes it different

Brendan Behan was the first person to read the manuscript. It was initially banned for obscenity in Ireland and the United States.

Feel

Rowdy and comic.

See it on Amazon

Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition

Further reading

About the author

J. P. Donleavy1 book on Tori Books