276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Leonard and Hungry Paul: A Novel

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

Then the idea that there would be a €10,000 for a silly competition and that it would only have 3 entrants. They use humour, board games and silence to steer their way through the maelstrom that is the 21st Century. And the otherwise quiet and rather passive characters are given to lengthy philosophical exposition and didactic speeches, two of which in particular (Leonard to his putative new girlfriend, and Hungry Paul to his sister) do seem to rather stray into mansplaining. Die titelgebenden Protagonisten dieses Romans Leonard und Paul sind so sympathisch, dass ich dem Autor literarische Mängel wie das gelegentliche Überschreiten der Kitschgrenze verzeihe.

This morning, as every morning, when I gave Maya her IV drip, both of us went into a peaceful trance; we became one with the saline as it coursed down the line into Maya and I imagined it gently spreading, bathing all her organs with love, leaving happy kidneys before exiting out and back into the earth. Rónán Hession highlights personal qualities that are so often undervalued - kindness and gentleness - especially in a world where people who lack a competitive edge are often seen as failures.Though not autobiographical, it is a tribute to the kindness I have experienced all my life and which can sometimes seem absent, largely because it is so often expressed in private. To begin with I thought it was going to be ‘uplit’ fiction, but it became something different (Eleanor Oliphant came to mind). Leonard is a bit lonely perhaps, but also getting on with things – but is prepared to take a chance when an opportunity presents itself. His elder sister, Grace, a high-flier occupied with intercontinental phone meetings and preparations for her upcoming wedding, fears that he’s becoming a burden for the family, but as Leonard’s life starts to change, so too does Hungry Paul’s, in slightly unexpected ways. Therefore, it was refreshing to read Rónán Hession's novel “Leonard and Hungry Paul” which follows the low-key stories of two quiet friends whose interactions chiefly involve games of Scrabble or Connect Four.

Maybe because real life these days seems to be a mine field, filled with stress and anxiety, a book like this is a balm for the soul. You see all different kinds of love – that of a couple married for many years with two grown children, that of parents for their children, and children for their parents. Bluemoose Books continue to hit their targets with unerring accuracy, and the book is soon to be published by Melville House in the US. Everything the characters said or did was delivered with a deep affection, between them and also to the reader. Leonard has just lost his beloved mother and is finding loneliness hard, but is glad he has a friend like Hungry Paul, who lives with his parents.

It helps that Hession has created an appealing narrator, one who seems just as idiosyncratic as the two men he’s describing. That marriage gives the book its other main narrative arc – Paul’s family consumed with the preparations for it, and Leonard accompanying him there as his “plus one” (so as to free up the limited spaces for 2 other guests).

My name is Claire, and I’m an early-career editor, UCL MA Publishing class of 16/17, an avid reader and a compulsive opinion-haver. In a hurry to get back to his noise-cancelling head-phones, Leonard put away the tea caddy and finished stirring his own palpable milky loneliness. It’s his voice even more than his story of two single men in their thirties who live their lives as well as they can. Where they stumble is that they are trapped in their own bubbles and breaking down that protective wall is difficult, more for Hungry Paul than Leonard. In particular, this novel is a welcome counterbalance to the usual focus of literature (one I also have a tendency to enforce in my reading) to the unpleasant.Because both of these men are happy with their lives just the way they are, and how many of us can say that?

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment