I loved Paul Murray's "Skippy Dies" and thought I'd try this, his first novel. I think Murray is a fantastic and clever comic author and, like "Skippy Dies", this was wholly original. The story is narrated by Charles, an Irish aristocrat, and very broadly speaking is about his efforts to save the crumbling ancestral seat outside Dublin and salvage his relationship with his sister Bel. To begin with the humour is broad, with Charles painted as a kind of Bertie Wooster-ish buffoon. But when money runs out Charles is forced (quite implausibly) to live in a hovel with lowlife Frank and experience a dash of real life. Murray works in plenty of meaty themes, notably old vs new money, the vacuity of modern life, economic exploitation, immigration (refugee Bosnians play important roles), and an abundance of cultural references including Chekhov and Yeats. Three stars only from me because taken as a whole it feels over-ambitious, over-long and uneven, with Charles' moral awakening not really convincing among the comic set-pieces. You never know where it's going and I do think Murray has real talent, but you can see that this is a first book.

DNF, but worth a 3; Just felt that after 200 pages I had read enough; Pretty much got the point , and wanted to move on to other books. Read it and decide for yourself.

Well, I have a new favorite author and his name is Paul Murray. This man can certainly write. I would actually term this classic literature. There are loads of big words so if you're like me keep your dictionary app available. Some might not like this wordiness, but I like it. It's one of my favorite things about reading, style and grace. He's got it by the bucketloads.
The story is very funny and sad, but not terribly sad. The characters jump off the page and I found everything believable. And I can certainly relate to the main character who doesn't want to work. He just wants to daydream in his family's large country manse, but due to his own negligence and his late father's shady financial dealings, he is forced into the real world of Dublin and its tough day to day existence. But this isn't really what this novel is about. It's about relationships; especially, the one between Charles and his sister, Bel.
Fantastically well done. May be my favorite book of the year.

Like Murray’s more recent book, The Mark and the Void, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is deeply witty, incisive, astute both human nature, original, brilliantly written and completely original. An Evening of Long Goodbyes is a longer, lusher book that centers on a family and an unlikely circle of friends. The characters start off by engaging the reader’s sense of humor—the protagonist/narrator is particularly so, a near double for P.G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster—yet end up transformed into deeply sympathetic, vulnerable, recognizable human beings. That’s a kind of sleight of hand very few authors can manage, and it makes for a fantastic, admirable book.

I felt like that was a really long haul. I didn’t find the characters sympathetic or believable and it just went on and on.

This started out as kind of a bad parody of a PG Wodehouse book and became funnier, then suddenly spun into something more serious and dark. I really liked it, but it's hard to categorize.

Didn't know how to rate this - loved the writing, found bits absolutely hilarious, but got irritated finally by the clueless hero and gave up halfway. I have personal issues with heroes who are that out of it - the reason why I was irritated with A Confederacy of Dunces as well.

But I would still look at anything Paul Murray offers us. Loved Skippy Dies.

Another short broken arm review.

A young aesthete finds himself destitute after his grand family’s fortunes fall through. However, his unwillingness to abandon his life as a cosmopolitan flâneur drives him towards ironically great deeds as he attempts to recover the one great love of his life: his family’s impractically decadent ancestral mansion. After so many dreary and cheerless books lately, I’ve finally fallen upon a genuinely hilarious and heartwarming tale. Murray’s wit is on par with (and echoes the works of) Wilde, Wooster, Toole, and Hornby, and his remarkable mastery of English diction pushes his style towards virtuosity. Concise characterization and memetic dialogue smoothly glide the narrative through bemonocled high society and betracksuited hoi polloi with equally familiar wagishness. Of equal importance to Murray’s polished and playful wit is a hallmark he shares with other great satirists, a warm affection at the heart of his approach. Just behind the banter and mockery lies a charitable embrace of humanity and all its ludicrous foibles. The best book I’ve read in 2021 so far.

This story started with great promise, and then, for reasons only the author can understand, veers away from the components making it fun and engaging, and becomes much less of both. So much potential. Sad.

3.5

Do NOT read this until you read Skippy Dies. Skippy Dies is one of the funniest books I've ever read, and yet very poignant. If you LOVE Skippy, you may want to read Evening, but it's nowhere near as good. I almost gave up after 50 pages, but it did get better.

If you want to laugh out loud while also making you think about a family's struggles and getting a little sad about a character's fate, read a Paul Murray novel. He's an absolute riot and unique storyteller.