''A Singular Man'' is a 1963 novel by

J. P. Donleavy James Patrick Donleavy (23 April 1926 – 11 September 2017) was an American-Irish novelist, short story writer and playwright. His best-known work is the novel ''The Ginger Man'', which was initially banned for obscenity. Early life Donleavy ...

. First published in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, the novel is set in an unnamed city that is believed to be

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and was the author's second novel following the critically acclaimed '' The Ginger Man''.

Plot introduction

The story follows the life of the mysteriously wealthy and aloof George Smith and centers on Smith's love for Miss Tomson, whom in a review, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine referred to as "a genuinely imagined dream figure of sexual grace." Although Donleavy began work on the novel '' A Fairy Tale of New York'' following completion of ''The Ginger Man'', his second completed and published novel was ''A Singular Man''. His interview in ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'' # 63 explains why he found it impossible at the time to finish ''A Fairy Tale of New York'' but was able to write ''A Singular Man''.

Characters

Main characters include: *George Smith *Miss Tomson *Miss Martin *Cedric Calvin Bonniface Clementine

Reception

In a review for the '' National Observer'',

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...

referred to Donleavy's novel as "a masterpiece of writing about love" and referred to Donleavy as "a humorist in the only sense of the word that has any dignity." ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' described the book as "excruciatingly funny" but "a darker novel than its predecessor."

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1938) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'', and in 1968–69, she served as chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is also a write ...

praised the book in a review describing it as "a love story, a melodrama, an unresolved detective story, a melodrama, a soap opera, a vaudeville routine, and a very fine light novel by a stylist who can afford to give considerable rein to his rather quirkish imagination."

Bibliography

Donleavy, James Patrick: *1963: ''A Singular Man''. - Atlantic-Little, Brown.

References

1963 American novels Novels set in New York City

External links

{{wikiquote, J._P._Donleavy#A_Singular_Man_(1963), A Singular Man