The Talk of the Town

Paperback

Condition: Good

A surprise best-seller in Britain; this outrageous; weirdly funny first novel will appeal to fans of Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha. Not since Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye has literature seen a young man with as much contempt for hypocrisy and phoniness as Patrick Scully; the narrator of this brilliantly observed tale of a nineteen-year-old's frustrations and dreams. Stuck in a dead- job in Dublin; while his friends pursue useless degrees at the university; Patrick escapes for a week to his hometown of Killeeny; a few hours' bus ride from Dublin. There he hooks up with his childhood chum; Balls O'Reilly; and his on-again; off-again girlfriend; Francesca; who; as we learn in chapters from her diary; is more interested in Balls than she'd want anyone; especially Patrick; to know. What follows is a rollicking week of carousing; drinking; and depravity; all seen through Patrick's searing and unforgiving eyes. Laced with hilarious small-town insight; this gripping first novel builds to a shocking climax as Patrick's insight into the duplicity of his so-called friends becomes more than he can bear.