99. The Ginger Man

The next book on the list is “The Ginger Man” by JP Donleavy. I don’t know a thing about this book and like Tarkington, until I read this list I’ve never heard of him. He’s pretty famous though, I’ve discovered now that I’ve started looking into him and he’s still alive. This is good, I like life, but it’s also odd to think that I’m going to be commenting on a book in a place where that author could end up reading it.

Given what little I’ve discovered about this book, I don’t think I’m the target audience, so I am all ready a little trepidatious about writing about it. It’s a little like when I read a review of “Twilight” or “New Moon” or of those sparkly vampire books written by a 40 year old single man. Did he like it? No. Did he have anything decent to say about the book? No, of course not. Did he have any business reading a book written for teenage girls and expect to like it? No, not really.

Sure he can read it, we have that freedom*, but if you’re not the intended audience, don’t freak out when you think the book is crap**. (I really wish I could find that review, but I can't locate it in the vast infinite of the Internet, sorry)

Anyhoo, moving on. The Ginger Man was written in 1955 and set in post WWII Ireland. It is described, on Wikipedia as “[Following] the often racy misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American living in Dublin with his English wife and infant daughter and studying law at Trinity College.”

Hhmmm....

Dear Wiki categorizes Donleavy as similar to Hemmingway and Steinbeck.

And again we say hhhhhmmmmm...

See the thing is, I’m a young women from Western Canada. Very little in my life, culture, society, upbringing or family history etc, relates to Steinbeck or Hemmingway or any racy mis-adventuring man in the 1950’s. This isn’t to say that these writers aren’t any good. Clearly they resonate with enough people for these books to by on the list and considered prize worthy ("The Ginger Man" won the National Book Award in 1959). But will I like them? Will I find any common ground with the characters so that I can relate to them in anyway?

I did find some common ground with George Minafer in "The Magnificent Amberson's". I have read the "Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck (I thought the ending was pretty odd, but will get to that at #10), but I did feel a connection to the characters. We’ll leave my Hemmingway Stories for when we get there, #74 “Farewell to Arms”, because I didn’t find connection. I didn’t enjoy his writing or the plot of the story. I may have Hemmingway issues.

So I’m entering into reading “The Ginger Man”, leaning towards it being a struggle and possibly not enjoying it. That bothers me. It’s the reason why I’ve been purposeful in trying not to know too much about these books before reading them.

I will try to leave all of this behind, before I start the book, which I should be getting from the library today or tomorrow.

Which brings me to another thought; the Order of the Books.

I am not entirely sure if the books are in order of Best to Last, or if the order is random. I don’t think it necessarily matters what order I read the books in. I’ve chosen to read from 100 down to 1 partly because (and I think I said this before) I’m scared of James Joyce and because the first 2 books at the end, I’d never heard of before so it seemed a good idea to start with something new.

I’ve decided to stick with the order, rather than jump around, because that way I don’t go through all the ones I really want to read, leaving the less interesting ones to the end and possibly abandoning the whole project. It would just get confusing if I jumped around as well.

The exception to this rule is if I get to a book that, for me, is a real slog; just a nightmare to get through, I may, as a treat, jump to a book that I know I’ll enjoy just to get my spirits back up. I think that sounds fair, right?

The second exception is Sophie’s Choice. I’m not reading it again. I’ll write about why and my other thoughts when I get to it on the list, but there’s no chance in Hell I’ve going to go through that again. I’m still having nightmares.

*Footnote: Freedom. This book was banned in Ireland and the USA for obscenity. Which MAKES want to read it. I have a thing about banning books and censorship.

**Footnote: I haven’t read anything by Stephanie Meyer, so I have no opinion in the books and her writing. I’ve heard a lot about them and being a Buffy and Angel fan, I take issue with the ‘sparkle’ thing, so I probably won’t read them. However, they are popular and are getting a lot of teenagers to read, which is tough to do sometimes, so for that they have my respect.