A Singular Man
{{Short description|Book by J. P. Donleavy}}
{{For|the author of Inside Out, a Curious Book by a Singular Man|Samuel Ward Francis}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = A Singular Man
| translator =
| author = J. P. Donleavy
| image = ASingularMan.jpg
| caption = First edition
| country = United States
| language = English
| genre =
| publisher = Little, Brown and Company
| release_date = November 1963
| pages = 403
}}
A Singular Man is a 1963 novel by J. P. Donleavy.
First published in Boston, the novel is set in an unnamed city that is believed to be New York{{cite news|url=http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/DonleavyYears.html|title=The Donleavy Years|access-date=2012-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525020526/http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/DonleavyYears.html|archive-date=2012-05-25|url-status=dead}} 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 magazine referred to as "a genuinely imagined dream figure of sexual grace."{{cite news |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,898071,00.html |title=All over the blooming place |work=Time |date=November 22, 1963}}
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 # 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 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."{{cite news |first=Hunter S. |last=Thompson |author-link=Hunter S. Thompson |date=November 11, 1963 |url=http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/Hunter_Thompson_review.html |title='A Singular Man' Donleavy Proves His Lunatic Humor is Original |magazine=National Observer |via=jpdonleavycompendium.org |access-date=2012-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035857/http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/Hunter_Thompson_review.html |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead}}
Newsweek described the book as "excruciatingly funny" but "a darker novel than its predecessor."{{cite news|url=http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/Newsweek_SingularMan_review.html|title=Different Ginger|access-date=2012-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418191806/http://jpdonleavycompendium.org/Newsweek_SingularMan_review.html|archive-date=2016-04-18|url-status=dead}}
Renata Adler 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."{{cite news|url=http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/Renata_Adler_review.html|title=Renata Adler Review|access-date=2012-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055554/http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/Renata_Adler_review.html|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}}
Bibliography
Donleavy, James Patrick:
- 1963: A Singular Man. - Atlantic-Little, Brown.
References
{{reflist}}
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External links
{{wikiquote|J._P._Donleavy#A_Singular_Man_(1963)|A Singular Man}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singular Man}}