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Fiction.
Literature.
Humor (Fiction.)
HTML:A disarming novel that asks a simple question: Can gentle people change the world? In this charming and truly unique debut, popular Irish musician Ronan Hession tells the story of two single, thirty-something men who still live with their parents and who are . . . nice. They take care of their parents and play board games together. They like to read. They take satisfaction from their work. They are resolutely kind. And they realize that none of this is considered . . . normal.
Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story of two friends struggling to protect their understanding of whatâ??s meaningful in life. It is about the uncelebrated people of this world â?? the gentle, the meek, the humble. And as they struggle to persevere, the book asks a surprisingly enthralling question: Is it really them against the world, or are they on to some… (more)
Oh God, I'm the only person on the entire planet who didn't enjoy this book. I didn't believe in Leonard, I didn't believe in Hungry Paul or his smug family. I didn't believe in the competition that Hungry Paul enters, or the way the worthy hospital visits pan out. I didn't believe in those long articulate monologues delivered by Hungry Paul, then Leonard. I didn't believe in a single stilted conversation between any of the book's protagonists. My first instinct was to junk it after the first fifty pages. But I persisted, and finally I did warm - a little bit - to this gentle pair of friends, satisfied with so little. But really .... I could take it or leave it. My loss, obviouly, as so many people seem to have loved this book. Just - not me. ( )
Cheers to all the quiet people. I found this absolutely delightful, with a few minor quibbles that don't undermine the quality of the ideas. Full of subtle intelligence that seems to be overlooked. It would be better if it abandoned the twee bits and went fully unconventional, as I think those buried the subtle intelligence for some people. Of course they would probably hate the book I imagine, but I'd love it. ( )
This book is dedicated to Kathleen Smyth, for your brave and beautiful heart.
First words
Leonard was raised by his mother alone with cheerfully concealed difficulty, his father having died tragically during childbirth.
Quotations
... her neatness being a sign of her respect for the small things in her life.
... his mother looked after everyone in her life as though they were her garden birds: that is to say, with unconditional pleasure and generosity.
He found book shops to be comforting places and book buying a comforting activity, but he was an absent-minded reader these days, the act of reading that much more solitary without his mother pottering around the house in the background.
The job suited him as he was interested in pretty much everything interesting, and he preferred to play a minor part in someone else's story rather than being his own star.
Hungry Paul lived on a knife edge between a passion for board games and an aversion to instruction booklets.
Hungry Paul had always been fascinated by the world around him viewing it as something fantastical. It was as if he saw the body of scientific understanding as an anthology of legends, something so wonderful and impenetrable that it might as well be a myth. He liked borrowing copies of National Geographic from the library, sometimes months in arrears, not that it mattered when he was reading articles about carbon dating or the Persians. In this way he maintained a lively interest in the wider world, while staying above and apart from what is generally described as current affairs.
But now that he had found a little shelf of peace within himself, he could feel the happiness in the room and no longer felt excluded from it. (p. 220)
He realised that he kind of like weird people. Maybe it was their intensity. (p. 222)
Sunday Night Quiet Club
One Hour of Sitting Quietly at the National Mime Association Theatre
Free Admission - All Welcome
First Sunday of Every Month at 8pm
(You may wish to note the above)
(p. 188)
Last words
To think that so much has been written and said about flowers over the centuries, and yet it took someone as special as Hungry Paul to notice how quiet they are.
Fiction.
Literature.
Humor (Fiction.)
HTML:A disarming novel that asks a simple question: Can gentle people change the world? In this charming and truly unique debut, popular Irish musician Ronan Hession tells the story of two single, thirty-something men who still live with their parents and who are . . . nice. They take care of their parents and play board games together. They like to read. They take satisfaction from their work. They are resolutely kind. And they realize that none of this is considered . . . normal.
Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story of two friends struggling to protect their understanding of whatâ??s meaningful in life. It is about the uncelebrated people of this world â?? the gentle, the meek, the humble. And as they struggle to persevere, the book asks a surprisingly enthralling question: Is it really them against the world, or are they on to some
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