- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (Mar 1 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312204310
- ISBN-13: 978-0312204310
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14 x 2.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 413 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"A Good Salesman can sell anything." So says the protagonist of Joseph O'Connor's remarkable third novel, who is selling nothing less than a justification to commit murder. A divorced, middle-aged recovering alcoholic, Billy Sweeney is in a world of trouble. His beloved younger daughter was brutally beaten during an attempted robbery and now lies comatose in a Dublin hospital; worse, Donal Quinn, the ringleader of the gang who put her there, has escaped from prison before his trial, and the police can't find him. Then one day, Sweeney spots a disguised Quinn in an electronics store. He considers calling the police--even goes so far as dialing the number--before "a thought occurred to me, as clear as the moment when a migraine lifts." The bereaved salesman decides to take justice into his own hands. What follows is a clever, at times terrifying game of cat and mouse as Sweeney first stalks Quinn and then catches him--with wildly unexpected results.
Though The Salesman has elements of a noir-ish thriller, it is, first and foremost, an examination of love. Written in the form of a journal from Sweeney to his comatose daughter, the book leapfrogs back and forth in time, chronicling Sweeney's courtship and troubled marriage to Grace Lawrence, his alcoholism, and his eventual divorce--even as it describes his hunt for Quinn. The love between friends, between a man and a woman, and between a father and a child are all poignantly limned here; what sets The Salesman apart, however, is the relationship that develops between Sweeney and his nemesis. O'Connor has written a novel that brims with emotion while avoiding sentimentality. Moving, disturbing, at times grimly humorous, this is Irish fiction at its best. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A senseless act of violence leads to a bizarre sequence involving retribution and redemption in Irish author O'Connor's (Cowboys and Indians) stunning fourth novel. Middle-aged Dubliner Billy Sweeney addresses his first-person narration to his daughter Maeve, who is in a coma after being beaten by several young thugs during a robbery of the store where she works. The novel opens as Sweeney anxiously awaits the verdict at the trial, which renders only partial justice after the escape of the crime's instigator, Donal Quinn. Heretofore glib and resourceful ("A good salesman will swear to things he knows not to be true"), the heartbroken Sweeney quickly targets tough-guy Quinn, resolved to track him through the streets of Dublin. Devastated by the recent death of his estranged wife, Grace, and stricken by the potential loss of his daughter, Sweeney goes over the top and kidnaps Quinn, imprisoning him in the backyard of his isolated London home. The horrifically cruel game of psychological cat-and-mouse that evolves between prisoner and tormentor quickly turns tables when Quinn capitalizes on Sweeney's weaknesses by escaping and then imprisoning the salesman on his own property. The resolution, in which Sweeney and Quinn ultimately reconcile their differences with the specter of the IRA hovering in the background, stretches the bounds of credulity. It's a minor flaw in a narrative brilliantly blending past and present as O'Connor deftly probes the aftermath of loss and tragedy, interweaving the harsh facts with a dark humor that glints on the edge of pain. Granting even more emotional authenticity are the powerful flashback scenes portraying Sweeney's problematic but deeply passionate relationship with his wife. Billy's guilt and remorse for the drunken rages that destroyed their marriage, his keening memories of the brightness of a life now gone gray and sour, resonate heartbreakingly.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Since these things must begin somewhere, I suppose I should start with the first time I met your mother. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Since these things must begin somewhere, I suppose I should start with the first time I met your mother. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant look at loneliness,
By RichieM (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Salesman (Paperback)
There's a fine line between love and hate. There's also a fine line between friend and enemy in this book.The author does a great job of conveying the emotions of his characters, from the anguish of a middle aged man who finds himself without his family to the rage of a young man who never really had a family at all.The evolving relationship between the two men forms the heart of the story but it is not like any relationship you've ever experienced before.The book explores the loneliness of all the characters but mainly the 2 men. The irony of these people befriending each other shows how deep the need for companionship can be. Even so. I doubt I would have the change of heart that comes over Sweeney given his situation. Then again sometimes we find friendship and redemption where we least expect to. That's what maks this such a moving book
5.0 out of 5 stars
Startling and Atmospheric,
This review is from: Salesman, The (Hardcover)
Tautly written, with the kind of wry, dark humor that brings you just to edge of acceptance and never lets you go. This is a smashing work, and one of the best "Irish novels" I've read in awhile. Highly recommended. (By the way, does everyone know that the author, Joseph O'Connor, is none other than the brother of the famous Sinead O'Connor Herself! )
3.0 out of 5 stars
A lovely, lyrical start which went downhill,
This review is from: Salesman, The (Hardcover)
After capturing relationships in a truly beautiful way, O'Connor had to go and spoil everything by going all Tarantino. What could have been a truly great book sacrificied to fashion.
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