From Publishers Weekly
This third novel from the author of the immensely appealing Man and Boy is the amusing story of sad sack Alfie, who has returned to London from Hong Kong following the death of his wife, Rose, the one and only true love of his life, in a scuba diving accident. Alfie, 34, is given to making sensitive, introspective remarks such as "she was my reason" and "That's what love did to me. Love messed up my heart." An affable enough fellow, he's barely living life in his skin as an English language teacher at Churchill's International School, narcissistically sleeping with his students while trying to cope with his parents' breakup and his grandmother's illness and death. Of course, he gradually comes out of his sleepwalking existence to recognize the error of his ways and begin down a path of spiritual fulfillment that includes tai chi instruction and the insight of professional TV wrestler the Slab and his book, Smell the Fear, He-Bitch. There are some lovely moments in the novel, when the author subtly reveals the details of Alfie's loss, mixed in with some clever humor, such as when he plays on the class differences between Alfie's lawyer pal Josh and Alfie's cleaning woman girlfriend, a romance that heads somewhat predictably in the direction of Pygmalion and Educating Rita. At its best, the novel is enjoyable fluff. One only wishes the author had created in Alfie a more dynamic character worthier of the reader's sympathies.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Alfie Budd returns to England from Hong Kong where he hastaught English to émigrés and where his wife has died. He isfaced with his parents' marital disaster, his grandmother's aging, anda string of affairs with his students, all while trying to learn thebenefits of T'ai Chi. This rich novel filled with philosophicalhomilies is excellent as printed, but as Gerard Doyle reads it, thehumanness of every line flows through the narrative profoundly. Onewants to catch these thoughts and memorize them. Every character isunderstandable and recognizable, in particular because Doyle setsaside his ego and becomes the medium through whom we visit the worldof Alfie Budd. J.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award ©AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
