A Letter Marked Personal

By: J. P. Donleavy

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Paperback | 1 January 2019

At a Glance

Paperback
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.3 x 14.7 x 2.1

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A Letter Marked Personal is J.P. Donleavy's last novel, completed in 2007. Set in New York, it relates the interior monologue of forty-nine-year-old Nathan Langriesh Johnson who is the founder of a successful lingerie company. He `was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet and had reached an age when he could take solace from the fact that he no longer had the whole wilderness of his life ahead to worry about.' Nathan began his career as a door-to-door lingerie salesman, his wares consisting of imitations of European designs. Now `a confirmed social climber', Nathan distracts himself with remembered or imagined comments by his wife, Muriel, Iowa the model, Reginald the accountant and Hal the realtor, and reminisces about the struggle before his business took off. A letter marked `personal' arrives at Nathan's high-rise Manhattan apartment, and is opened by `the wife': his life unravels. This portrait of a flawed sycophant is full of Donleavy's wit and insight. Tracing a journey from Nathan's aspirational greed to his realization of the pointlessness of his vanity, this is a poignant story of an old man at the end of his days, reflecting upon the futility of human wishes.

Industry Reviews

'Reading Mr Donleavy is no longer like being dragged into a beer-brawl in some violent Irish pub, but more like sitting down to an evening of good whiskey and mad laughter in a rare conversation somewhere on the edge of reality.' HUNTER S. THOMPSON 'Donleavy was very much a part of the small Dublin bohemia ... who kept alive a spirit of irreverence, invention and free thought that stopped Ireland from succumbing to complete stultification.' THE IRISH TIMES
'Reading Mr Donleavy is no longer like being dragged into a beer-brawl in some violent Irish pub, but more like sitting down to an evening of good whiskey and mad laughter in a rare conversation somewhere on the edge of reality.' HUNTER S. THOMPSON 'Donleavy was very much a part of the small Dublin bohemia ... who kept alive a spirit of irreverence, invention and free thought that stopped Ireland from succumbing to complete stultification.' THE IRISH TIMES
Long anticipated, finally delivered. -- Bill Dunn * Irish Times *
Donleavy's final novel is a more than worthy addition to his canon. -- Pat Carty * Hot Press *
In A Letter Marked Personal J.P. Donleavy has given us his valedictory novel and left us with reminders of his lyrical style, colourful characterisation, black humour and that he is saying something fundamental about the human condition. -- Colin Overall * Books Ireland *

'Reading Mr Donleavy is no longer like being dragged into a beer-brawl in some violent Irish pub, but more like sitting down to an evening of good whiskey and mad laughter in a rare conversation somewhere on the edge of reality.'

-- Hunter S Thompson

'Donleavy was very much a part of the small Dublin bohemia ... who kept alive a spirit of irreverence, invention and free thought that stopped Ireland from succumbing to complete stultification.'

-- The Irish Times

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