|
Title: RIP J.P. Donleavy (1926-2017) Post by: JK on September 20, 2017, 10:43:12 AM I would never have known if I hadn't been looking for recent celebrity deaths. J.P. (Mike) Donleavy is one of my all-time favourite authors. I read The Ginger Man first of course----many times, in fact----but his other early novels (A Singular Man, The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B and The Onion Eaters) are all fabulous reads in different ways.
And 91 is a grand age to pop off. Rest in peace, Mr D. http://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/j-p-donleavy-author-of-the-ginger-man-dies-at-age-91-1.14167485 Title: Re: RIP J.P. Donleavy (1926-2017) Post by: Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll on September 21, 2017, 12:45:49 AM RIP JP
I hope the movie gets made of the Ginger Man at some point. Johnny Depp visited quite a few times as far as I know. My wife used to visit his house as a kid as she was friends with one of his partners kids. He had his own quarters so was rarely seen. Title: Re: RIP J.P. Donleavy (1926-2017) Post by: JK on September 21, 2017, 03:47:05 AM RIP JP I hope the movie gets made of the Ginger Man at some point. Johnny Depp visited quite a few times as far as I know. My wife used to visit his house as a kid as she was friends with one of his partners kids. He had his own quarters so was rarely seen. I've often wondered how they might film The Ginger Man. Actually, what I would prefer to see is a biography of its author. The two (?) autobiographical books give his side of the story and a biography by someone who knew him might complete the picture. By all accounts J.P. was a very private man. All the same, to have visited his house is quite something in itself. Wow. Title: Re: RIP J.P. Donleavy (1926-2017) Post by: JK on September 24, 2017, 01:55:23 AM By a bizarre coincidence, the prizefighter Jake LaMotta died eight days later aged 95. According to Sinéad Gleeson who once visited Donleavy at his home, "On the wall hung a photo [below] of him and Joe Frazier, just before Frazier’s 1971 fight with Muhammad Ali. (Donleavy was once a boxer, and also fought Jake La Motta)."
Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/what-jp-donleavy-did-best-was-the-desperate-melancholy-of-men-in-their-prime-1.3221248 (https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3220824.1505377970!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_685/image.jpg) Title: Re: RIP J.P. Donleavy (1926-2017) Post by: Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll on September 24, 2017, 04:44:26 AM Cheers for that John. Some nice recollections there. This is worth a read too - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/14/jp-donleavy-obituary
Title: Re: RIP J.P. Donleavy (1926-2017) Post by: JK on September 24, 2017, 05:42:06 AM Cheers for that John. Some nice recollections there. This is worth a read too - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/14/jp-donleavy-obituary It is indeed. Thanks. I see his own favourite was A Singular Man, the first book that had him as the protagonist rather than Crist. I like Crist's roles as Bonniface and Bloodmourn. (Not sure about Beefy's provenance.) I stopped following JP about halfway through Schultz. The first four novels are fantastic, each in a different way. Fairytale is a notch lower in my opinion but still a great read... |