The Temporary Gentleman
Much of Jack McNulty’s life has been lost in the fog of alcoholism. What he does remember, though, he sets down in writing from his quarters in mid-1950s Ghana, reviewing with regret his path through a troubled marriage and a war. Looking back at his younger self with affectionate pity, Jack unspools his relationship with the high-spirited Mai from its bright beginning through its descent into anger and blame. The book is the sixth in a series of separate but connected novels by Irish writer Barry. Jack is the brother of the title character in Barry’s debut novel, The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998). Barry’s prose has a dreamlike quality, with stream-of-consciousness passages capturing the memory of wartime bombings. Although McNulty is not a man to be admired, the raw elegance of his storytelling has its own beauty. The Temporary Gentleman is an arresting account of self-deception and the power of will to pretend all is well, even as the bottom falls out. --Bridget Thoreson