While reading #100, The Magnificent Ambersons, I found that it took a long time before I really "got into" the book. With this one, it never really happened. Written in 1955, the book takes place in Ireland just after WWII and was considered sufficiently obscene to be banned in both Ireland and the US! As I read the book, I could understand why.
The novel centres on Sebastian Dangerfield, an American who fought in the war, his English wife and their infant daughter. Sebastian engages in one sexual escapade after another, never more than thinly hidden from his wife. The overall treatment of women and the institution of marriage seems to seems to imply an almost misogynistic view from at least the character, if not the author. The audacity of Sebastian caught my attention early as I thought I was going to follow him on a reperative journey in which he'd see the error of his ways and the dark cloud of his early behaviour would allow his new self to shine all the more brightly (a la Henry V). I was disappointed. Sebastian never seems to grow up, doesn't understand and in the end, is worse off than he was in the beginning.
I'm not entirely sure what Donleavy was shooting for with this novel, but to my eye, he seems to have missed. While I had questioned why the Ambersons were on the list, I eventually came to understand. I cannot say the same for the Ginger Man.
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