The Ginger Man – JP Donleavy

I’ve never read a novel quite like this stylistically, with its constant shifting between first and person, and between present and past tense. It requires concentration not to lose one’s thread, a level of effort that is not really rewarded by a tawdry tale of deeply unappealing characters. Our narrator Dangerfield is in some senses reminiscent of Ignatius J. Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces, but instead of a bumptious buffoon we are required to engage with a violent misogynist.