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An Evening Of Long Goodbyes
A Novel
by Paul Murray


9.4

based on 13 reviews
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based on 5 votes
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Paul Murray's debut heralds the arrival of a major new Irish talent. His protagonist is endearing and wildly witty - part P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, with a cantankerous dash of "A Confederacy of Dunces" Ignatius J. Reilly thrown in. With its rollicking plot and colorful characters, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is a delightful and erudite comedy of epic proportions. [Random House]

Random House, 432 pages
08/03/2004
$24.95

ISBN: 1400061164

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Kirkus Reviews

Riotously funny from the start, the sharp edge of the author's satire turns this tale into something very different from comedy by the end and reveals Murray as a master of narrative sleight of hand.

Los Angeles Times Mark Rozzo

Throughout An Evening of Long Goodbyes, every joke, every observation, every name reverberates with playful nuance and nervy significance; the end result is a gleeful tweak of the New Ireland's proud nose.

Publishers Weekly

Murray's blend of drawing-room comedy and postindustrial hilarity is deft and jaunty, and well-timed snippets of foreshadowing keep the story moving briskly.

Booklist Joanne Wilkinson

This is witty, wonderfully rich reading. [1 June 2004, p.1702]

The Independent Murrough O'Brien

There's not a dud line, not a false note. Even Charles's paranoia is sympathetically portrayed. Against all odds the prevailing note of this formidably funny book is of pathos.

Washington Post Nuala O'Faolain

As the book progresses it becomes clear that Paul Murray, though this is his first novel and he is not yet 30, can do almost anything.

Village Voice Ed Park

Dubliner Paul Murray's laugh-laden debut, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, is thankfully more like four or five long evenings' worth of companionable reading.

Wall Street Journal Elizabeth Bukowski

This is a comic novel that carries a bittersweet sting.

Christian Science Monitor Ron Charles

Clueless as Charles is, his acidic sarcasm provides a delicious commentary on the vacuous cant of employee motivation efforts, the venal world of temp agencies, the slave conditions of immigrant workers.

Entertainment Weekly Thom Geier

But this shaggy-greyhound story by Paul Murray, can't quite sustain 424 pages -- let alone a stab at earnestness toward the end.

The New York Times Book Review Stephen Amidon

Once Murray casts his hero out into the world, however, the narrator begins to lose his voice...The result is a novel whose 400-plus pages begin to weigh on the reader not long after the midpoint.

San Francisco Chronicle Irina Reyn

Unfortunately, the novel comes to a satisfying conclusion about a third of the way through the book, while the rest seems as if the author is straining to stretch a brisk, wickedly pleasurable social satire onto a larger canvas.

The Guardian Alfred Hickling

I had initial problems comprehending the bleary, rambling tone of Murray's narrator, but found that if you read it in the voice of Dylan Moran it makes perfect sense.

The average user rating for this book is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mason P gave it a10:
After the first chapter or two I became worried that this was Paul Murray's attempt at plagiarizing A Confederacy of Dunces by inserting a young aristocrat in the lead and replacing New Orleans with Ireland; however, Murray's writing prowess and wit blew away any misconception I had developed.

David I gave it a10:
Excellent. Paul Murray should be very proud of his first novel. I would recommend it to anyone who can breathe.

Kathryn M gave it a9:
I have not been this entertained by a book in ages.

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An Evening Of Long Goodbyes A Novel by Paul Murray

An Evening Of Long Goodbyes
A Novel
by Paul Murray