The Ginger Man
The Ginger Man is a 1955 novel by J. P. Donleavy.
First published in Paris, the novel is set in Ireland just after World War II. Upon its publication, it was banned in the Republic of Ireland and the United States of America for obscenity.
It follows the often racy misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American living in Dublin with his English wife and infant daughte...
The Ginger Man is a 1955 novel by J. P. Donleavy.
First published in Paris, the novel is set in Ireland just after World War II. Upon its publication, it was banned in the Republic of Ireland and the United States of America for obscenity.
It follows the often racy misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American living in Dublin with his English wife and infant daughter and studying law at Trinity College.
This book may be considered part of the fictionalised roar of the end of the Second World War hiatus, also represented by the colossi of American literature: John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. Dangerfield is an American Protestant of Irish descent, commonly believed to be a thinly fictionalised version of the author, but is more broadly based not only on Donleavy but also some of his contemporaries at Trinity. The hero, Dangerfield, is a portrayal of lifelong bohemian and friend of Donleavy, Gainor Stephen Crist, as told by the author in "A History of The Ginger Man".
The book gives us the map of the terra incognita of late 1950s sexual encounters in Dublin. Donleavy's later books spell out the aftermath (particularly A Fairy Tale of New York, which later inspired Shane MacGowan's song "Fairytale of New York", recorded by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl).
The book was rumored in development with Johnny Depp playing the protagonist. The director will be Laurence Dunmore of The Libertine fame. The book also inspired a song of the same name, recorded by the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, sung by Geoff Muldaur.[1][2] Apparently, interested waned, with the success of Pirates of the Caribbean.[3]
詹姆斯•帕特里克•唐利维（James Patrick Donleavy ，1926—2017），爱尔兰裔美国小说家、剧作家，1926年生于纽约，曾在美国海军服役，二战后靠美国政府的退伍军人奖学金就读于都柏林圣三一学院，学习动物学。大学期间交游于都柏林波希米亚文人艺术圈，学业上收获寥寥，最终未能获得学位。
他共创作了12部长篇小说，另有若干中篇作品和剧本。但迄今最为成功的，仍是这部出版于1955年，反映战后一代青年迷惘与痛苦的《姜饼人》。