The Old Romantic
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An Oprah Book Club Choice. A dark comedy hailed by reviewers as 'extremely funny' with 'a clever plot and plenty of surprises.'
Meet Ken. He's obsessed with death, planning his own funeral and desperate to die in the bosom of his family. Unfortunately for Ken, that's the last place his family wants him. His oldest son Nick left home over twenty years ago and reinvented himself. At forty, he has returned home to Kent in the South East of England and found happiness with his girlfriend Astrid and her twelve-year-old daughter Laura, and he doesn't want the old man to spoil things. He's come a long way; he's a professional, a country gent, a family man. But the past is coming back for Nick and it won't let him be.
'Louise Dean's fearless, frank and darkly comic novels have brought a fresh colour and character to English fiction.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent.
'Dark, scurrilous and richly comic. There is so much to treasure in this terrific book, but its deepest joy is the sharp, perceptive writing.' Financial Times
'Very appealing...so vivid are the quintessentially British characters and the snappy, well-observed dialogue. Delightful, eccentric...' The Observer
'Dean's observations have a lyrical intensity few can match.' The Guardian
'A warm-hearted comedy of bad manners.' Daily Mail
'Like its predecessors, it channels the rough music of everyday life for non-Bloomsbury folk with a tragicomic subtlety, a pin-sharp ear for dialogue and a flair for every nuance of character and class. Beneath the mordant delights of observation lies a sharp awareness of the grander themes – love, selfhood, family, freedom and above all death – that haunt minds and shape lives in Kentish cottages, and executive-style new-build homes, as much as Kentish castles. Admirers of Beryl Bainbridge still grieving her loss should find solace here.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
'Dean writes with beautifully controlled clarity about family ties, social class, the generation gap and the vanished England of the past. She's extremely funny, but also humane and moving.' The Times
'Dean is able to demonstrate her unobtrusive skill as the creator of comic set-pieces...painfully funny. A clever plot and plenty of surprises.' The Sunday Times
Louise Dean is founder and course director at the worldwide writing school for novelists The Novelry.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dean's very British fourth novel (after The Idea of Love) is a grimly hilarious family saga in which an old curmudgeon faces his mortality. Ken Goodyew, a working-class bloke who believes he is at the end of his life, sets out to settle his affairs. Spewing vitriol in every direction, he calls upon his social-climbing son, Gary now known as Nick, a dapper country gentleman and Nick's hapless little brother, Dave, first to help him spurn his second wife, the unnervingly thrifty June, and then to find the boys' mother, Pearl. Ken also spends a good chunk of time shadowing undertaker Audrey as she fetches, dresses, and embalms bodies, in order to come to some conclusion about the right way to die. But after June's out of the picture and Pearl is found hospitalized Ken's desire to make sense of things profoundly affects his sons, leading to a denouement that perfectly balances humor and poignancy. Dean, with her superb ear for language and class nuance, gives readers the essence of contemporary British life in this touching and funny family portrait.