Last Resort - Softcover

Binchy, Dan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099173514 ISBN 13: 9780099173519

Publisher: Random House UK, 1994

Synopsis

Returning to the village of Brulagh introduced in his highly praised debut The Neon Madonna, Dan Binchy's hilarious second novel offers a delightful tale of the eccentricities of rural life in the Republic of Ireland.
Luke Diverali, a suave, sophisticated American, is touring Ireland in an attempt to escape from a rather inconvenient investigation into his banking activities. His speculator's eye finds Brulagh not only attractive but, more importantly, ripe for development. If he can only overcome the obstacles that present themselves, both in business and in love, he can see huge profits just over the horizon.
Luke encounters familiar characters from The Neon Madonna, such as the endearing Father Jerry, as well as a host of new ones - at the races, at the dances, and in his relentless pursuit of money. But in the funny, unconventional, and completely absorbing Ireland of Dan Binchy's tale nothing turns out quite as planned.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

More pratfalls, pounces, and gaseous protestations emanating from Brulagh, that Irish village of cheerful chicanery, profanity, and strong drink first celebrated hilariously in The Neon Madonna (1992). Now, among some familiar citizens, comes a wealthy young American of a shady banking-family who plans a major taking of the town in the form of a mammoth resort project. It'll all end in a tie--to the satisfaction of everyone. The auld gang from Neon Madonna are present again: expansive manipulator Mick Flannery, who now has the lucrative post of EC representative; Johnny Slattery, aided by dangerous Long John McCarthy, who's still making poteen down where the Little Folk dwell; and Fr. Jerry, who's in the best of health, though his Alpha Romeo, which he'd driven from Rome, where he was a soldier in Vatican politics, has ``committed suicide.'' Featured in this second chronicle is the beautiful, jaunty, loudmouthed Lady Alpha, sole offspring of the poverty-stricken, fox-hunting Eleventh Earl of Gallerick, who, for any money at all, must depend on Aunt Daphne (the Daft). Into Brulagh comes Luke Divareli, in his doomed Porsche, with a plan to make a killing with an improved golf course, hotels, cottages, the works. With the help of Abe, a Bronx- tongued toad--a veteran of smasher development investment--Luke pushes his plans while falling in love with Alpha. But there'll be a price as Luke weathers: a fixed horse-race, a hunt atop a mad mare (supplied by the man he'd thrown downstairs), a hurling pitch, and other local gaieties. Eventually, though, Luke is absorbed into Brulagh like a stray nut in a rummy pudding. Not as tight as Neon Madonna--too many plot threads, perhaps- -but funny indeed, with Dave Barry-like touches (a geezer's flat hat ``looked as if it could only be removed under a heavy anesthetic'') and endemically bloodshot dialogue. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

In his sequel to The Neon Madonna , Irish writer Binchy attempts to build a comedy around an American developer's real-estate scheming in rural Ireland, but the humor falls flat. Vacationing abroad because bank examiners back home in the U.S. are breathing down his neck, Luke Divareli stops in Brulagh, a fictional Irish village under the misrule of an old Anglo-Irish family and a local politician named Mick Flannery. When he realizes that the breathtaking, totally undeveloped Brulagh landscape is just a short distance from Shannon Airport, Luke plans to build a hotel and marina there. He is opposed on the sly by Father Jerry O'Sullivan, a seemingly ordinary parish priest whose past as a Vatican Bank insider makes him keener about financial matters than he appears. The novel never breaks loose from a stale comic tone that combines the worst of J. P. Donleavy and the 19th-century Irish stories coauthored by Edith Somerville and Martin Ross. Binchy's patronizing manner extends to horse racing, fox hunting and Gaelic football, and the country-house scenes are neither funny nor believable.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0099173514
• ISBN 13: 9780099173519
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 272