The Companion - Softcover

Roche, Lorcan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933372842 ISBN 13: 9781933372846

Publisher: Europa Editions, 2010

Synopsis

In this subversive comic extravaganza, Dublin-born film-school dropout Trevor finds himself washed up in New York where he answers an ad to work as a companion to Ed, a wheelchair-bound teenager with muscular dystrophy. Ed's family is very wealthy and very dysfunctional. Ed's father, a guilt-ridden judge, rarely emerges from his dusty study. Ed's morbidly obese, sexually perverse mother retired to her bed after a skiing incident ten years ago. They may live in the same luxurious apartment, but Ed and his parents barely interact. A bizarre yet touching friendship develops between Trevor and Ed–both men are equally in need of someone who can show them umderstanding and compassion.

As the boisterous narrative increasingly focuses its attention on Trevor's past and the mysterious stirrings of his psyche, Lorcan Roche's The Companion becomes a darkly humorous tale of obsession. An Irish take on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and A Confederacy of Dunces, The Companion's electrifying style, shocking finale, and its moving tale of friendship under duress all make for an immensely rewarding read.

About this title

About the Author

Lorcan Roche, born in Dublin in 1963, is a journalist, playwright, travel-writer, magazine editor and a one-time male nurse. His works include award-winning plays for radio (Angel of Suburbia) and stage (Him and Her, Whatever Happened to Joe Magill, and The Old Fella). He lives in Dublin with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

Irish playwright and journalist Roche debuts with the hilarious and heartbreaking tale of a Dubliner who takes a job helping a teenage boy suffering from muscular dystrophy on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Trevor, the black sheep in a family of academics, has dropped out of film school and left Ireland after his mother's death. Awash in the chaos of Manhattan, he answers an ad to care for Ed, the wheelchair-bound, teenage son of a sedentary, morbidly obese mother and an emotionally stunted judge. Trevor's world is filled with lies and fantasies, but as his relationship with Ed evolves from caretaker to companion, and Ed's condition worsens, Trevor's emotional feints fall away, forcing him to do a bit of maturing. There's a wonderful cast of supporting characters--a Jamaican cook, an attractive physical therapist, the street-level rabble who occupy the bars and parks of New York City--but it's Roche's balancing of Trevor's complexities with a quick wit, a sharp ear, and a deft understanding of how humans suffer that steals the show.
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Trevor has two major defining characteristics, the first, which people notice right off the bat, is his huge hands. The second is his Irish accent, heard in full flower when he spouts various long-winded theories about the human condition. Both attributes come in handy when he takes a job caring for a wheelchair-bound boy with muscular dystrophy—a rich kid on New York's Upper East Side who loves British “prog-rock.” Trevor has a rare talent for saying exactly the right thing at the right time, even (or especially) if it's a lie. It often helps to apply this skill when telling stories to a dying teenager, but the true-or-false issue makes Trevor a rather unreliable narrator, forcing readers to parse the true morsels of Trevor's' life from the often-hilarious embellishments.The struggle to connect past with present, and the parallels of loneliness and regret in the lives of the Irishman and his young employer are some of the more compelling components of this masterfully written exploration of growing up and moving on. --Courtney Jones

Edition details

• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1933372842
• ISBN 13: 9781933372846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320