The Ginger Man Summary
J. P. Donleavy

The Ginger Man Summary

Ginger Man follows Sebastian Dangerfield, a young law student from a wealthy American family, as he drops out of Dublin University law school, makes a mess of his early marriage, and drinks his way through the Dublin pubs. Dangerfield is a womanizer whose only ambition is not to work. He finds himself in squalor and poverty, moving to London, wrecking relationship after relationship, and finally discovering it will be twenty more years before he can expect any inheritance from his wealthy father's death.

As the novel begins, Dangerfield is struggling while studying law at Dublin University and living in poverty in a spooky, rundown house on the edge of a cliff in Ireland. His wife and baby daughter are away, and he has his friend O'Keefe over. Dangerfield buys food and liquor on credit, and they get drunk and wreck the house. Marion comes back and is furious with his... View more of the The Ginger Man Summary