Troubles

Troubles is one of those novels that begins as a slightly eccentric comedy about an English major and a decaying Irish hotel and then quietly evolves into something far stranger, sadder and more brilliant. J.G. Farrell takes the crumbling end of the British Empire and filters it through peeling wallpaper, awkward social encounters and the growing suspicion that absolutely everything is falling apart simultaneously. Which, as it turns out, is excellent material for fiction. Published here in a 1982 Penguin edition, Troubles drops the reader into the Majestic Hotel in County Wexford during the years surrounding the Irish War of Independence. The hotel itself may be one of the great characters in modern literature: vast, faded, overcrowded with ancient ladies, slowly collapsing into dust and confusion while everybody inside pretends things are fundamentally under control. In other words, a perfect metaphor for empire. Poor Major Brendan Archer arrives expecting perhaps a romantic engagement and some manageable social discomfort. Instead he finds himself trapped inside a sort of surreal Anglo-Irish fever dream populated by decaying gentility, endless confusion and a building that appears to be physically surrendering to vegetation in real time. Farrell is extraordinary at this kind of comedy. The humour in Troubles is deeply dry, slightly absurd and permanently haunted by catastrophe waiting somewhere just outside the frame. People discuss trivial inconveniences while history sharpens knives in the background. The result is hilarious right up until it suddenly becomes deeply melancholy. The novel also contains some of the finest descriptions ever written about institutional decline. Carpets rot. Ceilings sag. Cats multiply mysteriously. Entire rooms drift out of practical existence. Reading it feels rather like wandering through the final days of a civilisation maintained entirely by denial and weak tea. And naturally, because this is British literature, everybody continues attempting proper manners throughout. What makes Troubles especially wonderful now is how modern it feels despite being soaked in historical atmosphere. The sense of systems deteriorating while people cling desperately to routine feels perpetually relevant. Farrell understood that collapse rarely arrives dramatically at first. Often it looks like administrative confusion, leaking roofs and somebody insisting things were much better before. This 1982 Penguin edition is exactly the right format for the novel. A proper literary paperback from the era when intelligent fiction lived comfortably beside ashtrays, pub lunches and mildly intimidating university bookshelves. Condition is Good, meaning this copy has survived admirably despite decades of probable ownership by readers who liked words such as ?elegiac? and occasionally stared moodily out of train windows. ISBN 0140039732 is included for those who enjoy bureaucratic certainty, unlike almost everyone inhabiting the Majestic Hotel. A magnificent tragicomic masterpiece about decline, delusion and imperial decay, wrapped in a satisfyingly worn Penguin paperback. Funny, haunting and quietly devastating, like overhearing civilisation apologising politely while sinking into the wallpaper. THIS BOOK BEARS THE CRAPPY OLD BOOKS STAMP. IF THAT IS UNDESIRABLE PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS. THE STAMP MARKS WHICH IS USUALLY TO THE FRONT AND BACK INNER PAGES SAYS SOLD BY CRAPPY OLD BOOKS WITH WEB SITE URL. IT IN NO WAY DEMINISHED FROM THE READING. IF YOU WANT A PRISTINE BOOK, PLEASE FIND ANOTHER BOOK IN BETTER CONDITION SOMEWHERE ELSE.…