{"product_id":"2026200018539-secondhand-a-singular-man","title":"A Singular Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind the gilded facade of mid-century American prosperity lurks George Smith, a mysteriously wealthy recluse obsessed with building himself the grandest mausoleum the world has ever seen — a man who retreats from life even as it insists on intruding upon him. J.P. Donleavy's A Singular Man, first published in 1963, chronicles Smith's darkly comic odyssey through loneliness, love, and the absurdities of social convention, as he navigates a world that simultaneously courts and excludes him, finding solace in the arms of the vivacious Sally Tomson while death looms as his only true companion.\n\nDonleavy, the Irish-American master of tragicomic prose, constructs a narrative universe that is at once hilarious and profoundly melancholic, his signature staccato style — fragmented sentences, stream-of-consciousness interludes, and bittersweet lyricism — drawing the reader into Smith's fractured inner world. A spiritual successor to The Ginger Man, this novel cements Donleavy's reputation as a singular voice in 20th-century literature, one who wielded black humour as a scalpel against the pretensions of modern life. Whether Smith's magnificent tomb will ever be completed remains, to the very last page, deliciously uncertain.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50736428122331,"sku":"2026200018539-SECONDHAND","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/7e9ed169-4e67-4915-b0e0-570c67835e81.png?v=1792122969","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200018539-secondhand-a-singular-man","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}