Paul Murray (author)

Paul Murray (born 1975) is an Irish novelist.

Murray studied English literature at Trinity College, Dublin. He has a Masters degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Paul was a former bookseller and his first novel, "An Evening of Long Goodbyes", was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize in 2003 and was nominated for the Kerry Irish Fiction Award.

An Evening of Long Goodbyes

"An Evening of Long Goodbyes" (2004) is Murray's comic novel about a 24-year old wealthy layabout who prefers to watch Gene Tierney movies in his chaise longue with a gimlet in hand rather than go out and get a job.

Charles Hythloday is a Trinty College dropout who lives in with his sister, Christabel ("Bel"), in their parents' mansion, Amaurot. There are only two things that Charles loves more than the film actress, Gene Tierney; his home and his struggling actress sister. Although their relationship seems, at times, to be slightly incestuous (for Charles, at least), Bel has a habit of bringing home men of whom Charles does not approve. The most recent of these suitors is Frank, a loutish working-class architectural salvager. While Charles loves his childhood home, Bel notices it makes people become phoney and two-faced, and wants out.

Their father worked as a chemist for several well-known cosmetics companies. Ever since he passed away and their mother went to rehab to curb her drinking, Charles has had free rein to do nothing. Charles, however, does not see his loafing as such: he argues that his time is well spent building a folly in the back garden and perfecting "sprezzatura", the art of acting like a gentleman in a graceful manner while making it look like as though one is actually doing nothing at all. Charles dreams of a return to a time when men still wear top coats and women have white gloves.

But the fantasy ends when the bills pile up and the bank threatens to repossess the house. Charles comes up with a plan (with help from a nefarious postman/private detective) to blow up the folly, fake his death, use the insurance money to save Amaurot, and move to South America. These plans go awry when he finds out that his Bosnian maid, Mrs P, has her children living in the folly. This is where Charles meets Mirela, a beauty who lost her leg on a landmine during the civil war. The bomb is apparently stopped by Frank, but the folly still explodes and a large stone gargoyle falls on Charles's head, putting him into a coma for a few weeks. He dreams of living in Chile with W.B. Yeats, where they spend their time perfecting "sprezzatura", drinking gimlets, wearing sombreros, and tending the vineyard.

When he awakes, his mother has returned, the finances are settled, and Bel has turned Amaurot into a theatre for her awful troupe, led by a Marxist playwright named Henry. Charles leaves the house when his mother forces him to get a job, and reluctantly moves in with Frank. Eventually, he is forced to work in a Latvian factory, making sure Yule logs are straight when they go into a machine. In his spare time, Charles tries to write a play to get back into his beloved home, lovingly entitled "There's Bosnians in my Attic! A Tragedy in Five Acts", but things get worse when a telecommunications company named Telisnor (a nod to Shakespeare's Hamlet) buys Amaurot and makes sure there is a mobile phone in every production. Meanwhile, Charles learns that Mirela and Henry are engaged, and that Bel's nervous tendencies are getting the better of her. The Latvian factory suddenly upgrades, swindles its employees out of their wages, and leaves Charlie and hundred of immigrants jobless. In order to make some fast cash, Charles and Frank go to the dog track, where they make a fortune using Charles' gift at picking lucky dogs based on their noble auras. On a hunch, Charles lays down all his winnings on the local underdog, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, who narrowly wins the race despite being severely injured in the process. Affected by the little dog's plight, Charles decides to give him to Bel in order to smooth the rift that has been growing between them.

Charles comes home on the night that the Telisnor president has dinner with the Hythlodays to celebrate their merger. However, Charles is shocked to learn that Bel is planning a trip to Chekhov's home town in Russia to study The Cherry Orchard, her favourite play. Bel seems odd, but insists that she is fine; the next morning, however, she drives her car straight into a wall at full speed, smashing through the windshield and flying into the sea. The circumstances surrounding her death are strange and mysterious, and life for everyone in the house falls into disarray. The Hythlodays lose Amaurot, Mirela abandons Henry and vanishes, Mrs P and her sons are deported, and Charles stays with Ed; he also takes a night job, sweeping the floor of a factory with only a deaf man for company. We learn, however, that he has started writing a novel describing his fall from wealth, and that he likes his new life in a way.

One night, he finds Bel's mobile phone and receives a mysterious call from her. She says that she might come back to him one day, and Charles ends his story walking out into his decayed Ireland, bleakly anticipating her return.