Critical Mick

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Divorcing Jack A bit of fun! Hurrah! .mp3 (1.4 MB)
Colin Bateman
HarperCollins, 1995

One Part Punk Rock. One Part Paramilitarism. Five Parts Lager. Shake Violently.

OK, the terrible, apocryphal legend: Divorcing Jack languished in a drawer until the author's wife found a unique way to blow off the dust. Dressed up like a nun, she held Bateman at gunpoint until he posted the manuscript to a publisher!

The novel became a hit, and for good reason: good characters, action, humor, insight, and more twists than Chuck Berry ever dreamed possible. The main character is a young reporter who has trouble with the wife, trouble with the bottle, trouble with paramilitaries of every stripe... Written with a reporter's skill at observation, there is not a dull page. It's superbly entertaining.

In 1998, the popular media paid Divorcing Jack its highest complement imagined for a novel. They made it into a movie.

Oh, yeah, it won some weird Brit award for Best First Book, too.

Four and a half stars out ot five.

Mick proudly presents a profile of Colin Bateman on the DFA Guide to Dublin.

Critical Mick really digs Colin Bateman, author of Divorcing Jack. His wife does not, and NEVER dresses like a nun or threatens him with a gun.

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2005 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

This Page Was Last Updated On 17 June, 2005.