A blistering comment about the pressures put on young women to be likeable. I found this an invigorating respite from how people usually assessed women.Īre wonderfully reassuring! But look at the pointedness of that final sentence, slipped in gently with a dry humour but a deeply barbed suckerpunch nonetheless. I adored the school sections of the novel – possibly because as an English teacher with a reputation of a grammar expert, comments likeīecause I lacked warmth, I was mainly assigned grammar classes, where children not liking you was a positive performance indicator. I loved her ruminations on sex, gender, class and politics – she was so sharp and on point, even as she told us how bad she was.ĭolan’s writing is, in fact, an absolute treasure trove of aphorisms. Despite both Julian and Edith finding out about each other, both are generally grown up and decent about the situation. There is little in the way of plot or tension or conflict outside of that: she falls into a relationship of sorts with the English banker Julian when he is back in England for a period of months, she falls into a relationship with Edith Zhang Mei Ling.

If you don’t get on with Ava, you won’t get on with this book: there is nothing in it save for Ava. She, in her own opinion “wasn’t good at most things but I was good at men”. She is self-deprecating, caustic and witty. And then not only would they know, I’d know too.”Īva is a twenty-two year-old ex pat from Dublin, living in Hong Kong in a grubby Airbnb and teaching English as a Foreign Language to eight year olds in a school that does not allow her to urinate between classes. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life-and announces herself as a singular new voice.“I thought that if i let anyone in, they’d find out what was broken about me. Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Quickly, she becomes something Ava looks forward to.Īnd then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava to the theatre when Julian leaves Hong Kong for work. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than 'I like you a great deal'.Įnter Edith, a lawyer.

A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children.

Naoise dolan books