The Luck Of Ginger Coffey (1994) - Plot & Excerpts
This was the latest of my monthly Brian Moore reads, having come to the Belfast born novelist through his Belfast based books, as I have a specific interest in fiction set in the city.This novel has nothing to do with Belfast or NI however; the protagonist, Ginger Coffey, is a recent immigrant to Canada from Dublin, a former Irish Army soldier who had inherited a sum of money, and being tired of the archaic ways of his home, had secured jobs as a representative of three home based firms in Montreal, and brought his wife Veronica and daughter Paulie to start a new life there.When we meet Ginger, all is not well. He has $14 in his pocket, his jobs have come to nothing, and his wife is pressuring him to buy tickets for their passage home. Despite his hardship, Ginger has a positive outlook on life, and is convinced he will turn things around, whether through finding a job via the unemployment office, or through his 'friend' Gerry Grosvenor. And so we get to know him, as he cuts a ridiculous figure, proud and full of impossible aspirations, royally going about ****ing up his life. He makes cringeworthy decisions, yet one can't help rooting for him, flawed as he is, as the events of the short period of time that the narrative covers unfold.I really enjoyed this novel, which examines in a semi light hearted manner the experience of the immigrant in the 'new world' at the end of the 1950s. Moore's portrayal of Coffey, particularly in his attitude to women, may be a little dated, but at the same time, attitudes have changed since the time it was written. The book was turned into a film at the time, so I assume it was relatively popular, and I have to say that, as a companion piece to the other novels of his that I've read, it does a good job in showing the great versatility Moore had as a writer, and the speed that I read it at is testament to the easy style he possessed.
Read this in a day. A sort-of-archetypal Canadian immigrant story with a very unreliable and unsympathetic main character, who has his shit together for exactly one chapter, only to fail spectacularly, stupidly and avoidably. That's not necessarily a criticism - I don't demand relateable protagonists, and the author does a decent job getting into the head of someone whose faith and hope override pretty much all the data he is being fed. And because it's Canadian Lit, his failing makes his wife realize she can do no better and she better bunker down in her lame marriage. It's much like As For Me and My House, but with a criminal conviction instead of a baby as a deus ex machina.
What do You think about The Luck Of Ginger Coffey (1994)?
Another ‘immigrant’ story, this time of the Irishman James Francis “Ginger” Coffey in 1950s Montreal.Ginger really is a loser – the ne’er-do-well who got by on his charm and connections at “home” but who isn’t willing to take a step down and make his way by working hard here. Winner of the 1960 Governor-General’s Award for Fiction, and a Canadian classic, this gives a different look at Montreal than the author’s contemporary Mordecai Richler portrayed.Read this if: you’ve read some Richler and want to compare and contrast the Irish and the Jewish immigrant experiences; or you’re interested in the twentieth century Irish experience in Canada. 4 stars
—Debbie
Okay, this book is one of those candidates where I would totally welcome a half star rating on GoodReads.Good enough to get more than 2 stars... but I am not really happy with having to resort to give it 3 stars, still I chose that option.And now to something completely different, well not completely, since it's about this book. As I mentioned in an status update the other day, I really dislike the protagonist called 'Ginger, he has a few charackteristics which I hate in men, so I will stop here before I digress. His wife is an iffy floosy, whom I do understand in some way, but still I would say, that (view spoiler)[if their daughter Paulie was to become a little trollop(at that age & in those times, no less!) it would be Ginger's wife's fault in many ways, though Ginger's behaviour himself has a good deal to do with it, too.And then there is Gerry Grosvenor, the 'Friend' of the Family, boy do I hate these kind of men in real life! Their 'stuff' only gets excited when they spot a married woman. He's in love... *pffft* my a*se!There are a few other charackters, which I should possibly mention, but since this book was so sleep inducing I better stop here.All over the book was not to my linking. Honestly, IO don't care if a egoistic loser jeopardises his family, consisting of an egoistic wife and an egoistic, stupid daughter. Also I don't care if the wife unwillingly needs to go to the bathroom before sex, though unwillingly because she is a good catholic *nods*, & use some archaic form of contraception before Ginger mounts her.This book did nothing to me. I just did read all of it because I never have discontinued a book in the past & won't start with it in the near future. (hide spoiler)]
—Nesrin L.
