Customer Reviews

ALBERT HIMSELF: (none)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a joy of a book to stumble upon! Beautifully evocative of pre-Katrina New Orleans, and a working class masterpiece at that. Forget Rick Russo, Stewart O'Nan. This is the real deal. This novel brings to life both the drudgery and simple beauty of its main character's life with descriptive passages so sensually dizzying that they border on sublimely surreal. Reading Albert, Himself was the literary equivalent of bellying up to a huge bowl of steaming hot gumbo on a cold, wintery day. In other words, it hits the spot. Can't wait to read more of this author!!

This is a touching story of a simple guy who thinks of himself as a loser but has much more going on than is first apparent. The characters in this book are ordinary working people but their bonds and dreams are respectfully and touchingly rendered. The writing is spare but it communicates depth and complexity.

Enjoy this book. It may surprise you.

Albert Fitzmorris is part of present-day working class New Orleans. He works at a fish market in the French Quarter, a position he inherited from his now deceased father. On one side Albert faces a tightly knit Irish Catholic community, and the strict expectations that go along with it. On the other side is Albert's own preoccupation with unrequited love. Struggling with a self-image that is slowly falling apart, Albert puts his relationship with his community, his family and his daughter all at risk.

Albert is trying to live despite the shadow of the memory of his father. Fitting into his father's clothes too easily, or playing poker with his father's friends don't make it any easier. Things are made worse by the feeling that his role is diminishing in the life of Eileen, the mother of his daughter (the two aren't married), and in the life of Audrey, his daughter.
Pulling himself away more and more from friends and family, Albert finds himself in a doomed romantic fantasy. If only he could win the heart of the beautiful and unobtainable Chelsea (who works at a local hotel restaurant) his whole life would take a turn for the better. The biggest problem is that Chelsea makes it clear that she is only interested in a casual friendship.

This is a very quiet, and very good, psychological sort of novel about one person's slide into emotional oblivion. The author does a very good job showing the good, the bad and the ugly of a real human life--the aspirations, the messiness and the disappointments. It is very much worth reading.

I enjoyed this novel. It's a journey through time in Albert's life. I didn't want it to end. Was also curious about it because I know the author.

We're talking pinteens...and NOT the schmall ones...Albert's inspiration, The Longfellow, would agree. Slainte Duine, man!