Ease [Paperback]

Patrick Gale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 1993

A novel about downsizing from a life of ease and upgrading to one of sleaze. Many people would kill to be Domina Tey. She's one of life's successes: an award-winning playwright living in a beautiful house with an equally celebrated writer. A lucky woman. She knows it. And she appreciates it. But she isn't happy. Life is too easy. It's becoming stultifying, negating her creative force. She decides upon a spell of sleazy living to give both her work and her soul a spring-clean -- and elopes with her typewriter in search of just a hint of degradation. She finds it in Bayswater. Safe in bedsit land, she immediately sets about getting to know her neighbour, a candidate for the priesthood half her age.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this captivating first novel, British author Gale inhabits the mind and spirit of 39-year-old Domina Tey, popular playwright and longtime mistress of literary critic Randy Herskewitz. Yearning to resolve her problem of whether to become pregnant with Randy's child, Domina impulsively leaves her lover and retreats to a bedsitter in seedy Bayswater. The other tenants include Penny Havers, an actress manquee turned prostitute, Frenchman Thierry Kalbach, who sleeps with a different boy each night, and fragile young Quintus Harding, a disciple of Greek Orthodox Brother Jerome. Domina's empathic understanding and easy charm bring her into quick intimacy with these three. She uses her influence to wangle an audition for Penny, and goes with Thierry to an orgiastic sauna, where he becomes involved with a man who turns out to have murderous intentions. It is Quintus who affects Domina most deeply, however. He takes her to his church, where she recognizes the true identity of his adored Brother Jerome; thereafter, events spiral down in tragedy. The action, however fast paced and convincing, is secondary to the richness and vitality of the characterization, the authenticity of setting and dialogue, in a novel that pleads to be read at a single sitting.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'Patrick Gale writes with the understated fluency that is the hallmark of contemporary British fiction, and with the irony that usually accompanies it. Like William Boyd and Martin Amis, he skilfully blends the light and the dark, moving unobtrusively from comedy to drama without losing narrative momentum or integrity.' Book World, US 'A sleek and silky novel.' Boston Sunday Globe 'Like his fellow countrymen, Tom Sharpe and John Mortimer, Gale can produce chuckles in waves, all the time getting in stiff jabs beneath the humour. Ease deals with a marvellous assortment of oddballs who live (or at least try to) in a spaced out boarding-house in Bayswater. Patrick Gale has genuine affection for his characters, all of whom have hysterical things to say about the human condition. This is a charming novel, which displays a talent with remarkable gifts. Outstanding. The Coast Book Review Service, US 'Ease is a second novel by a young Briton whose gifts and insights are notable.' International Herald Tribune 'A quick-thinking book by an author who has something to say.' Guardian 'Captivating. A novel that pleads to be read at a single sitting.' Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Flamingo (February 8, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0586091475
• ISBN-13: 978-0586091470
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,548,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.