The Salesman [Hardcover]

Joseph O'Connor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999

It is the hottest summer in Dublin's history, and Billy Sweeney, a middle-aged salesman with a failed marriage, a faltering career, and a tumbledown suburban home, has more than the weather on his mind. His beloved youngest daughter lies in a coma in the hospital, following a vicious and mysterious attack by a gang of street thugs. Devastated by the consequences of that terrible night, frustrated by officaldom, and failed by the system, Billy finally tires of seeking legal justice.

In walking the streets of a sweltering Dublin, plotting his revenge while recalling with bitter-sweet nostalgia the courtship of his wife, Billy Sweeney prepares himself for the violent act ahead of him. But it is not until his confrontation with the gang's leader that this suspenseful novel takes a brilliant and unexpected twist.

At once an edge-of-your-seat thriller, a powerful portrait of a desperate man, and a powerful meditation on loss and evil, The Salesman is an irresistible read, from one of the leading talents in contemporary Irish fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"A Good Salesman can sell anything." So says the protagonist of Joseph O'Connor's remarkable third novel, who is selling nothing less than a justification to commit murder. A divorced, middle-aged recovering alcoholic, Billy Sweeney is in a world of trouble. His beloved younger daughter was brutally beaten during an attempted robbery and now lies comatose in a Dublin hospital; worse, Donal Quinn, the ringleader of the gang who put her there, has escaped from prison before his trial, and the police can't find him. Then one day, Sweeney spots a disguised Quinn in an electronics store. He considers calling the police--even goes so far as dialing the number--before "a thought occurred to me, as clear as the moment when a migraine lifts." The bereaved salesman decides to take justice into his own hands. What follows is a clever, at times terrifying game of cat and mouse as Sweeney first stalks Quinn and then catches him--with wildly unexpected results.

Though The Salesman has elements of a noir-ish thriller, it is, first and foremost, an examination of love. Written in the form of a journal from Sweeney to his comatose daughter, the book leapfrogs back and forth in time, chronicling Sweeney's courtship and troubled marriage to Grace Lawrence, his alcoholism, and his eventual divorce--even as it describes his hunt for Quinn. The love between friends, between a man and a woman, and between a father and a child are all poignantly limned here; what sets The Salesman apart, however, is the relationship that develops between Sweeney and his nemesis. O'Connor has written a novel that brims with emotion while avoiding sentimentality. Moving, disturbing, at times grimly humorous, this is Irish fiction at its best. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly

A senseless act of violence leads to a bizarre sequence involving retribution and redemption in Irish author O'Connor's (Cowboys and Indians) stunning fourth novel. Middle-aged Dubliner Billy Sweeney addresses his first-person narration to his daughter Maeve, who is in a coma after being beaten by several young thugs during a robbery of the store where she works. The novel opens as Sweeney anxiously awaits the verdict at the trial, which renders only partial justice after the escape of the crime's instigator, Donal Quinn. Heretofore glib and resourceful ("A good salesman will swear to things he knows not to be true"), the heartbroken Sweeney quickly targets tough-guy Quinn, resolved to track him through the streets of Dublin. Devastated by the recent death of his estranged wife, Grace, and stricken by the potential loss of his daughter, Sweeney goes over the top and kidnaps Quinn, imprisoning him in the backyard of his isolated London home. The horrifically cruel game of psychological cat-and-mouse that evolves between prisoner and tormentor quickly turns tables when Quinn capitalizes on Sweeney's weaknesses by escaping and then imprisoning the salesman on his own property. The resolution, in which Sweeney and Quinn ultimately reconcile their differences with the specter of the IRA hovering in the background, stretches the bounds of credulity. It's a minor flaw in a narrative brilliantly blending past and present as O'Connor deftly probes the aftermath of loss and tragedy, interweaving the harsh facts with a dark humor that glints on the edge of pain. Granting even more emotional authenticity are the powerful flashback scenes portraying Sweeney's problematic but deeply passionate relationship with his wife. Billy's guilt and remorse for the drunken rages that destroyed their marriage, his keening memories of the brightness of a life now gone gray and sour, resonate heartbreakingly.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 393 pages
• Publisher: Picador USA; 1st Picador USA ed edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312199988
• ISBN-13: 978-0312199982
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,282,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding., September 3, 1999

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Salesman (Hardcover)

Written as a diary, this is a brilliant novel of suspense, love, loneliness, alcoholism, fatherhood, redemption and of course, tragedy. The salesman of the title is a dumpy middle-aged satellite dish salesman who pissed away his family and life as an alcoholic. He's been sober for years, trying to raise his daughter by himself when she is attacked and put into a coma. One of the defendants escapes, and the salesman is left frustrated and angry.When he happens to see the escapee on the street one day he daydreams of revenge. The suspense builds and builds as he follows the criminal and plots his revenge. Interspersed with this is his recounting of meeting his wife and their life together, which he tries to explain to his daughter. Outstanding.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant look at loneliness, May 18, 2004

By 

RichieM (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Salesman (Paperback)

There's a fine line between love and hate. There's also a fine line between friend and enemy in this book.
The author does a great job of conveying the emotions of his characters, from the anguish of a middle aged man who finds himself without his family to the rage of a young man who never really had a family at all.The evolving relationship between the two men forms the heart of the story but it is not like any relationship you've ever experienced before.The book explores the loneliness of all the characters but mainly the 2 men. The irony of these people befriending each other shows how deep the need for companionship can be.
Even so. I doubt I would have the change of heart that comes over Sweeney given his situation. Then again sometimes we find friendship and redemption where we least expect to. That's what maks this such a moving book

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A quick read which leaves more questions than answers., May 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Salesman (Hardcover)

BRILLIANT! I was transported into the psyche of Liam. O'Connor is brilliant in explaining the tormented thoughts of the characters in rich detail. He allows us to enter their minds, yet while telling the story from the character's point of view, they leave out details they know to be true, but don't necessarily pertain to the story at hand. I know I'll read it again.