Temporary Gentleman
About This Novel
"The Temporary Gentleman" is a novel written by Sebastian Barry in 2016. It is also the last book in the "Sebastian Pentology". This is Barry's third novel about the McNulty family. The hero of the story, Jack, is the brother-in-law of Roseanne, the heroine of "The Secret Manuscript", and the brother of Enes, the protagonist of the novel "THEWHEREABOUTSOFENNIUSMCNULTY" (not published in mainland China). Jack is the only character in the Five Parts who appears in a negative light. He was an alcoholic, a gambler, an absentee father, and a neglected husband. He is dissolute and lazy, lacks responsibility for marriage and family, and is confused and indifferent in the face of war and the army. Almost everything he does has a beginning and an end, and he is used to wasting away his time in a muddle-headed manner, until 1957, which is the time when the novel begins. At that time, World War II had ended many years ago, his wife Man had passed away, and his children had grown up. Jack lived alone in Accra, Ghana, recording the past years in words amid aging, loneliness, hesitation and regret. What tormented Jack was not the sadness of his dying years, nor the disease, nor the cruel memories of the war, but his grief for his wife, a "gnashing guilt" that kept eating away at his soul. The title of the novel seems to be a satire on Jack's absurd life, a temporary gentleman for whom virtue seems to be forever fleeting.
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