- Paperback: 180 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (5 Oct 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006512747
- ISBN-13: 978-0006512745
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,566,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In Colin Bateman's first novel, Divorcing Jack, a witty Belfast newspaper columnist named Dan Starkey gets drunk, falls in lust, and finds himself helplessly mired in trouble with his wife and the law. Shortly after Starkey's wife catches him in the arms of another woman, that woman is murdered and Starkey becomes the prime suspect. It turns out that the deceased woman was related to an important political figure, and now thugs from several of Northern Ireland's factions are out to get Starkey. The columnist decides he must track down the killer in order to clear his own name. During the investigation, he uncovers a scandal that could potentially alter the outcome of the next national election--and destroy the country's hopes for peace.
Mostly though, this thriller chronicles the beleaguered journalist's lame efforts to stay out of trouble. Starkey isn't exactly a man of action; in fact, he's a likeable character partly because he knows he's a weak man. Late in the book, Starkey sums up his predicament: "The world was still after me, Patricia was still missing, I was still a killer on the run, and I had a disturbing tendency to burst into tears, but I wasn't going to let little things like that get me down." He copes with stress by 1) drinking too much and 2) making jokes. When a nun in a miniature car saves Starkey from a hail of gunfire, for instance, he spends a few moments wondering what the proper name of her headgear is and decides to call it a Godpiece. Dan Starkey makes an entertaining guide to war-torn Northern Ireland, even while he discovers, time and again, that the pen is not mightier than the sword. --Jill Marquis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘Hysterically funny one-liners and sinister Kafkaesque developments’
Daily Mail
‘Divorcing Jack is richly paranoid and very funny, it manages to say more about the Troubles in 280 vivid pages than reams of earnest reportage ever could’
The Sunday Times
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Most of us have had a night or two where, mired in alcohol, bad decisions have been made. I don’t for a second think that a complete lack of alcohol would make our protagonist, Dan Starkey, a contender for canonization. But, it would keep me from wanting to box this characters ears as I burst out laughing at his latest installment of a good idea. This perennially soused journalist has a talent for saying the wittiest thing at the wrong time. The whirlwind of death, danger, politics and sex that picks him up and plunks him down, well the worse for wear, begins with a kiss wrapped around a shared breath mint. A mint shared with a woman he barely knows as his wife whispers in his ears, “You have twenty-four hours to move out.” This paves the way for bad decision number two and the beginning of a domino effect in Starkey’s life. Within the proscribed twenty-four hours, the “other” woman will be dead and Starkey will be the number one suspect. The one clue that could lead Starkey to the real killer slips through his fingers like a greased eel.
This very funny, very intelligent book could have been a mere candy bar between literary meals. It is, instead, a full meal itself. An insider’s view into the raging political scene of Northern Ireland in the mid ‘90’s and the warped marriage of a co-dependent couple are tightly conveyed. The sarcasm and fallibility of a “hero” doing all the wrong things for all the drunk reasons plays beautifully against the fast-paced nature of this thriller.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was given this book as a Christmas present, and on the whole I'm not a great reader, so I only picked this up for the cool front cover (which i think has now been replaced). However, I think it is probably one of the best books I have read.
I cannot think of anything bad or offensive about it, it is just a funny and easy-to-read book full of adventure, suprising twists and a little history thrown in, which is well explained if you don't know anything about Ireland! (like me). It's well written and the characters are well formed. There's not a bad bit.
I cannot think of anything bad or offensive about it, it is just a funny and easy-to-read book full of adventure, suprising twists and a little history thrown in, which is well explained if you don't know anything about Ireland! (like me). It's well written and the characters are well formed. There's not a bad bit.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You'd hope off the back of a recent film that the sales of this undoubtedly great book would go up- unfortunately, due to the dismal advertising of said film adaptation, I don't think Bateman's going to be set up for life just yet.
Nevertheless, that says nothing for the quality of the book. It is both fast paced and humourous, mainly due to the lead character, Dan Starkey, who is both touchingly useless and wilfully incapable of stopping the flow of cynical one-liners. The pen may not be mightier than the sword, but it is certainly funnier.
For those that have seen the film, the political points are not so stated, but the sheer human value of it should make you think just what is behind all those news reports you see on the TV. Bateman never lets us forget that, despite the gags, there is tragedy involved in violence, whatever it is in the name of. He shows a side of Northern Ireland that you rarely get to see, unless you visit, one of normal people trying to get on with their lives. That his characters must get sucked into this only provides him with the opportunity to stick two fingers up to those that threaten any precarious equilibrium.
Buy this book- it has more to it than you might first suspect, and there's no harm in having a laugh while you think a bit. Whether or not the irreverant Bateman would admit to such an aim, however, we shall never know. He'd probably just like the cash.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
My Take on Divorcing Jack
This is a very entertaining book by Colin Bateman an author from my hometown of Bangor, so a lot of place names and expressions well used here in Northern Ireland!! Read more
Published on 9 May 2010 by P. A. Cunningham
Laugh, I nearly wet myself
Sick and tired of everything always working out well for the main character? Read books knowing that whatever happens the lead is bound to come up trumps in the end? Read more
Published on 30 Oct 2009 by Ms R Burns
A Great Start to a Great Series
I have read almost the entire back catalogue of Colin Bateman, but strangely never actually read `Divorcing Jack' the novel that introduced his most used character Dan Starkey. Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by Sam
Colin Bateman - divorcing Jack
Set during "the troubles" that plauged Northern Ireland during the latter part of the last century, Divorcing Jack is a witty, funny, ludacris but often painful and sad novel. Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2009 by T. JNR
The first and the best.
This was Colin Bateman's first - and best - novel.
It's funny and it's thrilling.
The books I tend to compare it with are "Rancid Aluminium" by Hawes and "A Big Boy... Read more
It's funny and it's thrilling.
The books I tend to compare it with are "Rancid Aluminium" by Hawes and "A Big Boy... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2009 by pikeman
Brilliant, humane and funny
Tight plotted, witty easy reading. Brilliant.
Published on 11 Dec 2002
Adultrers of the world beware!!
Dan Starkey, journalist, drunk, party animal, and married man - only just... This story begins when Starkey is caught in an awkward position with a female aquaintence, by his wife. Read more
Published on 18 Aug 2002 by GordonR
Dead On
Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it, I read this book after having read Bateman's 'Cycle of Violence'. Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2001
It won't change your life but it will make you laugh ALOT!
A fantastic read from start to finish, I couldn't put it down. A dry humour is evident throughout the slightly surreal storyline set against a background of secterian violence. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 1999 by markjones00@hotmail.com
The best look at Northern Ireland ever written
Divorcing Jack is by far the best comment on Northern Ireland ever put into fiction. Many have tried to understand the complexities of Northern Ireland, and put it in prose, but... Read more
Published on 30 Nov 1999
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