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Divorcing Jack (Paperback)

by Colin Bateman (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; New Ed edition (5 Oct 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006510639
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006510635
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 608,814 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #40 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Bateman, Colin

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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

Synopsis

Dan Starkey is a journalist in Belfast, who shares with his wife Patricia, an appetite for drinking and dancing. Dan meets Margaret, and things begin to get out of hand - terrifyingly, she is murdered. Before long, Dan is a target himself, racing as fast as he can against time to crack the mystery.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - even if you're not interested in politics!, 7 July 2004
This review is from: Divorcing Jack (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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Addiction Has Begun, 13 April 2003
By Jennifer Jordan (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Divorcing Jack (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.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Comedy with intent., 2 May 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Divorcing Jack: Screenplay (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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, humane and funny
Tight plotted, witty easy reading. Brilliant.
Published on 11 Dec 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published on 18 Aug 2002 by hugepants

4.0 out of 5 stars Rollicking good romp
This is a rollicking good romp through the battlefield that is Irish politics. It just takes Dan Starkey, a journalist, to make one wrong move - to kiss a girl when his wife... Read more
Published on 7 July 2002 by kimbofo

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

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