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J. G. Farrell

Troubles: Winner of the 2010 "Lost Man Booker Prize" for Fiction (Empire Trilogy) Paperback – 31 Oct. 2002

by J G Farrell (Author)

517 ratings

Book 1 of 3 in the Empire Trilogy Series

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Winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize, this darkly hilarious book about the Irish war for independence takes place in a crumbling hotel on Ireland's west coast, a place where madness and brutality have begun to reign.

1919: After surviving the Great War, Major Brendan Archer makes his way to Ireland, hoping to discover whether he is indeed betrothed to Angela Spencer, whose Anglo-Irish family owns the once-aptly-named Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough. But his fiancée is strangely altered and her family's fortunes have suffered a spectacular decline. The hotel's hundreds of rooms are disintegrating on a grand scale; its few remaining guests thrive on rumors and games of whist; herds of cats have taken over the Imperial Bar and the upper stories; bamboo shoots threaten the foundations; and piglets frolic in the squash court. Meanwhile, the Major is captivated by the beautiful and bitter Sarah Devlin. As housekeeping disasters force him from room to room, outside the order of the British Empire also totters: there is unrest in the East, and in Ireland itself the mounting violence of the troubles.

Troubles is a hilarious and heartbreaking work by a modern master of the historical novel.

ISBN-10

1590170180
ISBN-13

978-1590170182
Edition

Reprint
Publisher

New York Review of Books
Publication date

31 Oct. 2002
Language

English
Dimensions

12.78 x 2.54 x 20.29 cm
Print length

480 pages
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Product details

Publisher : New York Review of Books; Reprint edition (31 Oct. 2002)
Language : English
Paperback : 480 pages
ISBN-10 : 1590170180
ISBN-13 : 978-1590170182
Dimensions : 12.78 x 2.54 x 20.29 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 547,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 909 in Business Humour
- 4,777 in Love, Sex & Marriage Humour
- 9,944 in War Story Fiction

Customer reviews:
517 ratings

Product description

Review

Remarkable ... Mr. Farrell deserves high praise for this novel. It is subtly modulated, richly textured, sad, funny, and altogether memorable.
-- Times Literary Supplement

A tour de force ... sad, tragic, also very funny.
-- The Guardian

Farrell wrote superbly; all his books had a quality that hallmarks great literary talent--he could "do" texture. This album--which is what Troubles feels like--records the same Anglo-Irish as Elizabeth Bowen knew and belonged to. As with Bowen, this feels like the real thing (which is all a novel has to do). Always judge a writer by his grasp of what he doesn't know: Farrell died young yet his old people are almost his best creations.
-- Frank Delaney, The Guardian

About the Author

J.G.Farrell (1935-1979) was born with a caul, long considered a sign of good fortune. Academically and athletically gifted, Farrell grew up in England and Ireland. In 1956, during his first term at Oxford, he suffered what seemed a minor injury on the rugby pitch. Within days, however, he was diagnosed with polio, which nearly killed him and left him permanently weakened. Farrell's early novels, which include The Lung and A Girl in the Head, have been overshadowed by his Empire Trilogy--Troubles, the Booker Prize-winning Siege of Krishnapur, and The Singapore Grip (all three are published by NYRB Classics). In early 1979, Farrell bought a farmhouse in Bantry Bay on the Irish coast. "I've been trying to write," he admitted, "but there are so many competing interests-?the prime one at the moment is fishing off the rocks... . Then a colony of bees has come to live above my back door and I'm thinking of turning them into my feudal retainers." On August 11, Farrell was hit by a wave while fishing and was washed out to sea. His body was found a month later. A biography of J.G. Farrell, J.G. Farrell: The Making of a Writerby Lavinia Greacen, was published by Bloomsbury in 1999.

John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of many novels, including The Book of Evidence, The Untouchable, and Eclipse. Banville's novel The Sea was awarded the 2005 Man Booker Prize. His most recent book is Mrs. Osmond. On occasion he writes under the pen name Benjamin Black.

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3 star		15%
2 star		6%
1 star		4%

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Richard Johnson

Fabulous

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2020

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J.G.Farrell writes with a gloriously sardonic effortless style which makes the unlikeliest story captivating. The trilogy of the decline of the British Empire is extraordinary and shows how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Completely unforgettable and un-put down able.

6 people found this helpful

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Dorothy Barbour

A Culture and LIfe declining slowly

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2021

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An important period in the history of Ireland is well underway when the book opens and so decline is all around- in the characters and in the grand house and in the economy- and the decline continues. The writing is perceptive but the decline does become a weight and really burdensome to the reader. Paralysed character is used as a mouthpiece in a rather strident way. Central protagonist largely lacks any power to act or decide. I accept this is entirely fitting with the central theme, but for me it all became weighty and repetitive. It was informative and it detailed fairly sensitively a vital and troubled, violent period in Ireland's history. Being sensitive and faithful to his subject the author paints what he knew.

One person found this helpful

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trimley11

Incoherent ramblings

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 September 2020

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If this is what passes for a Man Booker Prize-winning novel, remind me to steer clear of such books. I can't think of a positive thing to say and feel this author is grossly overrated.

3 people found this helpful

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John Goddard

Revolvers at dinnertime...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2015

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Troubles is set in the rambling and disintegrating Hotel Majestic in Ireland's County Wexford, in the troubled years of 1919 to 1921, leading up to independence. Written by J.G. Farrell in 1970, the title would have been loaded with meaning for readers given what was happening in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s. But Farrell's real genius is in making the links to other examples of the crumbling of the British Empire, particularly India (which was the subject of his 1973 Booker Prize-winning The Siege of Krishnapur), and in beautifully illuminating the disintegration of Empire in the eccentric characters inhabiting the hotel. Nothing is wasted, but sometimes it takes a while for the penny to drop. Why is the Major there? His reasons for remaining at the Majestic seem so tenuous? Oh - of course! Perhaps it could have been a little tighter, and perhaps occasionally it is a little too outrageous and unbelievable... But not more outrageous and unbelievable than the reality of Irish history.

In 2010 Troubles was awarded the Lost Man Booker Prize. In 1970 the Booker Prize rules changed, unfortunately meaning that many books published in 1970 missed the opportunity to be considered. If Farrell had actually won in 1970 he might well have become the first author to receive the prize twice!

9 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Wonderful. Unputdownable.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2020

Verified Purchase

Loved this...literally could not stop reading it. After finishing it, I went straight on to Siege, and then Singapore Grip. What a writer. What a loss.

3 people found this helpful

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J. Stevenson

Well deserved winner of the lost man bookerprize

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 December 2020

Verified Purchase

This is one of the Empire triology. Such an eloquent thoughtful writer. A great story bringing history to life

3 people found this helpful

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Mhairi

a good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 August 2020

Verified Purchase

It was both educational about post WW1 troubles in Ireland and funny and also a bit frustrating you wanted to give some of the characters a good kick in the rear!

3 people found this helpful

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browser

very well writtern

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 December 2020

Verified Purchase

loved this book at turns very funny and always very observant and a bit mad

2 people found this helpful

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