THE PROSPECTS ARE PLEASING

by Honor Tracy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1958

.....and so is the story of an Irish gesture of recrimination against the English in which a feckless, ""crazy, swaggering little show-off"", Tommy O'Driscoll (and an Angry Young Man in a foolish guise), goes through his fumbling paces. Sent to steal a Afrodisio Lafuente y Chaos painting from the Morgan Gallery in London, Tommy chickens, is aided by the affable, gay blade Falix who flies the stolen picture to Dublin and attempts to return it to Tommy. Tracking him down, Felix is absorbed by The Landlord, Mrs. Barry, whose humor it is to further obfuscate the painting so that when Felix finally delivers it, its showing -- a call to patriots and a retaliation to the British -- has echoes in the British Embassy, among the committee of the (as-yet not built) Irish Prado, and on Tommy. For he is at once a hero (who sells his story several times over to the newspapers, loses his job and, eventually his idol) and an outcast, since his commission was so secret there is no one who knows about it. Altogether a high spotting of a most distressful country which, hideously dull, breaks out of its monotony in muddled madcapers...The Straight and Narrow Path won Honor Tracy her medals. This is acerb and alert picturing of the wearing of the green.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1958

Categories: FICTION