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BOOKS I READ: Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession (2020). A pair of wholesome buddies begin to open up to a world they’ve kept at arm’s length well into adulthood. Leonard has a job ghostwriting entries for the encyclopedia editor. He is slowly stepping toward his first love, a woman who is his floor’s fire warden. Hungry Paul lives with his parents, and his job is as a substitute postman, on Mondays only. He avoids any job that would require the use of a cell phone. Their idea of a fun evening is playing a board game. What is common between them is an aversion to the hyper dog-eat-dog world. Their world is defined by a gentleness of spirit and an appreciation for quiet time.
Leonard and Hungry Paul is an intriguing and wonderful book, a great opening for my 2024 book log, and it reminded me that in 2022 I started with H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, another excellent introspective book. Despite that nothing out of the ordinary happens in LaHP, you’re drawn into the lives of Leonard and Hungry Paul, who resemble the kind of friends one wishes for: loyal, caring, and never disparaging.
There are numerous turns and observations that made me laugh out loud, but none was more hilarious and surprising to me than when Hungry Paul’s father, Peter, says to his daughter who’s come over for dinner with her fiancé: “Open the nice one you brought, not the screw top your brother bought—it comes from Colombia! Whoever drinks wine from there?” Yeah, who does?
Leonard and Hungry Paul was Hession’s first novel. He is also a musician, known as Mumblin’ Deaf Ro.
Pick up a copy of Leonard and Hungry Paul at my Bookshop.org affiliate stand. Check out my reading-log. The previous entry was:
