Leonard and Hungry Paul: A Novel

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A chance meeting with Shelley – the fire warden – at work, has Leonard thinking that there could be something there. You’ll laugh and feel for the two main protagonists but all the characters in this book exude some sort of charm. It’s the loud, demanding ones that grab our attention, but it’s the many people like Leonard and Hungry Paul who steadfastly keep things moving.

Birbirinizi yeniden bulmanız gerekecek -işte işin sırrı- eskiyi canlandırmaya çalışmak yerine ilişkinizi ve kendinizi yeniden oluşturmanız gerekecek. had always seen themselves as bumpers along the blowing lane for him to bounce between, saving him from mundane dangers and guiding him towards his achievements, modest though they were. Neither look to external matters to make them happy, they’re more or less content with their lot in life. He’s a bit of solitary soul (to say loner wouldn’t be fair to him, as he’s not anti-social per se, he simply lacks the need for company). But they slowly come to realize that they do have something to offer to others … if only their quiet and steady presence.If I were to compare Rónán writing to work produced by other contemporary authors, I would say that it reminded me of Joanna Cannon, Mark Haddon and Sara Baume's. His busy and successful sister, Grace, is planning her wedding and urges her parents to make the most of their upcoming freedom while they still have their health. The second of the friends still lives at home with his parents, picking up shifts as a postman on a Monday morning when the regular workers are too hungover or lazy, and his life seems to be passing him by without asking more of him than the occasional walk and regular games nights with Leonard and his parents. He is often inventively funny, as when he refers to blokes going to the pub “for an evening of darts, dominoes, cards or other prison games”.

Perhaps fittingly enough for the book, my life didn’t slow down so I was forced to carve my own bit of calm to make space for it. This sets the pace and tone too, meaning that as readers we are drawn into delicate, loving, thoughtful meanderings. His work – writing text for boilerplate encyclopedias marketed for children, which will be published under a better known author’s name – fills his day but offers limited satisfaction. The quiet, unobtrusive and meaning-filled book is the story of two friends – Leonard and Hungry Paul – both quiet 30-ish year old men living quiet, unobtrusive but still meaning-filled lives, still based in their childhood homes. If you're looking for a soul-soothing warm-bath reading experience that says it's okay to be quiet and to set your own values for what matters in your life, this may be it.

It is about those uncelebrated people who have the ability to change their world, not by effort or force, but through their appreciation of all that is special and overlooked in life. It is rare that I ‘get’ a book (usually it takes ten or so pages) when I read the first paragraph but it happened the second I cracked open Leonard and Hungry Paul.

Rónán Hession highlights personal qualities that are so often undervalued - kindness and gentleness - especially in a world where people who lack a competitive edge are often seen as failures. Their friendship was not just one of convenience between two quiet, solitary men with few other options, it was a pact. The story is so slow because people relentlessly speak in whole sentences and, toward the end, they seem to recite the kind of stuff you learn after years of psychotherapy or awareness work and meditation. I’m left with many questions (including how Hungry Paul got this moniker), but I think that’s part of Hession’s point. It helps that Hession has created an appealing narrator, one who seems just as idiosyncratic as the two men he’s describing.Die humorvollen Szenen, bei denen man nie über die Figuren sondern immer mit ihnen lacht, sind ein weiterer großer Pluspunkt. For one thing, he has made the acquaintance of Shelley, a girl at work, and this has set all kinds of thoughts in motion. It finds a value and specialness in them that is not immediately apparent and prompts the idea that maybe we could learn from the people that we overlook in life.