The Onion Eaters

by J.P. Donleavy

Book Overview

Clayton Claw Cleaver Clementine of The Three Glands is a medical rarity. He sets off westwards to take up residence in the haunted edifice of Charnel Castle. Clementine, an unkonwn unsung product of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014003496X
• ISBN13: 9780140034967
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.7" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Not what I ordered

Ordered a hardcover and sent a paperback . I never order paperback bppks !

Fantastic intelligent read!

Having been a Donleavy fan for many years i may be a bit biased but i think ONION EATERS is a cracking read. However i do not think it is the type of book that fans of Dan Brown, or books in the "Top Twenty" would enjoy. If you want to read an irresistible,wickedly funny,bawdy classic of Irish literature then this is for you,it has fabulous characters and a great storyline,i thoroughly recommend it. Its different! By the way after you have read this read THE GINGER MAN.

Onions make you cry, The Onion Eaters makes you laugh

JP Donleavy's The Onion Eaters is his finest and funniest work to date. Matching the brutish comedy of A Singular Man and The Ginger Man, Donleavy's over-endowed Clementine is the perfect character to inherit his great aunt's castle on Ireland's craggy western coast. Expecting peace and solitude in this lonesome outpost, Clementine soon realizes that he is at the center of some strange phenomenon that inexplicably draws strange people to his door, and eventually, into all of his newly-inherited rooms.His style is forceful, resolute and even-handed. Notice there are no question marks or exclamation points in this work. He writes with a sense of purpose that many of the characters in the book possess, only their purposes range from measuring stranger's genitalia to excavating for minerals all over the castle. Single-minded and yet still multi-functional, Donleay's characters drive the action through twisted tunnels and forgotten rooms of Charnel Castle, itself a marvel of deviously enjoyable design, much like book itself. The seemingly-bottomless wine cellar provides the assembled crowds with enough reason to act irresponsibly, which only furthers the development of the plot. While Clementine appears to be overwhelmed with it all, a number of intimate encounters keeps his spirits, and other parts as well, from sagging.It is with a touch of the cap to Donleavy that I say, while onions may make you cry, The Onion Eaters will make you laugh out loud and wish you knew how to get to Charnel Castle.