LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL

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Leonard edits and ghost writes children’s encyclopedias and is set in his ways. His best friend, Hungry Paul is sort of the same; he lives with his parents AND lives off them as he doesn’t really have a 9/5 job. He’s comfortable with his life and has his rituals and routines. This is a gentle yet penetrating tale of the many guises of love and friendship that pierces the too often impenetrable veneer most will apply to protect themselves from others perceived judgement. Leonard and Hungry Paul may appear socially awkward but they offer a deeper understanding of relationships than many who remain unaware that their confidence in a crowd is shallow and blinkered. The book essentially rests on how these two men break out of their limited lives and learn to be a part of the world. For Leonard that takes the form of a a relationship with a single mum. For Hungry Paul, entry into a new independent life begins with a competition. Instead everyone they meet - family, friends, colleagues, shopkeepers - seems to be similarly nice. Even when Hungry Paul (in one of a number of rather contrived sitcom style setpieces) causes a major scene in a supermarket, falsely claiming it sells out of date good, the store manager sees the bright side and send him away with a free Easter egg. I would have liked to see the duo encounter hostility or negative reactions and see how they dealt with it - but then I am guilty of wishing for a different, and perhaps more conventional book.

On the other hand, most of the sections written about Leonard were much more authentic and interesting and there was some great writing with genuine insight, depth about a person like Leonard. I wish the whole book was like this. I don't quite know how John Boyne juggled the silly and the real in The Hearts Invisible Furies. That worked so well. But in Leonard and Hungry Paul the farcical stuff all but ruined it for me. Overall a novel I would recommend, and although not quite to my personal taste (which errs to the bile of Bernhard, the apocalypses of Krasznahorkai, and to the unlikable female narrator genre rather than uplit), that is more a failing of mine. And our publishing relationship continues with Rónán as we look forward to publishing his second novel Panenka in May and his third, Ghost Mountain, in 2024. It had taken someone with the special insight of Hungry Paul to realise the answer to the problem, strange though it seemed, was to get people to do nothing.”

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Flitting throughout from poignant, heartbreaking quietness to the most delicately insightful moments of joyful humour this is a book that should not be categorised. It does not need to fit in to any regular literary category, much like the two main characters throughout, this is a book which knows itself better than any outsider ever could. Leonard was raised by his mother alone with cheerfully concealed difficulty, his father having died tragically during childbirth. Five star nice of course. So why am I not firing off the AWESOME accolade, the OH WOW OMG!!!!! complete with the necessary exclamation marks? Leonard and Hungry Paul, title characters in Rónán Hession’s debut novel, are like Forrest Gump, Johnsey Cunliffe from The Thing About December, Moss and Roy from The IT Crowd, and Richard Osman and Alexander Armstrong from the TV quiz show, Pointless. Lovable dorks, awkward antiheroes, oddballs who are comfortable in their own skin. These are not the pithy millennials of Sally Rooney’s world. Leonard and Hungry Paul don’t attend poetry readings or engage with internet culture. They don’t even read novels, preferring encyclopaedias and scientific journals. They like bird watching, discussing the bleaching of coral reefs and the discovery of dwarf planets, and playing board games. The writing is sharp, witty, observant, the humour is wry and I found myself giggling and smiling often.

Kindness is rarely looked upon with fondness when it comes to art. It is a view due for an assessment that kind is often deemed synonymous with boring. Rónán Hession’s debut novel Leonard and Hungry Paul is an extraordinary gentle wonder. Hession is perhaps better known as the Irish blues musician Mumblin’ Deaf Ro, based in Dublin. His main characters sit in warm kitchens, in warm light, and play board games in lieu of drama. Terrible external fears slide easily from their shoulders as they put the quiet pieces of puzzles and the world to rights. His plot pads forward through life’s events like soft footsteps on a carpeted floor. It’s Bianca’s fab review that caught my eye, so thank you to her for shining a light on this little beauty. Please have a read of her thoughts.

In 1979, as violence erupts all over Ireland, two outsiders travel to a small island off the west coast in search of their own answers, despite what it may cost the islanders. The limited plot is mercifully free of coincidence or twists – if I had a criticism it would be that some scenes (an out-of-date chocolates incident and a IT-helpdesk colleague) seem to be lifted from a sit-com. Sometimes I read works of literature where the characters seem to me to act very aggressively towards others even when they have no reason to, and where the author seems to view this as quite normal. I mention that by way of contrast with this novel, where the two title characters would never intentionally hurt someone else, although they might do so unintentionally, as they struggle with the nuances of human relationships. Leonard and Hungry Paul are both introverted 30-something bachelors who still live in their childhood homes, although Leonard’s parents are dead. Their social life revolves around meeting up with one another to play board games. They are the sort of characters who are often made the butt of the joke in film and literature, although when the author introduces humour in this book, it’s done without cruelty. The novel is based around the idea that the two are faced with major changes in their life. Leonard has the chance of a relationship with a woman, and Hungry Paul has the chance to forge a career. As a small publisher without the heft and marketing budget to roll out a massive campaign for our books, the One Dublin One Book is, without going all Kate Winslett, the best thing ever to have happened to us at Bluemoose and I’d like to thank Mairead Owens. and her team for choosing Leonard and Hungry Paul. This book was one of their 2019 publications – and one which featured in so many 2019 book of the year lists by bloggers/reviewers whose opinions I rate that I had to read it. One I can already see featuring on my 2020 “best of” list.

Their friendship was not just one of convenience between two quiet, solitary men with few other options, it was a pact. A pact to resist the vortex of busyness and insensitivity that had engulfed the rest of the world. It was a pact of simplicity, which stood against the forces of competiveness and noise. Vielen Dank an Frauke Meurer & Torsten Woywod für den Mut zum Gründen des Verlages und dem Publizieren dieser einzigartigen Lektüre.

A word from Rónán

She was [in her stories] always using phrases like “There was an empty chair by the door”. You know, trying to be depressing, because she thought it was more writerly. Hungry Paul is a master and practitioner of silence, mindfulness, pragmatism – living in and for the moment and avoiding commitment and conflict. It is a story of charm and wit that immerses the reader within the ordinary, everyday lives of our narrators. The titular Leonard works as a ghost writer of children’s encyclopaedias, of which he himself is an avid reader. Paul lives at home with his parents and works every second Monday as a postman. The wants and desires of both men are simple, and they remain gloriously void of external influences while steering well clear of extroverts. During this time, Leonard worries about his friend. As his own life improves, will Hungry Paul get left behind? Hungry Paul’s sister, Grace, is worried too. Struggling to juggle her high-powered job with her final wedding plans, she fears that her brother, shunning independence, will become an increasing burden for their parents.