LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL

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When the book opens, Leonard is feeling melancholic. His mother has died, and he’s starting to resent the way he’s being treated as a ghost-writer of children’s encyclopaedias. 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. With their self-effacing manner, both men tend to fly under the radar. Which in a world filled to the brim with noise, and with way too many extroverts, tends to go against the grain. They haven’t felt the need before to prove their worth. And yet…there’s this sense that maybe, just maybe, there could be more…. That new paths should be taken. We have the chance for you to win 10 copies of this fantastic novel for your reading group! Please enter by Friday 22 March.

In his radiant first novel, Irish musician Hession (aka Mumblin’ Deaf Ro) takes readers into the quiet, seemingly ordinary world of two unusual men, both in their 30s, both solitary by nature: Leonard, who writes entries for children’s encyclopedias, and Hungry Paul, a substitute postman, who works, when needed, on Mondays. Leonard lived with his mother, who has just died; Hungry Paul, with his parents, a retired economist and his cheerful wife, a primary school teacher, nearly retired herself. Although gossips may disparage an adult still living with parents as indolent, Hession portrays the men with respect and generosity. Hungry Paul “never left home because his family was a happy one, and maybe it’s rarer than it ought to be that a person appreciates such things.” The two appreciate their friendship as well: They play board games together, take walks, and confide in one another. Their friendship is 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 competitiveness and noise.” Of the two, Hungry Paul seems the more content, blessed with an inviolable “mental stillness” and “natural clarity” that inure him to troubling thoughts: “He just had no interest in, or capacity for, mental chatter.” Leonard is more inclined to second-guess himself and to conjure problems. He becomes afraid that withdrawing from the world might narrow his perspective, turn him “vinegary,” and make other people seem increasingly “unfathomable and perplexing.” He wants to open himself to experiences but worries that if Hungry Paul is content within his small universe, Leonard’s yearning to break out of his “own palpable milky loneliness” will threaten their friendship. The prospect of change propels the plot, prodding each man to articulate, with surprising self-awareness, the depths of his identity and to realize, as Hungry Paul reflects, that “making big decisions was just as consequential as not making them.” No one is “entirely outside of life’s choices; everything leads somewhere.” Want to have your reading group featured on a future Book Club episode? Get in touch to find out more. Hungry Paul is a master and practitioner of silence, mindfulness, pragmatism – living in and for the moment and avoiding commitment and conflict. Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story of two quiet friends trying to find their place in the world. It is about those uncelebrated people who have the ability to change the world, not by effort or force, but through their appreciation of all that is special and overlooked in life. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with this book. If there were an award for “Most Inoffensive Book”, this would probably win it.Leonard and Hungry Paul are best friends. They get together on regular evenings during the week to play board games and discuss topics of mutual interest. They share the minutiae of their lives in the knowledge that the other will accept whatever has happened and move forward without assigning blame. They observe the world around them and ponder how best to integrate when this is necessary.

This is the stillness I feel giving Maya her drip. I know she is slowly dying, and I’ve cried. But there is also this almost inexpressible sweetness to this time. There’s the matter-of-factness in the moment when you accept and just live it for as long as it lasts. Hession captured it and makes you feel it in this slow,* wise story. Leonard’s best buddy, with the great moniker of Hungry Paul, is of similar temperament to him. Neither look to external matters to make them happy, they’re more or less content with their lot in life. Paul also lives at home with his folks, and is happy to go with the flow.

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. Leonard and Hungry Paul are two friends who see the world differently. They use humour, board games and silence to steer their way through the maelstrom that is the 21st century. The central characters of the book are the two friends of the title, both of whom are quiet single men in their 30s. Leonard works as a writer providing text for children's encyclopedias, and has recently lost his mother (as the striking opening line says he has been fatherless almost since birth). Hungry Paul (the Hungry part of the name is never explained, nor are there any behavioural clues to its origin, nor is he ever referred to by name by anyone other than the omniscient narrator, and for me this grated a little) still lives with his parents, and has an occasional job as a casual postman. Leonard regularly visits Paul's house to play board games. There are so many deep ponderings and musings. Possibly unintentionally so. I loved the thought processes of these two. Through the new uncharted events both men are facing, their friendship remains steadfast and true. Both are each other's number one supporter. Never second guessing, never judging.