Irish Fiction: Curtis Adler's January Colours is about Paul, an American techie who moves to Ireland with his wife in the midst of the Celtic Tiger boom. Things naturally don't go according to plan, but if Adler intended his book as a satire on the Celtic Tiger, then it's just not funny enough, writes Bernice Harrison.
Paul is an American techie who came to Ireland to be with his academic wife, Margaret, who moved home to work in the English department in UCD. His right-on dot.com design business boomed so fast that it's set to go bust if it doesn't clinch a deal making educational materials for a US genetic engineering company. Before he can think clearly about the sell-out implications of all this, his slightly unhinged wife kicks him out because she needs some space. He ends up taking a room in a rambling house in Ranelagh in return for doing some decorating and keeping an eye on its elderly owner.
Scheming away in the background is the old lady's nephew, who is plotting to kill her so he can inherit the house.
Meanwhile, one of Paul's wife's students has developed a fixation on her. Tony is a small-time drug dealer from the inner city and is trying to better himself by going to college.
Running parallel to Paul and Margaret's separation is their smug married friends' imminent split, caused by the husband's homosexual secret relationship. Paul himself is tempted into an affair by a cute civil servant from Belfast who works on cross-Border initiatives.
If Adler intended this book as a satire on the Celtic Tiger, then it's just not funny enough, though it is funny in parts, and if it's supposed to be about the difficulties of making a relationship work, then the two central characters aren't well enough drawn. However, it has its moments as a chronicle of recognisable aspects of Dublin life.
Bernice Harrison is a journalist and critic
January Colours. By Curtis Adler, Pocket/Townhouse, 310pp. €8.99