Book Reviews
[A] lyrical but ironic period story. Jack McNulty...is living in self-imposed exile in Ghana, recalling his days as a soldier and civil servant, and as a suitor, lover, and husband to the haunting and haunted Mai Kirwan.... Barry again proves himself a prose artist and a skilled navigator of the rocky shoals of modern morality and Irish heritage.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Expanding on characters and events in his preceding novels, Barry tells the story of Jack McNulty, a "temporary gentleman" because his commission in the British Army during World War II wasn't made permanent.... [A] bold lyricism, unforgettable characters, and epic historicism. —John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman
Library Journal
Barry’s prose has a dreamlike quality....The raw elegance of his storytelling has its own beauty.
Booklist
Pensive, quietly lyrical.... [T]he strongest part of Barry’s tale is in its visitation of the past, when McNulty falls deeply in love with Mai Kirwan, the rose of Sligo. There, Barry falls into Joycean reveries.... Grim, even cautionary, from first to last. But, for all that, a beautifully written story of a love lost, and inevitably so.
Kirkus Reviews
Temporary Gentleman (Barry) - Book Reviews
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