The main character—what my Gram would have called a "real rotter"—is well developed and thus an excellent antihero. But I’m not searching for any of those these days, like I would have idolized a hard-drinking, profligate jerk when I was a teen. This is probably the precise reason that this classic wasn't required reading in my 12th grade English class!
Sebastian Dangerfield is an A-1 asshole. He's a drunken, lazy, good-for-nothing womanizer. Almost as difficult to read the passages of his foibles is it to read the passages of his triumphs! By the middle of the book I am hoping against hope that he'll get his just deserves. It's also difficult to read of the women this LOSER wins over—more disturbing & disturbed than the guy himself.
But, because Donleavy is a writer first class (and dialogue is especially masterful here), this book is hard to put down. Our antihero is thrown into situations yielding high hilarity for the reader, as we witness Dangerfield's latest predicament & marvel at the extrication of himself from such. Boy, I HATE this guy! But, I laugh & keep reading, laugh & keep reading.