Exciting Times
Ratings43
Average rating3.6
An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer.
Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children.
Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than "I like you a great deal." When Julian's job takes him back to London, Ava stays put, unsure where their relationship stands.
Enter Edith. A Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her — and wants her.
And then Julian writes to tell Ava that he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith?
Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, *Exciting Times* is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life — and announces herself as a singular new voice.
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One sentence synopsis... Ava, an Irish transplant teaching English in Hong Kong, starts sleeping with a wealthy English banker, but while he's away on business she falls in love with Edith, an equally wealthy lawyer.
Read it if you like... Sally Rooney - but queer. They both handle themes like class, capitalism, power, social mores, self-awareness - but Dolan writes with sharper edges and tighter pacing.
Dream casting... Jamie Demetriou as non-committal banker, Julian and Ellen Wong as Edith.
Hmmm I thought I would really like the book when I first started it. Granted it's the first book I've read where there's more details on corporate adults it felt somewhat relatable. However, I didn't like the main character at all. She started off slightly relatable and then her development went out the door. The ending was disappointing, the second half of the book was disappointing. The downfall of a great book that could've gone very differently. Also, what's with the subtle but not very subtle racism? Weird.
