A great read, including some laugh-out-loud passages - one wants to know more about Darcy Dancer, ie to read another of Donleavy's books! ( )

In this sequel to The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman, Darcy Dancer returns from Dublin to his ancestral home, the “mouldering” Andromeda Park, filled with his beloved insolent, thieving, lackluster staff, eating him destitute and “all going mad together.” He finds a new and captivating member of the staff, Leila, who remains at arms-length despite their eventual shared profession of love.

Darcy suffers through the usual riotous fox hunts, the drunken savagery of which leave outsiders stunned out of their senses. He returns to Dublin for a short period of more savage debauched drunkenness, this time in the catacombs, and for intense disappointment at the track with the con-man Ronnie Rashers, now masquerading as the Earl of Ronald Ronald.

Leila is rife with strife, sadness, loneliness, and profane humor. Darcy is land-rich but perpetually cash poor, as he is well-sexed but loveless, without “all anyone really wants in this world, is just each other. One body enfolding another in comfort when it carries so much pain.” ( )