Lafferty, Looking for Love
In Dennis McFadden’s charming short story collection Lafferty, Looking for Love, an Irish ne’er-do-well gets himself into all sorts of trouble.
Lafferty is disinclined to overlook potential damsels in distress to whom he might bring comfort—or vice versa—despite the potential consequences. Always behind on the rent, with a weakness for drink and betting on horses, he is also forever scheming to redeem himself—either with his wife, Peggy, who funds their home and the car he drives, or with the latest woman who catches his eye. His hilarious misadventures take him from pubs to beds, graveyards, and pants-free gallivanting around the neighborhood. He is often on the run from angry husbands, boyfriends, and debtors, his poor judgment threatening to produce fatal consequences.
Their prose lilting and conversational, the stories build upon one another well. Moira, the girl with midnight hair and creamy skin from the first story, reappears, as do an antique ring and a rare coin that Lafferty covets and loses. Bemused descriptions of the women Lafferty meets and the places he visits are unflattering, yet he only sees hidden beauty, and his intentions are nothing short of heroic.
Dark humor is used to poke fun at Lafferty’s deluded fantasies of grandeur and faulty logic as he eternally flirts with disaster. His flaws may be obvious to some, but they are not to him. He grows older, but not wiser. His failures to notice the telltale signs of impending doom or identify women who seem familiar fuel his downfall in amusing ways.
In the delightful novel in stories Lafferty, Looking for Love, interwoven black-comedy escapades reveal the folly of instant gratification for a man with much to learn.
Reviewed by
Wendy Hinman
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