A wealthy American is burdened by a recurrent dream about his native Irel&, a country that had long ceased to interest or trouble him. Convinced that the Irish are asking him for help, he equips his errant gr&-nephew, Tom Blessman, with a generous bank account, & dispatches himto the old country to offer assistance. In Dublin, Tom is bewildered to find a city thronged with glossy, happening people & an economy in overdrive. The Irish apparently want for nothing. As Tom attempts to make sense of it all
- & to resolve his own personal history
- he falls in with a fascinating gallery of characters, some of them super-rich, some trying to make their way in this opportunistic new world, & others pinning their hopes & ambitions to art, literature & 'heritage projects'. Central to this alluring scene is the sprawling Kinane family, especially Eileen, the lost soul of the family, whose waif-like beauty Tom pursuses through the city's bars, art galleries & parties, becoming ever more entangled with the dangerous Irish merry-go-round.
Teeming with brilliant characters, clamourous with the life of Dublin's pubs & cafés, & the atmosphere of its streets, The Free & Easy is a hugely entertaining & mordant take on Ireland past & present from one of Ireland's most stylish & interesting writers.