Books › Exciting Times
Exciting Times
292 pages
A razor-sharp, deadpan dissection of modern love, class, and the transactional nature of human connection.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like sitting in a sleek, air-conditioned high-rise, sipping an expensive cocktail while ruthlessly psychoanalyzing everyone in the room. The narrative voice is a masterclass in deadpan wit and emotional deflection, using sharp, uncluttered prose to dissect the power dynamics of modern romance and class disparity. It moves at a brisk, dialogue-driven pace, pulling you into the protagonist's hyper-observant, anxious mind where every text message and grammatical choice is scrutinized for hidden meaning. Beneath the cynical, transactional view of relationships lies a tender, aching vulnerability about the terror of actually being known. It will utterly delight readers who love messy, hyper-articulate millennials, queer awakenings, and stories where the greatest obstacle to happiness is the protagonist's own self-sabotaging intellect.
- Mood
- emotionally guarded
- anxious
- cosmopolitan
- Tone
- wry
- deadpan
- cynical
- hyper-observant
- dryly funny
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- transactional relationships · millennial alienation · class and wealth disparity · queer awakening · self-sabotage
- The writing
- Sharp, uncluttered, and clinically precise, using grammar and syntax as tools to dissect human behavior.
- The arc
- Moves from a state of cynical, detached self-preservation toward a hesitant, terrifying vulnerability.
- Who it's for
- Fans of hyper-articulate, emotionally avoidant protagonists who use biting wit as a shield against genuine connection.
Content notes
- emotional manipulation
- sexual content
- classism
- anxiety
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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