Daniel Swallow is in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes. A PR stunt involving a hot air balloon has gone horribly wrong, and now he is jobless and broke. And single. Meanwhile, everybody else's life is flourishing. Miles is earning telephone numbers in the City, and has a green-eyed, enigmatic new girlfriend called Beth. Clive is in hot pursuit of an Indian princess called Amrita. But the only thing in Daniel's life is his new lucrative, mysterious, mostly nocturnal - and highly embarrassing, if the secret should ever get out. And then one day he is summoned to an appointment in Mayfair, and his life veers of course forever . . . Comic, poignant and unexpectedly romantic, Rescue Me is a portrait of a generation for whom relationships are everything (and probably too much) and of two restless and heartsick souls trying to save each other's lives.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Please see:Christopher Hart
AKA William Napier. Christopher Hart (born 1965) is an English novelist and journalist.
He was educated at Cheltenham College (expelled), Leicester University (dropped out), Oxford Polytechnic and Birkbeck College, London, where he completed a PhD on W.B.Yeats.
Under his original name he has written two contemporary novels, The Harvest and Rescue Me. Since 2001, he has written four historical novels under the pseudonym of William Napier, the last three a best-selling trilogy about Attila the Hun and the Fall of the Roman Empire.
As a journalist he has worked as Literary Editor of the Erotic Review (magazine folded) and Agony Aunt for Time Out (sacked.) He currently writes regularly for the Sunday Times, where he is lead theatre critic, and the Daily Mail.
Not terrible, but this concept of a young man falling in love with an eccentric girl in a city has been done many times before and better elsewhere. Also the main character is kind of a dick.
One of the sexual scenes in this book was apparently the winner of Literary Review's Bad Sex award, but honestly it was disappointingly average. There are some other previous winners that are MUCH worse (and much more entertaining).
This was written over 20years ago and it shows. The way it handles non white and gay characters. Also, it doles out old fashioned tropes about domestic abuse. This shows how far we have come as to our perceptions, and the way we know we should talk about people. This jarred me. I’m glad that times have changed (in some circles at least).
It starts with Daniel being fired in farcical circumstances - he’s a PR guy involved in a stunt which sees three minor celebrities thought to be killed in a hot balloon accident (note that the hot air balloon shown on the cover is not the same colours as described in the book - why?!). When he then becomes a prostitute I presumed the tale would become more farcical. But it doesn’t really. However, it does lead him into the orbit of his best mate’s girlfriend. From there he falls in love with her but does she love him back, or is she inseparable from her boyfriend Miles?
At the beginning of the story the author seems to want to show off about his knowledge of Latin and fine arts. It didn’t really fit with the story and was unnecessary and pompous.
A positive is that it was just 250pages long!
Disappointing as the premise of the story had real potential.
Un gigolò più ranocchio che principe azzurro e una principessa fidanzata con un orco. Contornati da altri amori sbagliati, bugie, violenza nascosta, timidezza e tutte quelle strane cose che potevano succedere nella vita quando i ventenni non stavano tutto il giorno incollati al cellulare. Un Bridget Jones al maschile, castelli, mongolfiere, troppo alcohol, un imprevedibile e velocissimo lieto fine.