Kerrigan in Copenhagen: A Love Story

by Thomas E. Kennedy

Kerrigan is writing a guide book to his adopted city of Copenhagen. Specifically, a guide to the city's drinking establishments-of which there are more than 1,500.Thus, it is a project potentially without end, and one with a certain amount of numbness built into it, through countless drinks imbibed.And that is part of the for Kerrigan, an American expat fleeing a brutal family tragedy, has plenty he wants to numb.The only problem with his project is his research associate, a voluptuous, green eyed gal who makes him tremble with forgotten desire.Kerrigan in Copenhagen is a love story. It is also a deeply human, Joycean romp through a magical city-its people, history, literature, and culture-giving Copenhagen its literary due and establishing Kennedy as a tremendously gifted novelist.

Genres: Fiction, Denmark, Historical Fiction, Travel, Literary Fiction

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Thomas E. Kennedy is an author of novels, short stories, and essays. He has been a journalist for World Medical Journal and the Danish Medical Association and a translator and editor for Copenhagen's Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims and now teaches at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He lives in Copenhagen with his wife, a physician.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read via Netgalley.

This is the type of book that should be read will a beer in hand.

I’ll admit that this isn’t necessary the type of book that I would pick up. Do I really want to read about a pub crawl of an over fifty year old? Well, Copenhagen, you say. That place on the cover looks familiar. So I tried it. Thankfully, I tried it.

Don’t be put off by the bar crawl. There are plenty of bars and plenty of drinking in this novel masquerading as a travelogue. Or is it a travelogue masquerading as a novel?

Kerrigan travels though the City of Copenhagen, accompanied at times by his associate, whom he desperately wants to see in red panties. (Don’t worry, he sees her as more than a lust object). The purpose for the travel is to catalog the various bars that a tourist might desire to visit. But what it really is, in many ways, is a kinder, more romantic, journey along the lines of Joyce. Like Joyce there are mediations on history and literature. The reader learns more than just about Kerrigan, the Associate, and Copenhagen. And while it harkens to Joyce, even with a side trip to Ireland, it is Danish to the core.

There is a beautiful sense of place in the novel. It can function as a guide book, a more reader friendly guided book. Kennedy manages to convey Copenhagen though all the sense – the drinks at the bar are taste as is the food, sound is the Jazz music that floats throughout the novel, sight is the city itself, touch is not just the interaction between the Associate and Kerrigan but between Kerrigan and the books he carries, and smell is the air of the city as well as the distinct aromas of each district of the city.

For it isn’t just Copenhagen and Tivoli that Kerrigan visits, it is the whole city. Except for the brewery, which I found somewhat disappointing because I wanted to know if they still gave the men one free beer and the women two. And it isn’t just drinking; it is the history of the city told though the drinks and the areas but also by memories of the central characters and the central historical figures.

The book is not only a love poem to Copenhagen, but one to jazz and literature as well. A reader who has no interest in the Danish capital will find much to enjoy here as will a lover of jazz (and a lover of beer, come to think of it). Kerrigan is a lover of literature and music as well as drinks and it shows in his voice. What is more, he doesn’t endlessly explain what the passage or reference he is thinking of means. IT’s true there is some info dumping in the form of the Associate and her moleskin, but this is only early in the novel and Kennedy seems to grow comfortable with relating though stream of thinking as opposed to reading out of a book.

And it is a love story - love of self, city, past, present, future, art, music – as well as the fear that such a love can raise in a person. The reader falls in love with Kerrigan without realizing it and when the climax happens, the reader is totally vested in the outcome. It’s not lust, it’s not puppy love; it’s the love of broken people.

The only thing I would change in this book, and I read a galley so maybe this is fixed in the final edition – would be a map of the city showing the places, conveniently mentioned in bold in text, as well as listings for the music and drinks as well as the bibliography which is already present.

I will be tracking down other work by this author.

[Kasey Jueds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt torn between admiring the beauty and intelligence of the writing and wanting to reach into the book and give Kerrigan a shake. Am I the only reviewer who feels he has the emotional life of a 15-year-old? OK, I understand he's had his heart broken (though by a woman who never becomes more than a cliche--young, blond, heartless), but so has everyone over the age of 20 who's actually left his house. He won back a bit of my respect at the end... but I gave it grudgingly. On the other hand, yes, the writing is beautiful, and smart, and the book is filled with literary and historical and other facts and stories that are woven deftly into the plot, which makes the book feel like a lovely combination of novel and nonfiction. Not sorry I read it, though by the end I was exhausted by Kerrigan's company.

[Peg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kennedy shares favorite quotes of other authors, historians, philosophers, friends. 'Like Tom Kristensen said, intoxication is just a poem that hasn't got form.' He says he feels 'Foolishly happy. Happily foolish. And at what age might that be? Late youth. Advanced late youth.' He says of Kierkegaard 'who spoke of the greater sins of reason than passion.' Kierkegaard finally decides that 'pleasure is not in the thing that you enjoy but in the consciousness of it. And that yearning for his love is yearning for that yearning.' This is all reason & no passion at all. This is zero participation in love & in living. He missed it all to be profound. To distill it all down to a few sentences. What a waste.
Kerrigan spends all his life intoxicated, being an observer rather than a participant. His 'advanced youth' is his missed chance to mature & let all that wisdom & experience to mellow. I don't know if he ever 'reasoned' his way out of loving but he sure missed the signs that his wife lost her passion for him.
He is in love with women, in love with love while remaining completely sealed off from the reality of experiencing a relationship with another human. It's getting very late in the game for another chance.
I loved this book for the idiot genius. Kerrigan is completely lovable companion to all but without the engagement of a best friend or love of one's life. It could have been a better novel with more interraction with others to showcase all the profound ponderings in his head. His dialogue is with himself most often bringing us full circle to his biggest problem.
The locations were more like a laundry list of locations rather than experiencing this glorious city.
This book makes me want to read Joyce, Proust, more Blixen and more Thomas E. Kennedy too.

[Deb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. A man works his way through a variety of pubs in Copenhagen, obsessing on both a lost romance, and a new potential one. For me, the story was buried enough that I simply lost interest.

I try not to read reviews of books I'm reading ahead of time (unless the review has sent me to the book in the first place), since I don't want to be influenced by someone else's opinion, but I noticed a number of people referring to this book as "Joycean." Perhaps that explains my inability to make sense of this. I don't do well with nonlinear exposition.

[Steve · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of this book -- that a writer finds love and a new beginning in the course of his project to visit all 1,500 of Copenhagen's public houses (pubs)is a good one, and injecting travel guide-like elements in the text is clever, but it falls flat. The protagonist's soul searching becomes tiresome, and he pisses his pants one too many times. It could have been a fun novel, but instead, I kept asking myself, "How many pages 'til it's done?"

[John Senner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange book. No plot, just a meander through 59 Copenhagen bars and restuarants with random observations on writers, artists, musicians, history, customers, his life, his loves.

[R.G. Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working my way through the late Tom Kennedy's "Copenhagen Quartet"--the first two books, In the Company of Angels and Falling Sideways were brilliant--brings me to the third book in the loosely linked series, Kerrigan in Copenhagen, perhaps not the best choice of book to begin in a month I hope to abstain from alcohol. Consider its premise:

"His project, what he has contracted for, what he is being paid to do, is to select a sampling of one hundred of the best, the most historic, the most congenial of Copenhagen's 1,525 serving houses and write them up for one of a one-hundred-volume travel guide: The Great Bars of the Western World. Kerrigan thinks of himself as a failed poet, which is a less complicated concept than a failed human being, and he has accepted this commission under false pretenses. He does not wish the book to be written. He wants only to research it. Forever. For whatever of forever remains him." (p. 6)

And research Kerrigan does. Bar after bar. Pint after pint. Snaps (schnapps) after snaps. With even a little absinthe and hashish thrown in for good measure. Along the way, he and his research Associate--armed with her moleskin notebook of Copenhagen facts--relate the history of Copenhagen, of Denmark itself, through the history of its streets, cafes, and other edifices. The book's subtitle is "A Love Story," and it is that, but it is mostly the story of one's love for Copenhagen and all of his inebriating possibilities.

Kerrigan in Copenhagen is brilliant as well, but often brilliant in the way the Encyclopedia Brittanica is brilliant: page after page of historical facts--Kirkegaard's comings and goings, Admiral Nelson's relentless barrage of the city--in the guise of a metropolitan ecomium. If it is a travelogue in the guise as a novel, it is most successful. I'm eager now to put aside my fear of flying and explore Copenhagen myself. Unfortunately, the wall of facts Kennedy/Kerrigan builds brick-by-brick often makes it hard to see the narrative that's being walled out (or in).

An overall satisfying read, but a trudge through the minutiae of history at times.

[Tex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leaving Las Vegas set in Copenhagen?

No-brakes alcoholism but on the other hand there’s something interesting about the history of the city, it’s bars, or literature on just about every page which makes it less morbid and highly readable. I read it this book while in Copenhagen and chased down several of the bars where Kerrigan went on his bender 25 odd yrs ago. Some places like Kultorvet (coal square) don’t seem anything like the place he describes. But there are some real gems that are still
around: especially the Jernbane Cafeen, a stuck-in-time railroad themed bar by central station or Cafe Halvvejen. One odd place was Grofton, a giant Danish restaurant at Tivoli.

There’s also a lot of good jazz trivia here. I assembled the music he mentions and put it in a public mix on Spotify. Links aren’t allowed here but the playlist is Kerrigan in Copenhagen if you want to search it out.

So, if you are a special kind of history/lit/jazz nerd who can bear reading a book about an alcoholic in steep decline, this is for you. Oh and you have to put up with frequent digressions about his personal problems which wont inspire too much sympathy
All that said, reading Kerrigan in Copenhagen made my trip there fun certainly without re-enacting the bender. He doesn’t make that sound very tempting.

[Hakan · Rating 3 out of 5]

İrlanda kökenli bir Amerikalı olan 1944 doğumlu Kennedy, 1976’dan hayatının sonuna kadar Kopenhag’da yaşamış. 2002’de ilk baskısı yapılan bu kitabı da, şehre bir nevi vefa borcunu ödemesi niteliğinde. Muhtemelen kendini temel alarak yarattığı ana karakter Kerrigan’ın daha çok şehrin farklı yerlerindeki farklı barlarında bol bol devirdiği biralar üzerinden, ama ülkenin tarihine, kültürüne ilginç değinmelerle birlikte yapıyor bunu. Ana karaktere bu macerasının büyük bölümünde eşlik eden, olgun ve de alımlı bir kadın olan “asistanı”na yaptığı kurlar, eski çapkınlık hikayelerine atıflar da eksik değil. Sıradan bir çapkın değil, edebiyata kafaya takmış bir arkadaş. Kitabın ciddi bir edebi değeri olduğu ise söylenemez. Yani ne Kennedy Joyce’un (ana karakterimiz bitiremeyeceğini bilse de yanında Finnegan’s Wake’i eksik etmiyor), ne de bu kitap Ulysess’in yanına yaklaşabilir, arka kapakta bu açıdan kurulan paralelliğin ciddiye alınacak bir tarafı yok. Ama keyifle okutuyor kendini. Özellikle Kopenhag’a ve edebiyata meraklı iseniz veya bu şehre bir ziyarette bulunmayı planlıyorsanız, bulmaya çalışıp okuyun derim. Yirmi küsür yıl önce yazılmış olmasına rağmen bahsedilen mekanların (barların, kafelerin yani) çoğu yerli yerinde. Alternatif bir şehir rehberi niyetine de okunabilir.

[Andrew Guttridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read solely for the fact I was visiting Copenhagen myself and like to read a book set in the city I'm travelling too. The premise sounded great, I like a story where the setting is equal to the protagonists as being part of the tale. Copenhagen delivers, what doesn't is the main character who comes across ultimately as a bit of a bore. I can quite happily read a book with unlikeable characters, but this character left me feeling nothing.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am inspired to go to Denmark and drink not quite as much beer as Kerrigan.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the concept, and it was fairly well done. Part travelogue, part novel. Lots of the litery quotes went over my head though, and Kerrigan was a tad too self-indulgent.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Guidebook maybe, but not a novel

Thomas E. Kennedy's In the Company of Angels is a great book. Set in Copenhagen, it tells of the hesitant coming-together of a woman fleeing an abusive marriage and a Chilean torture victim. The healing of post-traumatic stress is a field that Kennedy knows at first hand, and he writes with searing passion, yet clings to the possibility of rebirth. That novel was marketed as the second of his Copenhagen Quartet. What a disappointment, therefore, to find that the present novel, the first of the four, originally published in 2002 and now revised and reissued, is so vapid, with any trace of plot or passion buried under a blizzard of intellectual trivia and brutish behavior.

Irish-American Terrence Einhorn Kerrigan (note the initials) a former literature professor, has been commissioned to write a guidebook to the "serving houses" of Copenhagen. To do this, he has hired a research Associate (her name appears much later) who accompanies him to an astounding number of bars each day, reading him facts about their history from a Moleskine notebook, while he samples the wares and gradually loses any capacity to process what she tells him. We learn that Kerrigan got married in his forties, to a much younger woman who later walked out on him, taking their daughter and half his savings. Bitter about this, he lusts after the Associate, though generally ends up too drunk to take advantage of her surprisingly reciprocal interest in him. But she is not the only one; Kerrigan is no more able to resist a woman than to turn down a drink.

Kerrigan's poetry-spouting pub-crawls in Copenhagen are an obvious homage to Leopold Bloom's wanderings in Joyce's Ulysses, and indeed he does fly over to Dublin for a weekend to repeat the process there; Copenhagen apparently also has its Dubh Linn or black pool. The book is written at first in the manner of a guidebook, with landmarks and street names listed in boldface. Gradually, the topographical and historical information gives way to comments on jazz, and then to literature: Danish, Scandinavian, and European. The combined knowledge of Kerrigan and his Associate is impressively vast; I would not take them on in Trivial Pursuit. But as a way of narrating a novel, it is all bathwater and no baby. James Joyce could do it, so could W. G. Sebald, and the Nigerian novelist Teju Cole managed something similar for Manhattan in Open City. But all three succeeded because at heart there is a character whom we can feel for and respect. Though smart, Kerrigan is a self-indulgent libidinous wineskin, and it is unpleasant to spend time with him. The initials may be the same, but the Thomas Kennedy who wrote In the Company of Angels is worth a hundred of him. Fortunately, I can treasure that book and forget the rest of the Quartet.

[Jeff Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas E. Kennedy's Kerrigan in Copenhagen is a book I enjoyed, but there are few people I would recommend it to. Basically told in a stream of conciousness style reminescent of James Joyce, the story is of an aging man, dealing with the shock of his younger wife abruptly leaving him and taking his 2-year-old, and possibly unborn infant (if it's his) with her. As he drowns his sorrows in pubs around Copenhagen, he reminesces about the history and literature of the city, and does this all in the guise of writing a guide to 100 of the best brew houses in the city, which is in reality, just a plot, to spend more time with his "Associate", a woman who just might be his salvation. There is little plot in this novel, the story wanders and takes some unnecessary detours (one chapter is devoted to a sudden trip to Dublin), but overall, despite his flaws and his drunkenness, Kerrigan is, if not likeable, ultimately relatable, as he struggles to define himself in a world where he aspires to great literature, but doesn't write much, is unsure of whether he can ever trust or love again, and struggles with his aging body, his taste for drink, and what kind of future would he will have being old, alone, and never having attained the success he dreamt of in his youth.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be great to take along on a trip to Copenhagen as it walks its streets with social history, in particular of all the pubs mixed in with doses of Goethe, Kierkegaard, Hans Christian Andersen, and others. It is a love story of sorts-- I am only part way through. The protagonist is in his cups half the time, but also a lover of words, ideas, and nursing recent rejection at the hands of a wife 20 years younger who walked out on him with their young child and half his bank account. He seems to have had no inkling of her inner workings and is trying to figure himself out and a way forward, as he works on his current project of writing the history of Copenhagen's serving houses, bars and cafes. The current person in the role of love object, is his Danish Associate, whom I was happy to see was a woman in her fifties, and she is portrayed as attractive and alluring and wise. Unlike in some books, I am not at all drawn to the protagonist, yet still I find myself reading. I did finish it, but it wasn't my favorite, yet still worth reading, pushing me into unfamiliar terrain, l learned a lot.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely book. It's a novel growing inside a travel book, a wonderful guide and appreciation of Copenhagen with the addition of Kerrigan's story. It seems loosely and lovingly based on Joyce's Ulysses as well. This unusual combination blends very well into a satisfying novel of a middle-aged man who has suffered, but is sustained by the consolations of life: literature, jazz, beer, Copenhagen, lust, and memories-not necessarily in that order. Thomas Kennedy has a gorgeous writing style that captures the sounds, smells, sights of the city as well as the thoughts of Kerrigan, and the reader gets to experience it all. I had a great time reading it and would definitely recommend it--particularly to English majors who enjoy beer, or to anyone interested in the city of Copenhagen. Thanks to the publisher for my copy.

[John Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second of Thomas Kennedy's COPENHAGEN QUARTET (but I think third in the series) that I have read. Apart from the setting, it is totally different from IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS, a more melancholy, deeper and more satisfying book. This book follows an American expatriate, Kerrigan, and his Research Associate (her name turns out to be Annelise, but we don't find that out till 2/3 of the way through the book) as they visit many of Copenhagen's bars. It is a book about Copenhagen, its history and literary figures, and about a love that develops for the city and each other. It was an okay book that helped me get a feel for this city. Like most books however, the mapping was inadequate.

[Mikebee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I much prefer Kennedy's other books. This one spent too much time inside the main character's mind and way too much time cycling through dates and memories and literature quotes. For me these gave quite a kafkaesque feeling that also felt like I was cram studying theory wrote memorization. Anyhow, it was too much for me to push on and complete the book. To be fair, I'm pretty sure hat Kennedy was trying for this effect, and my. Reaction suggests that he did a good job in evoking that mental state as I read. But, it wasn't for me.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so wanted to enjoy this book. My grandparents were from Denmark and I've visited Copenhagen. Unfortunately I could not even make myself finish it. There is a plot, but it is so overwhelmed with descriptions of landmarks and buildings and streets in Copenhagen, along with poems and quotes from various literature, and then throw in erotic visions of the protagonist(which were really sophomoric). The writing is choppy. Maybe you have to be a literary snob to enjoy. Just not enjoyable at all.

[Caryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

50 pages in and I threw in the towel... Long winded and self indulgent academic meanderings about a long winded and self-pitying academic. The historical and geographical references to the city of Copenhagen are a name-dropping nightmare. The walking tours are so detailed it's like the author is saying, 'hey look at me, I didn't get lost.' But the truth is, he is lost, and he loses his readers. What a disappointment.

[Liza McArdle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trying to like this book. Title intrigued me and, of course, the setting. Jacket synopsis sounded good too (a dude writing a guidebook to Copenhagen's best bars while recovering from heartbreak). So far, lots of blathering on.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

All these years later browsing through my Goodreads account (January 2020), just seeing this title makes me shudder. It bored me to tears. I only finished it because it was one of the first times I had to lead a book group for work. This is possibly the worst book I've ever read.

[Dr. T.M. Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried, but I just could not like this book. The most appealing section was the brief interlude in Ireland, but the rest just did nothing for me. I did not care for the writing style nor the subject matter. It was a struggle to finish it and it was promptly donated.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be honest. I didn't finish this book, and that's rare for me. Nothing grabbed my interest, not the character, not the story (or lack of one), or even the writing.

[Lyn Talbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rambling, boozy, uneven , enjoyable but not as well constructed as the first two in The Cipenhagen Quartet

[Dad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendid book, rich in description and good fun.