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Dead Cat Bounce
DEAD CAT BOUNCE is the story of Joe who works unwillingly in PR in Dublin. His family is imploding, his job makes him sick and his ideal woman suspects he may be retarded. When his little sister gets pregnant, his widowed mother hysterically demands he return home and act like the man of the family - but he hasn't a clue what to do. To compound his troubles, he is involved in secretly handling the closure of a local factory - the very place where his dream girl works... An instantly likeable character, Joe is a great creation - a funny lad who cares deeply about his mates and family and has great intentions but ends up being as useless about life as the rest of us.
A remarkably assured debut, DEAD CAT BOUNCE is fresh, extremely well written and will appeal to all those who love Mike Gayle as well as Ardal O'Hanlon.
A remarkably assured debut, DEAD CAT BOUNCE is fresh, extremely well written and will appeal to all those who love Mike Gayle as well as Ardal O'Hanlon.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 6, 2001
40 people want to read
About the author
Damien Owens
8 books39 followersDamien Owens was born in Monaghan, Ireland, in 1971. He is the author of six novels: Dead Cat Bounce (2001), Peter and Mary Have a Row (2002), The Bright Side (2008), Little Black Everything (2009), Married to a Cave Man (2018), and Duffy and Son (2022).
The Bright Side and Little Black Everything were published under the name Alex Coleman.
He also created and wrote Trivia, a TV comedy/drama, two series of which were broadcast by RTE (Ireland) in 2011 and 2012.
The Bright Side and Little Black Everything were published under the name Alex Coleman.
He also created and wrote Trivia, a TV comedy/drama, two series of which were broadcast by RTE (Ireland) in 2011 and 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 3, 2023
Poor , pathetic story with an anti-climactic plot twist. Uninspirational. Seldomly funny, hence 2 stars.
May 25, 2009
An interesting tale of a young man trying to get his life straight. His father passed away two years prior, and he has a hard time trying to be his replacement (as he believes his mother wishes for this.) His sister's unwanted preganancy also puts large stresses on his overly strained family.
My favourite part was his meeting of the nun on his bus ride to his mother's house. Sister Frances was funny and was nothing like the stereo-typical sisters in the habits.
My favourite part was his meeting of the nun on his bus ride to his mother's house. Sister Frances was funny and was nothing like the stereo-typical sisters in the habits.
May 19, 2009
I picked this book up based only on the cover/title. Been burned a number of times choosing books by this method, but this one was quite good. Nice, enjoyable lite read - I have found that I re-read this one once a year or so.
January 17, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dead Cat Bounce by Denis Owens
Joe’s life is not how he wants it to be. He lives in a small run-down flat let, he hates his job and his love life is non-existent. Since his father died two years ago his mother thinks he should come home every weekend to deal with the crisis that is his nineteen-year-old sister’s pregnancy.
But he knows this is all temporary until he sells his screenplay for billions of dollars and moves to a mansion in Hollywood.
I decided to read this book after listening to Duffy & Sons on audio which I loved and couldn’t stop laughing. This was quite a humorous read but I feel the jokes would have landed better if I listened to it instead of reading.
The story is told all from Joe’s point of view and there are some very funny moments especially when Joe throws a tantrum whilst shouting many expletives including some he makes up himself there and then. I even tabbed it to show my husband.
However, throughout the book Joe whinges to everyone. Anytime a problem occurs he has to find someone straight away and whinge and moan the whole incident to them. Even his friends were getting tired of it
There were a lot of very unlikeable characters in this story. They were rude, and ignorant and treated everyone with disdain. I had to complete a challenge by reading a feel-good book and I thought this would fit the bill but it didn’t live up to that title.
Another criticism I had unfortunately was the cover and the name of the book were silly and childish and didn’t reflect the book very well.
This was Owen’s debut so I’m not going to let it put me off reading another one of his books but I think from now it will be audio to get the full humorous experience
Joe’s life is not how he wants it to be. He lives in a small run-down flat let, he hates his job and his love life is non-existent. Since his father died two years ago his mother thinks he should come home every weekend to deal with the crisis that is his nineteen-year-old sister’s pregnancy.
But he knows this is all temporary until he sells his screenplay for billions of dollars and moves to a mansion in Hollywood.
I decided to read this book after listening to Duffy & Sons on audio which I loved and couldn’t stop laughing. This was quite a humorous read but I feel the jokes would have landed better if I listened to it instead of reading.
The story is told all from Joe’s point of view and there are some very funny moments especially when Joe throws a tantrum whilst shouting many expletives including some he makes up himself there and then. I even tabbed it to show my husband.
However, throughout the book Joe whinges to everyone. Anytime a problem occurs he has to find someone straight away and whinge and moan the whole incident to them. Even his friends were getting tired of it
There were a lot of very unlikeable characters in this story. They were rude, and ignorant and treated everyone with disdain. I had to complete a challenge by reading a feel-good book and I thought this would fit the bill but it didn’t live up to that title.
Another criticism I had unfortunately was the cover and the name of the book were silly and childish and didn’t reflect the book very well.
This was Owen’s debut so I’m not going to let it put me off reading another one of his books but I think from now it will be audio to get the full humorous experience
June 16, 2019
Yeah this was nothing special. Glad it was a quick read.
January 9, 2022
I enjoyed the humour and lightheartedness. A book of whinging and why we shouldn't whinge.
March 24, 2024
Very good read
October 19, 2012
Extremely funny book. Its been a long time since I have laughed out loud in public places, but this work of lad lit made me do it several times.
Extremely easy story - lad works in PR, questions his own sanity, lives in a grotty bedsit and goes out drinking and trying to pull with little to no success.
On top of this, he has family problems with a recently bereaved mother and a pregnant sister and has to make frequent trips from Dublin to the countryside where he grew up.
No great shakes in the story line but every opportunity is milked for laughs and all of them hit.
Would read other stuff from him.
Extremely easy story - lad works in PR, questions his own sanity, lives in a grotty bedsit and goes out drinking and trying to pull with little to no success.
On top of this, he has family problems with a recently bereaved mother and a pregnant sister and has to make frequent trips from Dublin to the countryside where he grew up.
No great shakes in the story line but every opportunity is milked for laughs and all of them hit.
Would read other stuff from him.
August 18, 2013
This is a very standard male-lit book. Most of this genre follow a set formula and this follows that formula. There is nothing which makes it stand out from all the other similar books. The main character is ok, but again nothing special, perhaps being a bit too miserable, as is the supporting cast. I also found the supporting story a bit thin and forced and the ending was a bit of a damp squid. However it was funny in parts and is a fairly quick read. This is a very average book, not recommended.
April 10, 2013
Entertaining debut novel that is good for some light, humorous reading. While I enjoyed it, it does often read like a debut novel from an inexperienced author. The plot appears forced at times making the book feel kind of "clunky" at times. Most of the characters are quite well developed but sometimes not totally convincing. By the end of the book, I found the humorous aspects somewhat drowned out by melodrama. I feel the writer was trying to write a book with more emotional heft than it actually contains.
However, for a fun book to pass the time on holidays say, it is well worth a read.
However, for a fun book to pass the time on holidays say, it is well worth a read.
February 26, 2008
Although the subtitle implied that the book was organized around the protagonist’s efforts to renovate her old house in a small New England town, in fact the renovation comes in only occasionally, and the writer does a good job of exploring the main characters' relationships and the relationships and behaviours of people in the town, and the plot is actually pretty good. I liked this one enough to go looking for others in the series.
September 21, 2009
Cute book about a young irish man. Some parts are very funny. some are deeper - his mother mourning her husband, his sister and the mother looking to him to be the man of the house. Short and good.
December 19, 2014
It was okay, I didn't find it particularly special or thrilling.
oh, it also contains some instances of the 'c' word.
Read some of the other reviews before deciding on trying this book.
oh, it also contains some instances of the 'c' word.
Read some of the other reviews before deciding on trying this book.
August 15, 2014
A very good story based on real life
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2015
A pleasant, easy read.
April 17, 2017
One of the problems with the early days of a successful sub-genre of literature is that writers rush towards in to get in on the ground floor, hoping to pick up early fans. Many of those writers probably shouldn’t have bothered and it’s not entirely surprising that Damien Owens, who followed Mike Gayle and Tony Parsons onto the bloke-lit wagon a couple of years later, only got to release a second novel before then having to write under a pseudonym. Nor that this novel appears to no longer be in print, unlike the early novels from those earlier writers.
Joe Flood is living in a flat in Dublin for which “run-down” and “dingy” would be paying it a compliment. It is all he can afford whilst he is working in PR, a job he hates, but which is better than the one he had in advertising beforehand. Of course, this is all merely temporary until he finishes his screenplay, which Hollywood will be falling over themselves to turn into a hugely successful film. On the plus side, Joe has finally met the girl of his dreams, although she has introduced herself by breaking his friend’s nose. And, as if life wasn’t already complicated enough, a long bus ride from Dublin, Joe’s sister has just got herself pregnant, with the man she says is the father denying it and with Joe’s own father recently passed and rendering his mother ineffective in all circumstances, this situation falls upon Joe to sort out.
The underlying problem with the book is that this is the situation at the start. From the very first page, there is already too much going on to keep things straight with ease. There is a link between each sub-plot, which helps anchor each sub-plot within the same story, but some of these are so tenuous, it feels like they’ve been linked just for the sake of it. There are also so many characters involved in all the sub-plots, that some inevitably get left by the wayside and it becomes a little difficult to remember who they are when they reappear. This is especially the case with Joe’s Dublin friends Stevie and Norm, who provide a tenuous link and a shaky plot point between them and then virtually vanish until the end of the novel.
There are some decent moments here, with the “nun on the bus” set piece feeling rather contrived, but being none the less enjoyable for it. Despite the sheer number of events happening all at once being horribly unrealistic, some of the individual parts of the story do seem slightly true to life, particularly the demands placed on Joe by his mother in the absence of his father at a time of crisis, despite his living some way away. Joe hating his job and spending plenty of time and money in the local pub also seemed far more realistic than often happens in books of this type, where wage slave characters seem to spend their time eating and drinking in establishments and at times beyond their means.
It’s not a badly written book, just a little too contrived. It feels a little as if Owens has taken every bloke-lit trope he could find – unhappy living situation, unsatisfactory job, women trouble and family crises and combined them all in one place. This does make for a fairly easy read, as there is always something happening with this number of sub-plots, but things never quite settle down for long enough and much of the middle and the ending of the story are horribly contrived. There are some good ideas here, but a few too many of them, and there are some decent moments, but far too few. Had Owens selected the stronger ideas and hung the story around them and worked on making more out of less, it would have been a better novel. As it is, this is an acceptable read considering the genre it is part of, but little more than that.
Joe Flood is living in a flat in Dublin for which “run-down” and “dingy” would be paying it a compliment. It is all he can afford whilst he is working in PR, a job he hates, but which is better than the one he had in advertising beforehand. Of course, this is all merely temporary until he finishes his screenplay, which Hollywood will be falling over themselves to turn into a hugely successful film. On the plus side, Joe has finally met the girl of his dreams, although she has introduced herself by breaking his friend’s nose. And, as if life wasn’t already complicated enough, a long bus ride from Dublin, Joe’s sister has just got herself pregnant, with the man she says is the father denying it and with Joe’s own father recently passed and rendering his mother ineffective in all circumstances, this situation falls upon Joe to sort out.
The underlying problem with the book is that this is the situation at the start. From the very first page, there is already too much going on to keep things straight with ease. There is a link between each sub-plot, which helps anchor each sub-plot within the same story, but some of these are so tenuous, it feels like they’ve been linked just for the sake of it. There are also so many characters involved in all the sub-plots, that some inevitably get left by the wayside and it becomes a little difficult to remember who they are when they reappear. This is especially the case with Joe’s Dublin friends Stevie and Norm, who provide a tenuous link and a shaky plot point between them and then virtually vanish until the end of the novel.
There are some decent moments here, with the “nun on the bus” set piece feeling rather contrived, but being none the less enjoyable for it. Despite the sheer number of events happening all at once being horribly unrealistic, some of the individual parts of the story do seem slightly true to life, particularly the demands placed on Joe by his mother in the absence of his father at a time of crisis, despite his living some way away. Joe hating his job and spending plenty of time and money in the local pub also seemed far more realistic than often happens in books of this type, where wage slave characters seem to spend their time eating and drinking in establishments and at times beyond their means.
It’s not a badly written book, just a little too contrived. It feels a little as if Owens has taken every bloke-lit trope he could find – unhappy living situation, unsatisfactory job, women trouble and family crises and combined them all in one place. This does make for a fairly easy read, as there is always something happening with this number of sub-plots, but things never quite settle down for long enough and much of the middle and the ending of the story are horribly contrived. There are some good ideas here, but a few too many of them, and there are some decent moments, but far too few. Had Owens selected the stronger ideas and hung the story around them and worked on making more out of less, it would have been a better novel. As it is, this is an acceptable read considering the genre it is part of, but little more than that.
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October 1, 2017Not for me.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews