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Finding Penelope
Thirty three year old romance novelist Penelope Eames moves to Spain to avoid her oppressive father and drug-addicted brother, Dermot. When she meets Ramón, a young Spanish school teacher, she is immediately attracted to him and feels the happiness that eluded her all her life may at last be hers. However, she receives a distress call from Dermot saying he is at the mercy of Charlie Eliot, a pimp and drug dealer on the Costa. Ramón, whose mother was killed by a drug addict, tells her to have nothing to do with Charlie Eliot. Penelope must decide: is she prepared to compromise herself with Charlie Eliot and jeopardise her chance of happiness with Ramón for the sake of her drug addicted brother?
‘I thought ‘Finding Penelope’ was brilliant. I loved the heroine, Penelope Eames, a modestly successful romantic writer who is a sort of everywoman of our times and a wonderful mix of insight, diffidence and foolishness. I also relished the milieu in which ‘Finding Penelope’ is set, the expatriate Anglophone world of the Spanish Mediterranean, where lonely English widows and gangsters and Irish novelists and aspiring starlets all get jumbled up together and make a fine old mess of their lives in the process. This is a really, really fine piece of sharp, precise and accurate work. A novel that will give deep, literary pleasure.’
Carlo Gébler, author
‘Lawless reinvented the millennia-worn story line to reveal not only a Dublin expat Costa del Sol akin to the RTE Love Hate series but beautiful writing.’
Caitriona Kiernan, Books Ireland
‘Penelope is an authentic voice, full of human contradiction and composed desperation.’ Hilary A White, Sunday Independent.
‘I thought ‘Finding Penelope’ was brilliant. I loved the heroine, Penelope Eames, a modestly successful romantic writer who is a sort of everywoman of our times and a wonderful mix of insight, diffidence and foolishness. I also relished the milieu in which ‘Finding Penelope’ is set, the expatriate Anglophone world of the Spanish Mediterranean, where lonely English widows and gangsters and Irish novelists and aspiring starlets all get jumbled up together and make a fine old mess of their lives in the process. This is a really, really fine piece of sharp, precise and accurate work. A novel that will give deep, literary pleasure.’
Carlo Gébler, author
‘Lawless reinvented the millennia-worn story line to reveal not only a Dublin expat Costa del Sol akin to the RTE Love Hate series but beautiful writing.’
Caitriona Kiernan, Books Ireland
‘Penelope is an authentic voice, full of human contradiction and composed desperation.’ Hilary A White, Sunday Independent.
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Published October 12, 2017
222 people want to read
About the author
James Lawless
127 books99 followersJames Lawless is an Irish novelist, short story writer and poet who was born in Dublin. He is an arts graduate in Spanish and Irish of University College Dublin and has an MA in Communications from Dublin City University.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 17, 2020
James Lawless is one of the finest authors I've read from Ireland.
If you're not familiar with the author's work, then I would suggest you to read his other works such as The Avenue, Peeling Orange and Knowing Women first so that you can get a much more comprehensive idea of how his characters work. They render you both quality and quantity.
The writing style is as always poignant, poetic, fluid and the author keeps the expectations high throughout the book. He has a unique perspective of telling stories that matter.
Apt title and a fabulous cover is bound to move the readers. A classic I would say. Appealing writing style and a well fabricated fiction.
If you're not familiar with the author's work, then I would suggest you to read his other works such as The Avenue, Peeling Orange and Knowing Women first so that you can get a much more comprehensive idea of how his characters work. They render you both quality and quantity.
The writing style is as always poignant, poetic, fluid and the author keeps the expectations high throughout the book. He has a unique perspective of telling stories that matter.
Apt title and a fabulous cover is bound to move the readers. A classic I would say. Appealing writing style and a well fabricated fiction.
July 28, 2018
I am not a great one for stream of consciousness and there's quite a lot of it. The story didn't quite connect - as if the characters were slightly separate from the story - and I found it difficult to visualise the places, houses, landscapes. The minor characters (Charlie, Gwen, even Dermot) seemed slightly unreal and I couldn't make out if Ramon was a villain plot twist or a good guy.
We don't all like the same type of writing so there will be plenty who enjoy this. Just not my particular bag!
Charlotte Milne
We don't all like the same type of writing so there will be plenty who enjoy this. Just not my particular bag!
Charlotte Milne
July 8, 2019
Apart from casting a wry glance at the phenomenon of chick lit and treating of the role of patriarchy in a family, the novel Finding Penelope is essentially a love story marking a growth in self-realisation in the protagonist Penelope Eames. It delves into the drugs culture and its associated criminality in Spain (where a lot of Celtic Tiger money wound up laundered), Ireland and the UK. The prompt for the novel was from Cervantes and a motif may be interpreted as a sort of modern day parallel of Don Quijote's attack on the proliferation of romance novels of that time. As seventy per cent of readers are now female, I wanted to understand more of the female mindset. So I picked the brains of women of my acquaintance, including two adult daughters and I researched contemporary women writers and books like Everywoman and I reread with new female (or at least androgynous eyes) my well-thumbed de Beauvoir, Anna Karenina and Portrait of a Lady. Simultaneously, I was studying the crime culture on the Costa. The result was the character Penelope Eames.
https://jameslawless.net
December 30, 2012
A book involving a woman who temporarily relocates to Spain to strike out a bit on her own and escape family trouble.
To be honest, there were many disconnects throughout the novel. While I can draw a line from event A to event B and so on, it lacked organic development for me. I felt a little berated with confusing details of her family and what the central conflict is there, aside from obvious dysfunction. I also took issue with some aspects of the main character considering her age and profession.
The book redeems itself in pinpointing precisely the attitude of British expats toward their sunny beach towns. This novel does justice to a unique subculture.
I myself enjoyed that the book was peppered with Spanish, but its hard to be objective and say how difficult it would be for a non speaker.
To be honest, there were many disconnects throughout the novel. While I can draw a line from event A to event B and so on, it lacked organic development for me. I felt a little berated with confusing details of her family and what the central conflict is there, aside from obvious dysfunction. I also took issue with some aspects of the main character considering her age and profession.
The book redeems itself in pinpointing precisely the attitude of British expats toward their sunny beach towns. This novel does justice to a unique subculture.
I myself enjoyed that the book was peppered with Spanish, but its hard to be objective and say how difficult it would be for a non speaker.
January 7, 2013
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
I was initially very drawn into Finding Penelope. A novelist moves to Spain to escape her family, and her troubles under the guise of working on her second book. She sees in Ramon, a schoolteacher/lifeguard, a possible shot at happiness who she fears losing as a result of her drug-addict brother's shenanigans. I found the characters to be both relatable and contrived in turns. For a plot line with such promise, I was disappointed to not have encountered much turmoil until very late in the book.
I was initially very drawn into Finding Penelope. A novelist moves to Spain to escape her family, and her troubles under the guise of working on her second book. She sees in Ramon, a schoolteacher/lifeguard, a possible shot at happiness who she fears losing as a result of her drug-addict brother's shenanigans. I found the characters to be both relatable and contrived in turns. For a plot line with such promise, I was disappointed to not have encountered much turmoil until very late in the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews