The Plastic Tomato Cutter

by Michael Curtin

A delightful story of love and snooker, of old customs giving way to outrageous youthful behaviour.Mr Yendall, one of life’s great antiques even as a young man, charts the downward progress of society from his position as deputy-manager of Montague’s outfitters and as the habitual occupant of the corner table at the Draper’s Club. Of another age, Tim Harding, snooker champion and member of the society of bellringers – despite him being a ‘black Protestant’ ex-Trinity College man of doubtful parentage – is so besotted by the local beauty, Cecelia Sloan, that he can hardly see straight. She insists that they follow a perfectly romantic courtship – traditional almost. Well, almost… until she discovers Tim is her brother. Michael Curtin’s characters are enormously attractive, their dilemmas are unbelievable and yet strangely real and he brings to this novel of dazzling comic twists and turns an abiding affection for the human condition.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Derek Bridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Small-town Ireland through the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Narrator number 1: Mr Yendall, shop book-keeper and snob, watching, with disdain, a changing world pass him by. Narrator number 2: Tim Harding, a character in whom I didn't believe, bell-ringer, snooker-player, bastard son, apparently unconcerned when violating one of society's greatest taboos. There are no credible female characters in this novel, all too typical of supposedly comic novels, especially Irish ones. Didn't do it for me.