The Adulterants

by Joe Dunthorne

From the wickedly funny author of Submarine comes a hilarious new tragicomedy -- a screwball tale of millennial angst, pre-midlife crises and one man's valiant quest to come of age in his thirties.

'Blisteringly funny and brimming with caustic charm - a joyous diagnosis of our modern ills that made me laugh out loud even when it was breaking my heart' Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies

'Every lost generation needs its memorial and now at last we have The Adulterants. It's very sad and very funny and written with an innocence that in fact is diabolical' Adam Thirlwell, author of Lurid and Cute

Ray is not a bad guy. He mostly did not cheat on his heavily pregnant wife. He only sometimes despises every one of his friends. His career as a freelance tech journalist is dismal but he dreams of making a difference one day. But Ray is about to learn that his special talent is for making things worse.

Brace yourself for an encounter with the modern everyman. Enter the world of ironic misanthropy and semi-ironic underachievement, of competitively sensitive men, catastrophic open marriages, and lots of Internet righteousness. With lacerating wit and wry affection, Joe Dunthorne dissects the urban millennial psyche of a man too old to be an actual millennial.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, Adult, Literary Fiction, Book Club, British Literature

173 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2018

About the author

Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea, and is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's Creative Writing MA, where he was awarded the Curtis Brown prize.

His poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies and has featured on Channel 4, and BBC Radio 3 and 4. A pamphlet collection, Joe Dunthorne: Faber New Poets 5 was published in 2010.

His first novel, Submarine, the story of a dysfunctional family in Swansea narrated by Oliver Tate, aged 15, was published in 2008.

Reviews

[Dannii Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It pains me to give a book such a low rating when there were no inherent flaws to it, this was simply just not for me. There was nothing to bond me to these morally grey characters and little, therefore, to make me care about their middle-aged concerns and crises.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord, grant me the self-confidence of a mediocre white dude.

I think this novel is supposed to be satirical, but it really just comes off as the narrative of some sad-sack idiot who isn’t even as remotely woke as he thinks he is. He kind of deserves everything that happens.

Thanks Tin House Galley Club for the ARC

[Janelle Janson · Rating 2 out of 5]

THE ADULTERANTS by Joe Dunthorne - Thank you to Tin House for providing my free copy - all opinions are my own.

This small, little, off putting book is about thirty something year olds that can’t seem to grow up. The story is centered around the main character, Ray Morris, his pregnant wife, Garthene, and a close knit group of friends. I would describe this as dark satire. There are a few ‘laugh out loud’ moments and some great quotes but I couldn’t get invested in the storyline. I found some of it too ridiculous. What I do appreciate about this book, is that you want Ray to succeed even though he deserves all that he gets. Intrigued? Go check it out for yourself!

I rate this book 2.5 / 5 stars!

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is funny, a quick read about a "manchild" whose life falls apart (but it was probably doomed already.)

I found Tin House's promotional campaign to be the best part of all of it!

I received a review copy from the publisher through Edelweiss. The book came out March 6, 2018. Tin House does great work!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short, uninvolving and lightweight story – which (not inaccurately) describes itself on the flyleaf as dissecting the urban millennial psyche of a man too old to be an actual millennial” with “wry affection.

Ray, the first person protagonist, is a tech writer, churning out pay-per-word reviews of electronic products for websites, married to a heavily pregnant ICU nurse, the two of them part of Generation Rent and searching with success for a small house they can afford – being outbid on the last family home at this price point anywhere within the M25 (a distinctly ugly masionette). This aspect of the book gives it its best paragraph

Throughout our twenties, it had been embedded in our world view that even to talk about property was death itself- the clue was the word mortgage “death pledge” in French. The we hit our thirties, Garthene got pregnant and we started going to viewing. Though we tried to maintain a moral superiority, soon we found ourselves rapping our knuckles against partition walls and saying, without irony, We could knock this through

And its set piece – caught up in the London riots, Ray finds himself outside the smashed windows of his estate agent, and decides to find the names of the Qashqai driving buyers of the masionette, finding to his horror they are “buy-to-let” investors.

And while Ray himself has some nice one-liners, too much of the rest of the book is either implausible: captured on security cameras as he grins ironically Ray ends up both convicted in the courts (sentences to community service and security tagging) and vilified across the internet and in the national press; or uninteresting – Ray and Garthene’s circle of waster friends.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely find a book that I will literally 'laugh out loud' reading, but this one did the trick more often than not. The jacket blurb calls Dunthorne a 'British Dave Eggers', but I'd say the more apt comparison is to Tom Perrotta - and this bears more than a little in common with 'Little Children' in its dissection of screwed-up (and screwing around) suburban young marrieds. The book never quite went where I was expecting, and that teeter-totter quality certainly added to my enjoyment. I COULD have done without some of the more gruesome details of the caesarean section late in the book, but even that had a few laughs amidst the grossness.

PS - the title initially bugged me, since an adulterant is defined as 'a substance used to render something poorer in quality by its addition' and that is a bit of a stretch, since in reality the book is about 'adulterERS' ... but throughout the book, the protagonist Ray is creating words that fit onomatopoetically rather than literally ... and IS a bit of an adulterant himself.

My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Tin House Books for the ARC, in exchange for this honest review.

[Mitch Karunaratne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man! So- this was a Bookclub choice, under 200 pages and set in my neighbourhood. That’s all the good bits! As for the rest - I really couldn’t take any enjoyment from spending time with any of the characters. I didn’t care for Ray the manchild who is emotionally stunted, irresponsible and self centred and the caste of characters around him didn’t fair too well either! Not sure who this book would appeal to - definitely not one I’ll be recommending- even though I’m now walking down my street wondering which of my neighbours may have inspired the author!

[Siv30 · Rating 2 out of 5]

בזמן האחרון אני מוצאת את עצמי נתקלת יותר ויותר בספרים מיותרים, שמבזבזים את זמני ובחלט לא מקיימים את ההבטחה שטמונה בהם.

אחד מהספרים האלה הוא חטאים והפרעות קלות שהיה מוטב לו הייתי פשוט מתעלמת ממנו ומהכריכה האחורית שהיא שקרנית בדיוק כמו שמש שקרנית ביום חורף קר.

הגיבור ריי, עלוב נפש ודי פאטתי. אישתו גארתיין בהמה מהסוג הנחות ביותראיזו אישה חתולת ביבים ואשפתות בוגדת בבעלה בזמן שהיא בהריון מבעלה ?איזו אישה אחרי שגילתה לבעלה את דבר הבגידה, מזמינה אותו ללידה הקיסרית של בנם ולאחריה, טורחת לשלוח למאהב שלה צילום של עצמה במיטת בית החולים חצי עירומה כשהיא יודעת שבעלה יודע בדיוק מי המאהב? פשוט עכברושית ביבים והגיע לה לגור בדירת המרתף יחד עם המאהב שלה.

. גם החברים שמקיפים אותם הם מהסוג של שספר לי מי חבריך ואומר לך מי אתה.

הכתיבה לא תמציתית ולא פואטית. הסופר מצליח לדחוס כל כך הרבה כי אין פסיק ורגע נשימה בסיפור הזה ו 200 עמודים נקראים כמו 400.

בקיצור, אם בתחילת הספר לא הצלחתי להבין מי נגד מי ומה בכלל הסופר רוצה ממני ככל שהתקדמתי פיתחתי בחילה מהדמויות, ממוסר החיים שלהם, מהנאמנות שלהם, מהסיגנון חיים שלהם. כמו שכתבתי, ספר מיותר בהחלט.

[Laura Gotti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Io li chiamo libri non necessari con protagonisti al limite dell'irritante. Lo salvo solo perché l'ho comprato nella mia libreria preferita di Londra e perché ero di buon umore mentre lo leggevo sulla metro. Mi pare un po' poco.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the strangest reading experiences I've ever had. The writing and the characterisation are great, and it's consistently really funny while also making you feel like you're watching a train wreck and can't look away. There were a couple of scenes with completely unnecessary graphic descriptions that felt a little juvenile, but honestly, it was entirely in character for the protagonist to make them, so I don't even want to say it was a bad thing.

If you'd like to watch a British man's life slowly and then very quickly go down the drain, look no further.

[Manon Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in awhile to make me laugh out loud

Witty, tightly written, and a bit sad, I really enjoyed this!

I don’t know if I learned anything majorly profound, but certain moments were deeply relatable, especially moments of thinking how others perceive you, and disappointing yourself/finding yourself in Situations

Big fan of the scene where he scouts out the house they want to by and pretends to be a crazy man, it was delightful and I was thinking about it all day

Also the way he was super delusional about everything LOL

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

this novel in parts are quite funny and can see the breakdown of a person who no matter what he does is wrong. enjoyed this book and was an easy going read in language used and the flow

[Rick Burin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unspeakably wonderful. I don’t laugh out loud very often when reading; I must have laughed out loud 30 times reading this. It’s also deeply moving, in a disarmingly direct way, and realises that our guilt and our cruelty are as sad as the things that sting us from outside, though no sadder. You could argue that the riot and the drink-sodden flirtation with homosexuality tip the story too far towards farce, but if you changed those bits you might lose something, and I wouldn’t want to risk it.

Also just a quick note (in view of some reviews on here) to say that you can’t just slag off a writer because he’s a white man, and Dunthorne is anything but mediocre: he writes beautifully, hilariously and without pretension. His ‘hero’, meanwhile, knows that he’s white and privileged and probably mediocre, without knowing what he should do with that realisation; that’s extremely close to being the point of the book.

It’s something like Lucky Jim transplanted to modern, left-liberal London.

[Courtney O'Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels like sitting in a coffee shop in Muswell Hill or Clapham Common listening to upper-class millennial couples spout nonsense from their neighbouring table, and I love it.

This is the first book written by a man I’ve read in a while. I’ve had a taste lately for relatable contemporary woman protagonists or quirky, unruly old ladies. However, I feel Joe wrote this one especially for the girlies who’ve had a man in their lives that thinks he’s so intelligent, righteous and important, but is actually a silly, weedy misogynist. This book had me cackling. A protagonist that’s so fun to observe and loathe. I’ve literally dated this man in the past !
Fave quotes:

‘Throughout our twenties, nobody in our friendship group had been willing to admit they wanted to procreate. It was a shameful, secret pursuit, like skiing.’

‘Earn,’ Bobby says. ‘Urn.’
His first word was either ‘earn’ or ‘urn’, or I’d like to believe, an intentional play on both earn and urn, illustrating his central theme that wealth cannot forestall death.’ (I howwwwwled at this)

[Danny Caine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious and cutting novel of grownups behaving badly, The Adulterants is a comedy of bad manners that brings to mind Rick Moody, Chris Bachelder, and perhaps a bit of Roddy Doyle's razor sharp dialogue. A novel with a great mix of pathos and cringeworthy laughs.

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really, really funny. Joe Dunthorne is amazing at writing books about people that make you laugh. It's a light read but really worth it because I think he's really underrated as a British author.

[Clive Grewcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okayish read, the start is quirky and interesting but as a story it never quite takes off. It perhaps doesn't help that you keep waiting in vain for the likable character to pop up.

[Katie Khan]

I picked this up on a total whim in my local bookshop today, ostensibly because I liked the cover and I remembered Submarine had been quite darkly funny. I read the first page there in the shop and laughed so much I had to buy it. Three hours later, I’d read the whole thing. I found The Adulterants absolutely bloody hilarious! It skewers east London, freelance internet jobs, the London property market, men in their thirties AND millennials, and uses this bathos to explore a real fear of fatherhood, adulthood and marriage. Your mileage may vary, but I laughed the whole way through and there are some fantastically observed lines and scenes. My partner had to check I was okay during the estate agent sequence at the horrible maisonette, “the last family home at its price point within the M25”, because I had tears streaming down my face with laughter. An enjoyable way to spend a Saturday.

[Lukáš Palán · Rating 3 out of 5]

WAZZAP DOWWGS

Tuhle knizku jsem precetl, protoze byla hezka. Tak uz to u me funguje. Jsem jednoduchej clovek - co se mi libi, na to sahnu. Klidne bych o jednoduchosti v zivote mohl psat motivacni karticky.

Chce se ti kadet kámo?
Jdi kadet kámo.

Srí Palivochutarnamátha

The Adulterants je o klasickych problemech mladeho bileho muze, ktery ma jen jeden penis, ale vice vagin. Jenze se ukaze, ze jeho tehotna zena ma taky vice penisu nez vagin a horska draha londynskeho sarkasmu se naplno rozjede. Dunthorne to popisuje dostatecne vtipne a ironicky a ani mi nevadilo, ze hlavni hrdina je vlastne solidni kokot, protoze ja jsem taky, ale bylo to vlastne takovy nijaky, myslim pribehove. Kdyby Dunthorne trochu pridal a rozsoupl se, mohla to byt solidni ctyrka. Takhle to vypada, jako by se v knajpe potkal Huellebecq s Hornbym a Hornby chudaka Huellebecqa na zachode prefikl.

Huli brka
ci
Houllebecqa?
Tot otazka.

7/10

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread. I've been listening to the audiobook of this whilst I've been dealing with insomnia and this book is just as good the second time reading it.
_____________________________________
I knew I would love this book before I even purchased it because I love Joe Dunthorne he is such an amazing writer.
This book is marketed as a coming of age story for 30 somethings and I couldn't agree more. We need more stories like this.
The Adulterants is funny and also a really moving story. The writing technique is so clever and it is a really well-put together novel.
Submarine was hilarious and the same type of humour continues in this. You relate to Ray the protagonist but you also cannot help but despise him. All of the characters are so complex despite the novel being 170 pages.
Read this.

[Kevin Larose · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I found the book clever and funny in places, on the whole I found it dreary and depressing. Ray Morris proved to be extremely self-absorbed and someone I really couldn’t root for. I found the book to be a rather harsh, although somewhat accurate, indictment of current society. The saving grace is it’s a short read, so one can get to the next read rather quickly.

[Dhanwanthri Mukkerla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cleverly written story about vacuous thirty-somethings in London. Uses the backdrop of a riot as a canvas for self-indulgent, narcissistic behaviour. There was not one character I empathised with or liked. That said, the writing kept me wading through their sad existences, the work of a true poet.

[Startinmerc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ripped through that, didn't I? What a cracker. Completely hit the spot. Perfect 4.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I walked alongside the Lea, one of the country’s most polluted and slow-moving rivers, full of stringy weeds that stretched out beneath the surface like the hair of drowned children. Children who had drowned, I decided, because they’d grown up in rented top-floor flats with no outside space, faux-uncles watching pornography in their play zone during daylight hours, and so they’d ended up down here by the river, depressed, and look, now they were dead.

I pulled down the blackout blanket and watched the objects of the small rented room materialize: table, chairs, kettle, toaster, bouncer, basket, condom on a cork board, two empty cans beneath my seat, pregnant wife’s face of only moderate disappointment, sad man rolling away from the light.

I did not rush to the clitoris. There is more to life than the cold pursuit of measureable status markers.

It’s easy to get a standing ovation when the seats are so uncomfortable.

At the far end of the space, I saw our neighbors’ workbench, touring bike and valve amplifier—different dreams, different failures. In every direction, the ceilings angled down.

It was vital I believe the worst was happening, that she and some ex-patient whose muscle density was just returning were exploring each other’s bodies in an adult softplay room, exuberantly lubricated, coded messages of affection passing back and forth between nonbiological father’s penis and unborn child, like two prisoners knocking on the pipes.

His first word was either earn or urn or, I’d like to believe, and intentional play on both earn and urn, illustrating his central theme that wealth cannot forestall death.

[b aaron talbot · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book perplexed me, and i will try to explain why.

my first reaction to this book was, "lord, why am i reading about (mostly) white, working class millennial brits doing (mostly) white, working class millennial things: drinking too much, flirting inappropriately, shaming and being shamed online, trying to buy a house in an overpriced market, blah blah blah."

but the story got engaging in part three* and so i finished the book. but what i wanted from the book was not what it gave me. i wanted more depth to the characters, would have liked to know more about them. but then i thought, "do i really want to know more about them? they are not all that interesting." and that, i decided, is the point of this book: that the lives we think are interesting are truly banal.

ok, fine. then why write the book and why read it? well, that i have not worked out yet.

so, yeah.

*part three: for me, this was the most interesting part of the novel, but i read it while stoned. so i do not know if the drugs helped make it more engaging, or if it was truly engaging...either way, it probably helped me get through the novel, which in its own way is rather amusing, or perhaps telling, or perhaps fits with the very nature of my problems with the book itself and what it is critiquing. anyhoo, it was an experience.

[Ian Mapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small, 175 page book that is laugh out loud funny in a way that literature so rarely is. As good as Tom Perrotta, John O Farrell and so on.

Especially the first half of the book.

Told from the POV of a London nearly hipster in his 30s - his girlfiend is pregnant - as the blurb on the cover says, he more or less manages to stay faithful.

In a wickedly hilarious opening 100 pages, we have a party, where our hero attends without his wife. Things get out of hand and he has his good looking mate move in with them. Things reach a climax with the London Riots, that he accidently gets involved in.

2nd half of the book not quite as funny and overall, the book is slight with no real meaningful progression or growth of the characters but a quick read.

Rare for me to laugh so much, so I'll be back for more of Joe's work.

[Jessica // Starjessreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid three stars. Thank you to Tin House for the free book. All opinions are mine. A quick, easy read that sometimes felt like a dark comedy. All of the characters were pretty unlikable, but I still found myself rooting for them (mostly). It was entertaining, but I’m glad it’s over. It was clever, but sometimes far-fetched. Amusing, but ultimately depressing. Confused? So am I. I guess you’ll have to read it and decide for yourself.

[Ditchface · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is short, sharp and hilarious novel. “If you’ve never been the bus’s unusual person you’re missing out”, happens to be the very line that made me cackle loudly on public transport.
The humour cuts through in some unfortunate but mostly just petty situations, and Dunthorne does a great job of wryly satirising modern young parents without completely abandoning them emotionally. I liked this book a lot. It’s so good to laugh.

[Dylan Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ludicrously funny and proper tragic. I sort of hate how good this is, and how good Joe Dunthorne is.

Whilst I think the expected chuckles-per-minute (xCPM) is lower than Submarine, I think this is a more impressive book, purely because the central characters are all 30/40-something and they have more battle scars, and should be better equipped to deal with the trauma they face. Oliver Tate could just be weird if he wanted with little consequence. These guys, less so.

It’s early days in my reading career but Joe Dunthorne is now firmly on my Mount Rushmore.

[Matthew Bisgrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Dunthorne has done what he does best; take the seemingly monotonous and obvious parts of life and adds a satirical melodrama to it that brings it to life. His phrasing and description of emotions and so on in this book hit home perfectly and carry a break-your-little-heartedness about it.

You’ll be laughing and crying in equal measures. Splendid book.