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The Luck of Ginger Coffey
“No, for wasn’t this the chance he had always wanted? Wasn’t he at long last an adventurer, a man who had gambled all on one horse, a horse coloured Canada, which now by hook or by crook would carry him to fame and fortune?”
Meet Ginger Coffey, the irrepressible fortune-hunter of Brian Moore’s award-winning novel. The Luck of Ginger Coffey is the robust, funny, sometimes tragic tale of one unforgettable Irish immigrant to Montreal. Buoyed by unfailing optimism, Ginger confronts the ugly realities of life in the New World. Jobs are scarce, people often inhuman. And dreams of glory do not offer any lasting escape from the hard pinch of poverty.
In spite of the battering he receives in his struggle for survival, Ginger Coffey emerges a true hero – the “little” man who can be defeated by anything, except life itself.
The Luck of Ginger Coffey was awarded the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 1960 and was made into a critically acclaimed motion picture.
From the Paperback edition.
Meet Ginger Coffey, the irrepressible fortune-hunter of Brian Moore’s award-winning novel. The Luck of Ginger Coffey is the robust, funny, sometimes tragic tale of one unforgettable Irish immigrant to Montreal. Buoyed by unfailing optimism, Ginger confronts the ugly realities of life in the New World. Jobs are scarce, people often inhuman. And dreams of glory do not offer any lasting escape from the hard pinch of poverty.
In spite of the battering he receives in his struggle for survival, Ginger Coffey emerges a true hero – the “little” man who can be defeated by anything, except life itself.
The Luck of Ginger Coffey was awarded the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 1960 and was made into a critically acclaimed motion picture.
From the Paperback edition.
221 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
4 people are currently reading
263 people want to read
About the author
Brian Moore
163 books169 followersBrian Moore (1921–1999) was born into a large, devoutly Catholic family in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father was a surgeon and lecturer, and his mother had been a nurse. Moore left Ireland during World War II and in 1948 moved to Canada, where he worked for the Montreal Gazette, married his first wife, and began to write potboilers under various pen names, as he would continue to do throughout the 1950s.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955, now available as an NYRB Classic), said to have been rejected by a dozen publishers, was the first book Moore published under his own name, and it was followed by nineteen subsequent novels written in a broad range of modes and styles, from the realistic to the historical to the quasi-fantastical, including The Luck of Ginger Coffey, An Answer from Limbo, The Emperor of Ice Cream, I Am Mary Dunne, Catholics, Black Robe, and The Statement. Three novels—Lies of Silence, The Colour of Blood, and The Magician’s Wife—were short-listed for the Booker Prize, and The Great Victorian Collection won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
After adapting The Luck of Ginger Coffey for film in 1964, Moore moved to California to work on the script for Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain. He remained in Malibu for the rest of his life, remarrying there and teaching at UCLA for some fifteen years. Shortly before his death, Moore wrote, “There are those stateless wanderers who, finding the larger world into which they have stumbled vast, varied and exciting, become confused in their loyalties and lose their sense of home. I am one of those wanderers.”
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1955, now available as an NYRB Classic), said to have been rejected by a dozen publishers, was the first book Moore published under his own name, and it was followed by nineteen subsequent novels written in a broad range of modes and styles, from the realistic to the historical to the quasi-fantastical, including The Luck of Ginger Coffey, An Answer from Limbo, The Emperor of Ice Cream, I Am Mary Dunne, Catholics, Black Robe, and The Statement. Three novels—Lies of Silence, The Colour of Blood, and The Magician’s Wife—were short-listed for the Booker Prize, and The Great Victorian Collection won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
After adapting The Luck of Ginger Coffey for film in 1964, Moore moved to California to work on the script for Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain. He remained in Malibu for the rest of his life, remarrying there and teaching at UCLA for some fifteen years. Shortly before his death, Moore wrote, “There are those stateless wanderers who, finding the larger world into which they have stumbled vast, varied and exciting, become confused in their loyalties and lose their sense of home. I am one of those wanderers.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
March 30, 2015
This was the latest of my monthly Brian Moore reads, having come to the Belfast born novelist through his Belfast based books, as I have a specific interest in fiction set in the city.
This novel has nothing to do with Belfast or NI however; the protagonist, Ginger Coffey, is a recent immigrant to Canada from Dublin, a former Irish Army soldier who had inherited a sum of money, and being tired of the archaic ways of his home, had secured jobs as a representative of three home based firms in Montreal, and brought his wife Veronica and daughter Paulie to start a new life there.
When we meet Ginger, all is not well. He has $14 in his pocket, his jobs have come to nothing, and his wife is pressuring him to buy tickets for their passage home. Despite his hardship, Ginger has a positive outlook on life, and is convinced he will turn things around, whether through finding a job via the unemployment office, or through his 'friend' Gerry Grosvenor.
And so we get to know him, as he cuts a ridiculous figure, proud and full of impossible aspirations, royally going about ****ing up his life. He makes cringeworthy decisions, yet one can't help rooting for him, flawed as he is, as the events of the short period of time that the narrative covers unfold.
I really enjoyed this novel, which examines in a semi light hearted manner the experience of the immigrant in the 'new world' at the end of the 1950s. Moore's portrayal of Coffey, particularly in his attitude to women, may be a little dated, but at the same time, attitudes have changed since the time it was written.
The book was turned into a film at the time, so I assume it was relatively popular, and I have to say that, as a companion piece to the other novels of his that I've read, it does a good job in showing the great versatility Moore had as a writer, and the speed that I read it at is testament to the easy style he possessed.
This novel has nothing to do with Belfast or NI however; the protagonist, Ginger Coffey, is a recent immigrant to Canada from Dublin, a former Irish Army soldier who had inherited a sum of money, and being tired of the archaic ways of his home, had secured jobs as a representative of three home based firms in Montreal, and brought his wife Veronica and daughter Paulie to start a new life there.
When we meet Ginger, all is not well. He has $14 in his pocket, his jobs have come to nothing, and his wife is pressuring him to buy tickets for their passage home. Despite his hardship, Ginger has a positive outlook on life, and is convinced he will turn things around, whether through finding a job via the unemployment office, or through his 'friend' Gerry Grosvenor.
And so we get to know him, as he cuts a ridiculous figure, proud and full of impossible aspirations, royally going about ****ing up his life. He makes cringeworthy decisions, yet one can't help rooting for him, flawed as he is, as the events of the short period of time that the narrative covers unfold.
I really enjoyed this novel, which examines in a semi light hearted manner the experience of the immigrant in the 'new world' at the end of the 1950s. Moore's portrayal of Coffey, particularly in his attitude to women, may be a little dated, but at the same time, attitudes have changed since the time it was written.
The book was turned into a film at the time, so I assume it was relatively popular, and I have to say that, as a companion piece to the other novels of his that I've read, it does a good job in showing the great versatility Moore had as a writer, and the speed that I read it at is testament to the easy style he possessed.
July 26, 2008
Brian Moore was an amazing writer and this, along with The Emporer of Ice Cream, is my favorite. Ginger Coffey is near forty and starting over after leaving Ireland for Canada. He is not a lucky man. Though he has an upbeat attitude and is willing to try just about anything, job success eludes him and his marriage dissolves as his wife loses faith in him. Sounds depressing, doesn't it? It isn't. I got sucked into Ginger's persistent spirit and cheered for his little triumphs. A wonderful, wonderful book.
June 21, 2022
One of the great mysteries of modern literature is how Bryan Moore managed to write such pessimistic novels that make readers feel if not happy at least philosophical; as opposed to say Robert Stone or Jim Thompson, who just make you feel crappy. No doubt drawing on his own experience of emigrating from Ireland to Canada THE LUCK OF GINGER COFFEY is the study of an Irishman living in Montreal whose happy-go-lucky optimism is built upon lie after lie; lying to his wife, daughter, employers and finally, and fatefully, to himself. The lies Patrick "Ginger"Coffey's tells to stay afloat, from job to job and country to country, will eventually drown his family and himself. It's all a jest pulled off by a God who isn't there. I suggest reading this stunner alongside Moore's THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE.
September 29, 2024
As a I teenager I read this book which had won the Governor General's Prize because I wanted to acquaint myself with one of Canada's rising young stars. One has to admit that the field is not as deep as it is for the Pulitzer or the Booker. Moore subsequently left our country. In this regard he was neither the first nor the last.
June 27, 2019
I like a good immigrant story but I had a hard time rooting for Ginger. The combo of some unlikable (although likely realistic) characters and not a lot happening made for a depressing read.
May 28, 2020
This, Moore's 3rd-novel, is, like his amazing first-novel, "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne", a searing character-study of an ordinary human-being. This is a strength of the late novelist; the ability to extract drama and comedy from the seemingly banal.
This book, also the third of 3 novels that Moore wrote while living and working (as a newspaper-man) in Montreal, is the first one set outside of his native Ireland, in Montreal. As someone familiar with the Montreal of today I can happily report that it isn't quite as bleak a place as depicted here. Then again, Moore wrote this novel in the latter '50s and much has changed in the interim. Mordecai Richler, a dear friend of Moore's, found his own muse in Montreal after returning to it from abroad. The city, as a setting, enriched his work, but then it was his home. For Moore it was just a way-station and so perhaps it is understandable that it gets short-shrift in what, as stated before, is a character -study.
I was once asked in an online-chatroom, after mentioning having a read a fine biography of Moore ("Brian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist"), whether we Canadians claimed Brian Moore as one of our own? Sadly, it seems that the man's work is largely forgotten here but I certainly think he deserves a place in the pantheon of Can-lit. In later years he would go on to write "Black Robe" which is a wonderful historical-novel of Canada.
Ireland, the greater UK, and even the USA have legitimate claims on Brian Moore but "The Luck of Ginger Coffey" certainly puts a Canadian- stamp on a very fine novelist.
This book, also the third of 3 novels that Moore wrote while living and working (as a newspaper-man) in Montreal, is the first one set outside of his native Ireland, in Montreal. As someone familiar with the Montreal of today I can happily report that it isn't quite as bleak a place as depicted here. Then again, Moore wrote this novel in the latter '50s and much has changed in the interim. Mordecai Richler, a dear friend of Moore's, found his own muse in Montreal after returning to it from abroad. The city, as a setting, enriched his work, but then it was his home. For Moore it was just a way-station and so perhaps it is understandable that it gets short-shrift in what, as stated before, is a character -study.
I was once asked in an online-chatroom, after mentioning having a read a fine biography of Moore ("Brian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist"), whether we Canadians claimed Brian Moore as one of our own? Sadly, it seems that the man's work is largely forgotten here but I certainly think he deserves a place in the pantheon of Can-lit. In later years he would go on to write "Black Robe" which is a wonderful historical-novel of Canada.
Ireland, the greater UK, and even the USA have legitimate claims on Brian Moore but "The Luck of Ginger Coffey" certainly puts a Canadian- stamp on a very fine novelist.
December 3, 2019
Ginger Coffey has moved his small family to Montreal in hopes of making it big despite the growing rift between him, his wife and his teenage daughter - but it will take more than luck of the Irish to keep him afloat as he desperately tries to keep a job - and his loved ones - together. Moore offers an interesting tale from the perspective of the "little" man that has some intriguing social commentary and a quite realistic cast for readers to engage with. Can Coffey find a path in life that will keep what he holds dear close, or has his bet on the unknowns of Canada doomed his family to failure?
September 11, 2020
The title is ironic as the main character lurches from disaster to disaster throughout the story. It's one of those Thank-God-This-Isn't-Happening-To-Me kind of novels. The one redeeming quality at the end is that he's still alive and still determined to keep trying.
Very well-written and very cinematic. You can practically see the whole thing unfold in front of you like a movie. Another excellent effort by the late Brian Moore. I will continue to seek out his other books.
Very well-written and very cinematic. You can practically see the whole thing unfold in front of you like a movie. Another excellent effort by the late Brian Moore. I will continue to seek out his other books.
February 26, 2023
Uma obra cativante. O primeiro capítulo quase me fez desistir de continuar a leitura. Mas os capítulos que se seguem têm o efeito contrário. A narrativa tem uma capacidade incontestável de prender o leitor a este livro. A revisitar.
December 5, 2025
honestly pretty wack
was published in 1960 and definitely doesn't age well. the protagonist's blind optimism is charming at first but gets tiresome as it veers off into full-on delusion. pretty gross displays of misogyny throughout.
cool that it takes place in Montreal though!
was published in 1960 and definitely doesn't age well. the protagonist's blind optimism is charming at first but gets tiresome as it veers off into full-on delusion. pretty gross displays of misogyny throughout.
cool that it takes place in Montreal though!
July 5, 2016
This is the story of James Francis Coffey, an Irishman known to friends and family as “Ginger” because of his reddish hair and his jaunty moustache. After leaving school without his B.A., enduring the rigors of a stint in the army and several jobs that did not give him the satisfaction he wanted, he left Ireland for Canada to pursue his dreams. His aim in life was to be his own master and to make something of himself. He left his homeland convinced that Ireland did not allow him to become the person he wanted to be. He considered himself a man of adventure, a man who was out to follow his dreams and become a man of notice in the world. And so he traveled across the sea and started a new life with his family in Canada.
Ginger lives with his wife Veronica and his fourteen year old daughter Paulie in a rundown rented duplex in Montreal. He has failed the first jobs he has taken on and is now out of work, something he has not yet shared with his wife. Nor has he shared with her the fact that he has been forced to use their savings to meet their expenses. The couple had put that money aside to pay for their tickets home if things did not work out. When Veronica discovers what Ginger has done, she is furious. She has lost all patience with his eternal optimism and his great plans that have never come to anything.
Ginger has always been choosy about what jobs he took on. He was not interested in anything he considered beneath him or in a simple job that would provide for his family. He wanted to make something of himself, to be someone important and to achieve some status in society. He wanted not only wealth but personal recognition and a place in the world he could be proud of. But Ginger’s pride obscures reality and he fails to accept his limitations, insisting on taking on work for which he has no qualifications, dooming himself to continual failure. Veronica tries to get him to face reality, but she is not having any luck.
The couple has only one friend in Canada, Gerry Grosvenor, a political cartoonist who helps Ginger get a job as a proof reader at the Tribune. This is not the kind of job he wants, but he needs the money and is lured to sign on when the boss promises him a promotion to reporter if he does well.
Veronica, at the end of her patience and sick of Ginger’s broken promises, leaves him for Grosvenor, taking their daughter with her. Ginger has no money to pay the rent so he moves to a small room at the YMCA where he meets a man who helps him get a second job driving a diaper delivery van. Working the two jobs he can support his family, but Veronica refuses to come back to him.
Veronica is the only woman Ginger has ever loved and he is haunted by dreams and visions of her with another man. But any attempt he makes to get her back falls on deaf ears. Veronica is clear. She wants no part of a continued relationship with Ginger and asks for a divorce so she can marry Grosvenor. Ginger is both devastated and angry with her.
After an altercation with Gerry and a night of heavy drinking, Ginger is picked up by the police when he is found urinating outside the entrance of a grand downtown hotel. He is put in a jail cell and brought before a judge the next morning, charged with indecent exposure. Ginger is thoroughly humiliated both for himself and his family. It is during the courtroom session which Veronica attends, that Ginger begins to understand how much he cares for her. And suddenly Ginger’s circumstances and his luck change.
It is only after that difficult experience before a judge, when he feared he had lost everything that Ginger gains a new understanding of what is important in life. He finally comes to accept who he is and the role he has in this world. And Veronica comes to realize how much Ginger really cares for her and decides to stay in the marriage.
This novel takes place in the mid-fifties when there was a large influx of Irish immigrants in the city. The story attempts to portray several aspects of the immigrant experience including their “get rich” fantasies, the dreary rooms they rented while they worked menial jobs and the unscrupulous employers who took advantage of them.
This is a moral tale that also has many comic moments. It is a light entertaining read which at the same time tackles serious themes.
Ginger lives with his wife Veronica and his fourteen year old daughter Paulie in a rundown rented duplex in Montreal. He has failed the first jobs he has taken on and is now out of work, something he has not yet shared with his wife. Nor has he shared with her the fact that he has been forced to use their savings to meet their expenses. The couple had put that money aside to pay for their tickets home if things did not work out. When Veronica discovers what Ginger has done, she is furious. She has lost all patience with his eternal optimism and his great plans that have never come to anything.
Ginger has always been choosy about what jobs he took on. He was not interested in anything he considered beneath him or in a simple job that would provide for his family. He wanted to make something of himself, to be someone important and to achieve some status in society. He wanted not only wealth but personal recognition and a place in the world he could be proud of. But Ginger’s pride obscures reality and he fails to accept his limitations, insisting on taking on work for which he has no qualifications, dooming himself to continual failure. Veronica tries to get him to face reality, but she is not having any luck.
The couple has only one friend in Canada, Gerry Grosvenor, a political cartoonist who helps Ginger get a job as a proof reader at the Tribune. This is not the kind of job he wants, but he needs the money and is lured to sign on when the boss promises him a promotion to reporter if he does well.
Veronica, at the end of her patience and sick of Ginger’s broken promises, leaves him for Grosvenor, taking their daughter with her. Ginger has no money to pay the rent so he moves to a small room at the YMCA where he meets a man who helps him get a second job driving a diaper delivery van. Working the two jobs he can support his family, but Veronica refuses to come back to him.
Veronica is the only woman Ginger has ever loved and he is haunted by dreams and visions of her with another man. But any attempt he makes to get her back falls on deaf ears. Veronica is clear. She wants no part of a continued relationship with Ginger and asks for a divorce so she can marry Grosvenor. Ginger is both devastated and angry with her.
After an altercation with Gerry and a night of heavy drinking, Ginger is picked up by the police when he is found urinating outside the entrance of a grand downtown hotel. He is put in a jail cell and brought before a judge the next morning, charged with indecent exposure. Ginger is thoroughly humiliated both for himself and his family. It is during the courtroom session which Veronica attends, that Ginger begins to understand how much he cares for her. And suddenly Ginger’s circumstances and his luck change.
It is only after that difficult experience before a judge, when he feared he had lost everything that Ginger gains a new understanding of what is important in life. He finally comes to accept who he is and the role he has in this world. And Veronica comes to realize how much Ginger really cares for her and decides to stay in the marriage.
This novel takes place in the mid-fifties when there was a large influx of Irish immigrants in the city. The story attempts to portray several aspects of the immigrant experience including their “get rich” fantasies, the dreary rooms they rented while they worked menial jobs and the unscrupulous employers who took advantage of them.
This is a moral tale that also has many comic moments. It is a light entertaining read which at the same time tackles serious themes.
July 29, 2016
Okay, this book is one of those candidates where I would totally welcome a half star rating on GoodReads.
Good enough to get more than 2 stars... but I am not really happy with having to resort to give it 3 stars, still I chose that option.
And now to something completely different, well not completely, since it's about this book. As I mentioned in an status update the other day, I really dislike the protagonist called 'Ginger, he has a few charackteristics which I hate in men, so I will stop here before I digress. His wife is an iffy floosy, whom I do understand in some way, but still I would say, that Sorry this wasn't a real review but I wrote what I though about it right now. I need to stop, also my boss will be back in 10 minutes & I need to play the hard working Librarian. ;)
Good enough to get more than 2 stars... but I am not really happy with having to resort to give it 3 stars, still I chose that option.
And now to something completely different, well not completely, since it's about this book. As I mentioned in an status update the other day, I really dislike the protagonist called 'Ginger, he has a few charackteristics which I hate in men, so I will stop here before I digress. His wife is an iffy floosy, whom I do understand in some way, but still I would say, that Sorry this wasn't a real review but I wrote what I though about it right now. I need to stop, also my boss will be back in 10 minutes & I need to play the hard working Librarian. ;)
May 20, 2015
I spent the whole book worried to death about Ginger. He's such a mess that I was anxious about his future. It was possible, though, to feel the time--the feelings and the mores of New Canadians in the late 1950s.
December 28, 2021
In 1948 Brian Moore emigrated to Canada. His two earlier novels - The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1958) and The Feast of Lupercal (1958) looked back to his native Belfast, and explored lives that seemed predestined for destruction. His third novel, The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960) is a tonal and geographic shift as Moore brings an immigrant’s optimistic outlook to Canada and makes it face reality.
James ‘Ginger’ Coffey, tired of being a dogsbody in Dublin, has uprooted his wife and daughter in the search for the new opportunities and better life he deserves. A selfish streak runs through him, making him an ineffective breadwinner. What money he scrapes together - even the family’s emergency funds - is spent on Ginger Coffey.
Moore, as usual, is on point with his writing, hewing close to his characters’ inner thoughts while remaining in a third person narrative. It’s as if he brings us to the characters and promptly disappears, leaving us in their company. Where his Belfast novels were thin on colloquial language, here the Irishness is amplified, to give it a shape and make it pop within its Canadian setting.
Over the course of the novel, we see Ginger, in his tragi-comic way, blag jobs, drink himself silly, and dig deeper holes for himself all while he should be saving his marriage and being a role model to his daughter. The titular luck riffs on the luck of the Irish, but in reality it’s an altogether more wholesome epiphany - and unexpected - that ends the book on a very satisfying note.
James ‘Ginger’ Coffey, tired of being a dogsbody in Dublin, has uprooted his wife and daughter in the search for the new opportunities and better life he deserves. A selfish streak runs through him, making him an ineffective breadwinner. What money he scrapes together - even the family’s emergency funds - is spent on Ginger Coffey.
Moore, as usual, is on point with his writing, hewing close to his characters’ inner thoughts while remaining in a third person narrative. It’s as if he brings us to the characters and promptly disappears, leaving us in their company. Where his Belfast novels were thin on colloquial language, here the Irishness is amplified, to give it a shape and make it pop within its Canadian setting.
Over the course of the novel, we see Ginger, in his tragi-comic way, blag jobs, drink himself silly, and dig deeper holes for himself all while he should be saving his marriage and being a role model to his daughter. The titular luck riffs on the luck of the Irish, but in reality it’s an altogether more wholesome epiphany - and unexpected - that ends the book on a very satisfying note.
January 28, 2022
The Bee Gees once famously asked in song, "how can a loser ever win?", and that question could easily be the subtitle of this novel, the tale of an Irish émigré to Canada who keeps trying and failing to change his lousy luck in Montreal. Coffey is hardly the most likeable of characters, but he is believable, and it is hard not to relate to his combination of paralyzing fear of failure and periodic optimism and self-validation. The character of his wife and daughter probably will seem a little dated to some readers, but given the time period and background of these characters, again, they are believable. I won't spoil the ending for anyone, but I will say that Moore's writing is excellent and well-paced. Toward the end there is this moving passage with which I will end this review: "Love--why, I'll tell you what love is: it's you at seventy-five and her at seventy-one, each of you listening for the other's step in the next room, each afraid that a sudden silence, a sudden cry, could mean a lifetime's talk is over."
December 22, 2025
A wonderfully written novel that showcases the author's ability to create interesting characters and stories with such effortless language. Ginger thinks he's better than he is. He is self-absorbed, lacking empathy, out of time, grandiose..... the symbol of outdated masculinity, inattentive to his wife's needs, a corrosive influence even, and we shouldn't really care about him. But he's not really a bad person and he's so incredibly optimistic despite all the evidence. And even though he is quite pathetic really, part of the genius of this is that we kinda hope he changes even if he hits rockbottom. Ok Veronica should've left him for good most probably but there is a degree of self awareness and the hope of change on those last pages, which mirrors the final years of the 1950s on the cusp of a bright new decade.
February 23, 2018
3.5/5 stars. This was a great story. The characters were all very interesting in their own way; and all the dialogue scenes were believable and entertaining. What I loved most about this was how even the minor characters felt so real--and how there was so much depth to this story both in content and in execution. It kind of slowed in the middle, which was why I gave this fewer stars than usual--I feel like it would've worked much better even shorter; perhaps novella-length would be perfect for it.
But the ending was very satisfying and memorable. The last chapter has some of the best prose in the entire story. And of course, the setting and time period made me want to read it from the start. I quite enjoyed it!
But the ending was very satisfying and memorable. The last chapter has some of the best prose in the entire story. And of course, the setting and time period made me want to read it from the start. I quite enjoyed it!
June 4, 2023
Ginger Coffey is an eternal optimist who desires a respectable life doing higher level work than he is qualified to do. He keeps making terrible decisions. A series of constant failures which he blames on everyone and everything except himself. Not a likeable character so a somewhat challenging book to stay with. His troubles end up with a broken family, the loss of a good job and trouble with the law. In the end Ginger does figure out in his own way that he bears responsibility and that in the end family is what makes a series of life failure bearable. In a way, he figures out real love. In a way, that may be his luck.
December 4, 2017
I read this book some years ago and recently took a fancy to read it again. It's the story of an innocent abroad, an Irish dreamer who emigrates to Canada with his wife and daughter. The cold of the climate and the harshness of being 'other' in an unfamiliar land is drawn expertly by Moore, as always with this wonderful writer. Well worth the second read: now to seek out the few of Moore's novels I've not read and enjoy some more hours spent in company with his formidable imagination and writing skill.
May 4, 2022
Well, what a gem of a book – a fabulous love story – and a genuine uplifting happy ending.
Ive read a few BM books, this one is fair dinkum up there with – An answer from Limbo.
Scatter brain Ginger Coffey hey – but, he’s got this strong internal moral guiding spirit that finally brings the luck of the Irish.
And for all the drama Vera goes thru also – she never comes across as mean / nasty – Brian Moore in his clever way makes her quite adorable / desirable.
A wonderful great bunch of interesting characters ( not too many ) – and under 300 pages , perfect.
Ive read a few BM books, this one is fair dinkum up there with – An answer from Limbo.
Scatter brain Ginger Coffey hey – but, he’s got this strong internal moral guiding spirit that finally brings the luck of the Irish.
And for all the drama Vera goes thru also – she never comes across as mean / nasty – Brian Moore in his clever way makes her quite adorable / desirable.
A wonderful great bunch of interesting characters ( not too many ) – and under 300 pages , perfect.
May 6, 2017
The least favourite of any of the books I have read by Brian Moore. I'm not sure if Moore wanted the reader to be sympathetic to Ginger but I found him irritating and irresponsible. As usual the characters are totally believable and well rounded but none apart from Vera are at all likeable. I think I've encountered a few Gingers throughout my life which made him even more annoying. Very funny in parts I would still recommend this book but would advise the reader to try others first.
August 3, 2017
One of my all-time favourite quotes came from this gem of a little novel.
"Love—why, I’ll tell you what love is: it’s you at seventy-five and her at seventy-one, each of you listening for the other’s step in the next room...each afraid that a sudden silence, a sudden cry, could mean a lifetime’s talk is over."
The storyline is nothing new or extraordinary, but Ginger tugged at my heart with his big dreams and even bigger disappointments.
"Love—why, I’ll tell you what love is: it’s you at seventy-five and her at seventy-one, each of you listening for the other’s step in the next room...each afraid that a sudden silence, a sudden cry, could mean a lifetime’s talk is over."
The storyline is nothing new or extraordinary, but Ginger tugged at my heart with his big dreams and even bigger disappointments.
March 9, 2024
Ginger Coffey is one of those likeably self-deluded chancers that try to make their own luck, only to find they were reading the build instructions upside down. Ginger is a proto-Dellboy, a reinvented Willy Loman, with a twist of chiselled Irish-American matinée idol good looks. He is a charmer as much as a chancer, but one whose long-suffering wife starts seeing through.
Moore is a wonderful novelist, whose books refract subtle light and shade. Coffey would be easy enough to despise at first, be he keeps working at it, and (again with parallels to the latter-day Del and Cassandra) clearly loves his wife. Where I stood as a reader changed as the book progressed, much as we might view people in our own lives very differently, even by the hour.
Not all characters quite stood up in 3D. Gerry felt like a walk-in part from Happy Days, both big on bonhommie and hurt determination, depending on the moment. Gerry is a catalyst to the necessary relationship turbulence at the heart of the tale, but the doors he walked through were more clapboard than the more solid-seeming Duplex drama of the central two characters. All that said, I still got swept up in the moral drama. Moore does know how to write a page turner, even as each sentence is beautifully crafted.
The machismo of Coffey is of its time, as is the subservient role assigned to his wife Veronica. Yes she takes control of her destiny but my lasting memory is of her legs flashing out of a low-slung sports car. Even here Moore challenges us, when Ginger steps inside and realises this flash of thigh must have been unavoidable, but we are still left with 'woman as sexual object'. It's unavoidably dated as fictional wish-fulfilment, however representative as a cultural artefact from the turn of the 1950s/1960s.
I am realising that I quite like books that pack an emotional punch (or alternatively a sublime descriptive beauty), whereas Ginger Coffey ultimately pulled its blows.
Moore is a wonderful novelist, whose books refract subtle light and shade. Coffey would be easy enough to despise at first, be he keeps working at it, and (again with parallels to the latter-day Del and Cassandra) clearly loves his wife. Where I stood as a reader changed as the book progressed, much as we might view people in our own lives very differently, even by the hour.
Not all characters quite stood up in 3D. Gerry felt like a walk-in part from Happy Days, both big on bonhommie and hurt determination, depending on the moment. Gerry is a catalyst to the necessary relationship turbulence at the heart of the tale, but the doors he walked through were more clapboard than the more solid-seeming Duplex drama of the central two characters. All that said, I still got swept up in the moral drama. Moore does know how to write a page turner, even as each sentence is beautifully crafted.
The machismo of Coffey is of its time, as is the subservient role assigned to his wife Veronica. Yes she takes control of her destiny but my lasting memory is of her legs flashing out of a low-slung sports car. Even here Moore challenges us, when Ginger steps inside and realises this flash of thigh must have been unavoidable, but we are still left with 'woman as sexual object'. It's unavoidably dated as fictional wish-fulfilment, however representative as a cultural artefact from the turn of the 1950s/1960s.
I am realising that I quite like books that pack an emotional punch (or alternatively a sublime descriptive beauty), whereas Ginger Coffey ultimately pulled its blows.
July 16, 2021
Depressing story about a new immigrant who bounces from job to job and nearly loses everything and everyone he loves the most. Ultimately a story about love. Set in the late fifties when a good weekly wage was $100!
2021 colour reading challenge-red (ginger)
2021 colour reading challenge-red (ginger)
November 21, 2017
A bit dated after 60 years, but still one of the best depictions of the Irish in Montreal and a very intriguing meditation on masculinities.
September 23, 2025
Not for me I'm afraid.
January 14, 2026
So good. My first Brian Moore book, definitely won't be my last
March 20, 2017
This is the coming-of-age story of a middle-aged man, Ginger Coffey. He is a dreamer whose luck has always been bad, but as the story develops he discovers what is really important in his life.
October 1, 2023
*read for canadian lit course*
a good read but wow i do not like ginger coffey
a good read but wow i do not like ginger coffey
February 14, 2023
Well written, hated, HATED, Ginger Coffey.
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