From Publishers Weekly
Judging by his previous novel, The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms, and this new one, Donleavy, most famous for The Ginger Man (it was banned in America in 1955), seems fixated on odd or disagreeable people whose bizarre behavior puts them on society's margins. Here, the antihero is Stephen O'Kelly'O, a Rudolph Valentino look-alike, son of Irish bootleggers, naval veteran and generally oversexed layabout. In post-WWII Manhattan, he meets the very rich Sylvia Triumphington and almost immediately elopes with her. "I should have realized right there and then that I was getting involved with a deeply spoiled bitch," Stephen muses. That might be so, but Sylvia is at least poignantly rendered (she is preoccupied by the fact that she was adopted), and it is a shame that she is not the protagonist. Instead, we see the world through Stephen's eyes?a chore, since the self-styled "composer with artistic sensibilities" is impossible to like or take seriously. Stephen's social commentaries are so jejune they are funny; he uses Marxism as an excuse to avoid finding a job and insouciantly asks Sylvia's adoptive father to sponsor his musical career. But soon Stephen is having it off with Sylvia's adoptive mother, who has some kinky tastes of her own. Like Stephen's character, this novel is a muddle that's lewd without purpose and mean-spirited without irony. In fact, the book's promise ends at its amusing (and misleading) title. Illustrations by Elliott Banfield. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Back from service in World War II, Stephen O'Kelly'O is trying to settle down to his life's work as a composer in New York. While looking for a patron, Stephen is easily distracted by Sylvia, the spoiled and somewhat sadistic daughter of the fabulously wealthy Triumphington family. Stephen and Sylvia marry in haste, but when Sylvia eventually walks out, her mother, Drucilla, seduces Stephen. After Sylvia's death, Drucilla offers to "keep" him as composer and lover. Stephen refuses the offer, steps onto the Staten Island Ferry, and meets the love of his life. Best known for The Gingerman, Donleavy (The Lady Who Liked Clean Rest Rooms, LJ 6/15/97) plays on New York's diversity to craft a story of lives controlled by chance. The chaos that results is somewhat depressing, despite the impression of a happy ending. The illustrations by Ellliot Banfield are entertaining. Recommended for large fiction collections.?Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Watch HillCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Donleavy, author of the controversial Ginger Man (1955) and more recently The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms (1997), tells a good story here--if the reader can tolerate his use of crude language, unremitting focus on the raunchier aspects of sexuality, and his characters' blatant misogyny, not to mention his penchant for unusual grammatical structure. Stephen (a native New York Irishman with the unlikely last name of O'Kelly'O) marries Sylvia shortly after they meet. Why not? He is an ex-navy man recently returned from fighting in World War II and a struggling composer and pianist. She is a young, beautiful dancer, the adopted daughter of an extremely wealthy couple. They're soon in trouble, though, when Sylvia's parents cut off her allowance. Stephen's infidelity and her own anguished search for her birth mother cause Sylvia to flee. Stephen gets himself into some tricky situations that are both volatile and depressing, including an affair with Sylvia's adoptive mother. He is further brought down by his observations of the dehumanizing aspects of city life and acts out in various ways the humiliation and rage that have-nots often feel around the conspicuously wealthy. All the money in the world, however, can't buy Sylvia the one thing that drives her: a connection with her biological mother. O'Kelly'O actually begins to show some character in the face of tragic losses, which makes for a hopeful ending. The distinctive style of Elliot Banfield's illustrations, along with Donleavy's uncanny ability to capture the linguistic cadence of the period, provides an undeniable late '40s feeling. Grace Fill


From Kirkus Reviews
What does a nice Yank lad from the Bronx find in his heart to write about, long years after he's hightailed it to Dublin and set himself up as a full-time Paddy? Why, to be sure, the States themselves, which is where the second chronicle of ``the strangest stories ever to be rumoured around New York'' by Donleavy (The Woman Who Liked Clean Restrooms, 1997, etc.) takes place, across the waves of five decades and the Atlantic both. In the late '40s, when ``people were already beginning to forget that we were veterans. . . and that the government owed us a living,'' young Stephen O'Kelly'O [sic] is beginning to fear that the jig may well be up. After several years in the Navy, Stephen had settled down to academic life under the G.I. Bill, first in the Midwest and later in Italy. Now he's back in New York, trying without much success to make his name as a composer. His first bit of luck is Sylvia. Rich, gorgeous, and oversexed, Sylvia falls for Stephen hard and the two get married. But that's just where their troubles begin: Incensed at the marriage, Sylvia's father cuts off her allowance and disinherits them both. Stephen appeals to her mother, who opens her heart (after a fashion) by seducing Stephen and offering to become his patronessfor a price. When did any of Donleavy's rogues ever object to payment in kind? But Stephen recoils at the idea of servicing a rich woman for money, and turns her down flat. What will become of our hero? With Donleavy, of course, the usual expectations of happy or sad endings don't make much sense, so it's really beyond the point to wonder. Just hang on and enjoy the ride. The old dog is showing signs of age, but his friends will always be glad he's dropped in to say helloeven if their children find him a trifle unkempt and creepy. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Alfonso Stephen O'Kelly'O known as Stephen, son of rumoured former bootleggers, ex-naval gunner, unemployed compuser, student of dairy cattle in Wisconsin and of music in Italy, has little to recommend him as a marriage prospect but his tender heart, his chivalry, and his comprehensive knowledge of the great city of New York. So when the exquisitely pneumatic and extraordinarily wealthy Sylvia Triumphington, adored adoptive heiress to the Triumphington family forture, sets her sights on him, Stephen is caught quite off guard.

Marrying into the Triumphington fortune, Stephen gets more than he bargained for. Sylvia's unexpected taste for rough sex, her obsession with finding her real mother, and her proclivity for spending Stephen's non-exsistent money are enough for him to handle but then there is the arrogant and unpredictable adoptive father and his elegant and insatiable wife, Drusilla, to whom Stephen conspicuously and inconveniently is attracted.

And then, of course, is the wrong information....

Featuring fourteen refined and witty illustrations by Elliot Banfield, the artist whose drawings enhanced the colorful antics of The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms,, Wrong Information is Being Given out at Princeton, is an elegy on passion, a glorious, irreverent, and picaresque journey.



From the Publisher
"There are very few writers who can send a story soaring while being sexy, funny, bilious, and wise. Here is a novel to savor as you would a well-poured stout." --The Sunday Telegraph "Viscerally affecting, a truthful catalog of suffering and exaltation." --Rain Taxi


About the Author
J.P. Donleavy is the author of The Ginger Man and most recently The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms. A Bronx, New York native, he now lives in Dublin Ireland.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Alfonso Stephen O'Kelly, known as Stephen, son of rumored former bootleggers, ex-naval gunner, unemployed composer, student of dairy cattle in Wisconsin and of music in Italy, has little to recommend him as a marriage prospect but his tender heart, his chivalry, and his comprehensive knowledge of the great city of New York. So when the exquisitely pneumatic and extraordinarily wealthy Sylvia Triumphington, adored adoptive heiress to the Triumphington family fortune, sets her sights on him, Stephen is caught quite off guard.

Marrying into the Triumphington fortune, Stephen gets more than he bargained for. Sylvia's unexpected taste for rough sex, her obsession with finding her real mother, and her proclivity for spending Stephen's nonexistent money are enough for him to handle, but then there is the arrogant and unpredictable adoptive father and his elegant and insatiable wife, Drusilla, to whom Stephen conspicuously and inconveniently is attracted.

And then, of course, there is the wrong information....

Featuring fourteen refined and witty illustrations by Elliot Banfield, the artist whose drawings enhanced the colorful antics of The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms, Wrong Information Is Being Given Out at Princeton is an elegy on passion, a glorious, irreverent, and picaresque journey.There are very few writers who can send a story soaring while being sexy, funny, bilious, and wise. Here is a novel to savor as you would a well-poured stout." --The Sunday Telegraph