The Free and Easy

Anne Haverty

An entertaining view of the lives and the (legal and not-so-legal) comings and goings of the rich and famous in the new boom-economy Ireland. Tom's innocence as he tries to 'save' the country is a device that may grate at first but it's more than worth it for the sharp and funny insights into the pretensions of arts, heritage and nightlife culture.

Extract

Without undue modesty Dol informed him that she was a key figure in the art world. Programme director of the Irish Gallery of European Art, or IGEA - 'just down the road'. She gestured towards the Georgian streets running east of the hotel. 'We're preparing a retrospective of the Seventies movement, Neue Merz. It's going to be big. Gibbon Fitzgibbon is sponsoring it.'
She uttered the words 'Gibbon Fitzgibbon' with an offhandedness that seemed to lend them a contradictory significance. Leaning towards Tom with the air of imparting a secret, she murmured, 'tax shelter'.

Parallels