Book review: Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession

Leonard and Hungry Paul - Rónán Hession (Melville House Publishing, $37.00)

Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books

As booksellers, we sometimes struggle to fulfil the request for a 'gentle book where nothing awful happens'. That quandary ended when I read this book.

Leonard has lived with his mother well into his 30s. They get along well, they're friends, they're companionable. When his mother dies, Leonard is lonely and rather bereft.

He visits his best friend, Hungry Paul, a man also in his 30s who lives with his parents, keeps Mondays free in case the post office needs a relief worker and spends much of his time in content silence and contemplation.

Hungry Paul's mother worries about him and his sister Grace, high achieving and furiously organised, fervently wishes he could get his act together and do some stuff.

So what happens to Leonard and Hungry Paul? Well, they play many board games, depending on energy levels and mood. Leonard meets a woman who shows some interest in him and he struggles to find the balance between being himself and being who he thinks she wants him to be.

Hungry Paul takes up judo and is a finalist in a lucrative competition. Grace is planning her wedding (to the exhausting nth degree) and has deep, long telephone conversations with her mother.

All of these everyday happenings will have gently life changing consequences for Leonard and his best friend, Hungry Paul.

The beauty of this book is its good naturedness. Leonard and Hungry Paul are reserved, eccentric and even odd in the eyes of a fast, modern, social media obsessed society.

Their conversations, and the way in which they view the world, are left field, genuinely hilarious and absolutely riveting. To be in the room with them when a game of Scrabble is occurring, or a philosophical discussion meandering, would be sublime.

Things happen, gently. Will Grace's wedding come off all right? What will Hungry Paul do if he wins the competition? How will Leonard negotiate his love life?

We are prodded into understanding that there are many ways in which to be a whole, successful person, and many ways in which to measure that success. Leonard and Hungry Paul is a beautiful book: quiet, kind, funny and, consequently, soothing.