Name: Sarah Chauvidon's review of Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Item: Exciting Times
Rating: 1
Author: Sarah Chauvidon

Naoise Dolan

This debut novel about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong is half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living-and guaranteed to please." -Vogue A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM: The New York Times Book Review * Vogue * TIME * Marie Claire * Elle * O, the Oprah Magazine * The Washington Post * Esquire * Harper's Bazaar * Bustle * PopSugar * Refinery 29 * LitHub * DebutifulAn intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyerAva, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children.Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than "I like you a great deal."Enter Edith. A Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her-and wants her. And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith?Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life-and announces herself as a singular new voice.

Exciting Times

An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer Ava moved to Hong Kong to find happiness, but so far, it isn't working out. Since she left Dublin, she's been spending her days teaching English to rich children--she's been assigned the grammar classes because she lacks warmth--and her nights avoiding petulant roommates in her cramped apartment. When Ava befriends Julian, a witty British banker, he offers a shortcut into a lavish life her meager salary could never allow. Ignoring her feminist leanings and her better instincts, Ava finds herself moving into Julian's apartment, letting him buy her clothes, and, eventually, striking up a sexual relationship with him. When Julian's job takes him back to London, she stays put, unsure where their relationship stands. Enter Edith. A Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her--and wants her. Ava has been carefully pretending that Julian is nothing more than an absentee roommate, so when Julian announces that he's returning to Hong Kong, she faces a fork in the road. Should she return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life--and announces herself as a singular new voice.

A Novel

Gisselle Vazquez

he enables this perception of yourself as a detached person. Plenty of people are willing to ofer you intimacy. That terrifies you. You prefer feeling like no one will ever love you."

i'm still not entirely sure you're not the guy in american psycho 

 "You keep describing yourself as this uniquely damaged person, when a lot of it is completely normal. I think you want to feel special-which is fair, who doesn't but you won't allow yourself to feel special in a good way, so you tell yourself you're especially bad."

I wanted to say she didn’t know him like I did. That was a textbook claim women made about men we'd regret

 The more I imagined things, the more personal they felt. 

You had to pretend to feel sad if you'd been single too Iong. I hated doing that because there were other things I was actually sad about.

 I wanted other people to care more about me than I did about them.

avarni

“I wanted to explain to Edith: that holding Julian’s hand was like holding a museum pass, and holding hers was like holding a grenade. But that didn’t make sense even in my head, so I knew it wouldn’t if I tried to say it aloud. And she didn’t want to hold hands either, so it never came up.”

abi a

 It had never made sense to me that men thought women they'd had sex with would like to hear them be unkind about other women they'd had sex with. You would have to be a raging egomaniac, I thought, to think those men didn't also speak about you that way.

“Everyone does that, Ava," she said. “You keep describing yourself as this uniquely damaged person, when a lot of it is completely normal. I think you want to feel special--which is fair, who doesn't-but you won't allow yourself to feel special in a good way, so you tell yourself you're especially bad."

The trouble with my body was that I had to carry it around with me.

You could go manless entirely, and I saw a great deal of elegance in that approach, but enough people felt otherwise that I thought it best to have one. You had to pretend to feel sad if you'd been single too long. I hated doing that because there were other things I was actually sad about.

We'd known each other about two months, and in total I'd spent perhaps thirty hours in his company-little more than a day. But I was in the habit of thinking he was a habit.

Julia Briganti

Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children.Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than 'I like you a great deal'.Enter Edith, a lawyer. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava to the theatre when Julian leaves Hong Kong for work. Quickly, she becomes something Ava looks forward to.And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith?Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, EXCITING TIMES is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life-and announces herself as a singular new voice.

sina (she/her) 

'The book of the summer ... Kept me rapt until the final page' THE TIMES 'A sharp, smart, witty modern love story. I loved it' David Nicholls, author of ONE DAY 'More than lives up to the hype ... Likely to fill the Sally-Rooney-shaped hole in many readers' lives' IRISH TIMES 'Droll, shrewd and unafraid - a winning debut' Hilary Mantel, author of WOLF HALL 'I've been pushing Exciting Times on everyone I know. Some of Dolan's pithy observations of her characters are the best I've read since Edward St Aubyn' OBSERVER 'A frankly sensational book' Pandora Sykes on THE HIGH LOW 'In the tradition of Dorothy Parker, Joan Rivers and Nora Ephron ... I found myself purring with pleasure. ...This is comic writing at the highest level' Craig Brown, DAILY MAIL When you leave Ireland aged 22 to spend your parents' money, it's called a gap year. When Ava leaves Ireland aged 22 to make her own money, she's not sure what to call it, but it involves: - a badly-paid job in Hong Kong, teaching English grammar to rich children; - Julian, who likes to spend money on Ava and lets her move into his guest room; - Edith, who Ava meets while Julian is out of town and actually listens to her when she talks; - money, love, cynicism, unspoken feelings and unlikely connections. Exciting times ensue.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2020

Mari-Claire Parrin

Ashley

Did not finish. I really did not gel with this book. I found the plot & the characters uninteresting. I think younger audience may enjoy it more.

Sarah Chauvidon

I’m a little conflicted on how to rate this book. I enjoyed it as an audiobook to have on in the background but I don’t think I would have been able to stand reading a physical copy. It’s not that it was a bad book; I just found the main character unlikeable in a boring way (I don’t mind an ‘unlikeable’ protagonist as long as they’re interesting). All in all, it was a fine read, but it wasn’t very memorable and I doubt I’ll return to it. I can’t tell if that’s because it was poorly written or if I’m just not the target audience for this type of mopey 20 year old litfic.

Cloudface

emelia grace ilgner

fast, fun read. not exciting in the least.

Ryan Mateyk

It's been said before but I'll say it again: exciting times these are not! But I'm feeling generous so take 2.5 stars, a passing grade.

Initially I was charmed by Ava, the 22-yr old definitive millenial who moves to Hong Kong to teach English. She was snarky and whip-smart. She soon meets Julian, a rich banker from England. They start talking about politics a lot, and communism and socialism and Marxism (what is Marxism) and many other -isms, and Ava's light dims, as in she gets boring, as she moves in with Julian and starts sleeping with him casually. Julian goes away, Edith comes in, a lawyer Ava's age from Hong Kong, and her light starts to glow again. Energy, excitement (okay I guess I lied when I said exciting times these are not but they mostly weren't), lesbian sexual tension! Ava and Edith fall in love, talk about politics some more (seriously, what is Marxism and why is everyone obsessed with it!!!), but then Ava's light turns into a strobe, as in, she becomes really annoying and kind of unbearable.

I didn't completely hate this. I often found myself sympathising with Ava; she's young, aimless, trying to find her purpose, which I get. But she was very selfish and completely blind to her privilege as a young, white, uber-rich-by-proxy woman who seemed wholly preoccupied with how she could best fuck over her "friends." I guess she was also preoccupied with making sure to name drop every street in Hong Kong and what businesses resided on them (shoutout Caine Road Starbucks!), but I digress.

I understand characters don't always need to be likeable but it helps and she was not likeable and nobody was likeable other than like maybe her mom, she sounded nice, but anyways next please.

Louisa

Ι REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT ENDED THE WAY IT DID BUT OK I STILL LOVE IT

** spoiler alert **
           i would never fumble edith like that

Allison Dempsey

Sally Rooney-esque, but not quite hitting the mark for me.

"This debut novel about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong is half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living--and guaranteed to please." --Vogue A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM: The New York Times Book Review * Vogue * TIME * Marie Claire * Elle * O, the Oprah Magazine * Esquire * Harper's Bazaar * Bustle * PopSugar * Refinery 29 * LitHub * Debutiful An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than "I like you a great deal." Enter Edith. A Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her--and wants her. And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life--and announces herself as a singular new voice.

Bruh, I don’t like Ava. My impression of her after finishing this book: she is an asshole, yet she’s proud to be of it sometime? Like, wtf?

I was actually excited at the beginning, expecting a great plot and twist and some spices here and there. Yet, that’s just … it. I’m actually disappointed, now that I’ve read it completely.

Those times are not exciting. Annoying, definitely.

Someone from Goodreads said their friend pointed out that the book doesn’t need to be set in Hong Kong. I AGREE! Like, come on, the world in the book just involves Ava, Julian, Edith (she appears even later in the book), Julian’s parents, Ava’s parents, Ava’s white friends, Julian’s white friends, Edith’s family (HER MOM SPECIFICALLY), and only TWO OF EDITH’S FRIENDS. Naoise Dolan could’ve chosen any other place around the world, not even necessarily in Asia, and the story would’ve been THE SAME.

Though I’m not a Hongkonger, I think I could give my two cents as an Asian. Honestly, this makes me even hate white people more LMAO. Like, honey, are you fucking serious? The cultures shown between Ava and Julian and other white people (honestly) are just ANNOYING (now I’ve said this word twice). Also, Ava, if you don’t wanna live and teach in Hong Kong, just move out, you know? 

Anyway, again, I’m disappointed. I already expected things from this book, and so surprised when it turned out like ... that. I only enjoyed some of the moments that happened between Ava and Edith (not even all of them). 2.5/5.

Dist

Bruh, I don’t like Ava. My impression of her after finishing this book: she is an asshole, yet she’s proud to be of it sometime? Like, wtf?

I was actually excited at the beginning, expecting a great plot and twist and some spices here and there. Yet, that’s just … it. I’m actually disappointed, now that I’ve read it completely.

Those times are not exciting. Annoying, definitely.

Someone from Goodreads said their friend pointed out that the book doesn’t need to be set in Hong Kong. I AGREE! Like, come on, the world in the book just involves Ava, Julian, Edith (she appears even later in the book), Julian’s parents, Ava’s parents, Ava’s white friends, Julian’s white friends, Edith’s family (HER MOM SPECIFICALLY), and only TWO OF EDITH’S FRIENDS. Naoise Dolan could’ve chosen any other place around the world, not even necessarily in Asia, and the story would’ve been THE SAME.

Though I’m not a Hongkonger, I think I could give my two cents as an Asian. Honestly, this makes me even hate white people more LMAO. Like, honey, are you fucking serious? The cultures shown between Ava and Julian and other white people (honestly) are just ANNOYING (now I’ve said this word twice). Also, Ava, if you don’t wanna live and teach in Hong Kong, just move out, you know? 

Anyway, again, I’m disappointed. I already expected things from this book, and so surprised when it turned out like ... that. I only enjoyed some of the moments that happened between Ava and Edith (not even all of them). 2.5/5.

Keely Calagos

Tiresome and underwhelming.

Skip this one and read Snowflake by Louise Nealon instead.

azliana aziz

Shaz

I love her writings style so much. But I dare to say I hate the plot.

Refreshingly honest and frustrating at the same time.

Molly Bridge

Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than 'I like you a great deal'. Enter Edith, a lawyer. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava to the theatre when Julian leaves Hong Kong for work. Quickly, she becomes something Ava looks forward to. And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life-and announces herself as a singular new voice.

Caroline

This book albeit Rooney-esque and the characters insufferable dickheads at times, did tickle my fancy. I liked the prose and overwroughtness (unsure if word). 

The certain world of Hong Kong that was illustrated made me feel close to my best friend who spent time there as a beb twenty. I liked imagining we were Ava’s two flatmates who rolled their eyes at her ongoing apathy and unenthusiastic nature to life.

Loved this book! Found Ava very relatable at times, even when I found her frustrating. 

Loved her use of language and Hiberno-English and it’s quirks in contrast to “proper” English. 

Aoife Whelan

Loved this book! Found Ava very relatable at times, even when I found her frustrating. 

Loved her use of language and Hiberno-English and it’s quirks in contrast to “proper” English. 

Imogen west

Funny social commentary but quiet slow, no real growth character wise.

Irene Laochaisri

Gorgeous. So entertaining and sensual, with room for touching honest moments with our protagonists. A modern love story that does not overpromise romance and happy endings. Look forward to re-reading one day.

Lynn

Loved this, had me clung to the pages, witty, ironic, serious with a flair of carelessness. However, as open endings are not my preference, it left me a little frustrated. So be warned. Also I wanted to note this book does contain casual racism and strongly focuses on (white) privilege. It does point out its prevalence, but I wanted to include this as this can be a turnoff for some readers.

I thought Julian was boring. I loved Edith. And Julian and Edith just made me mad. I can’t believe you don’t find out if Edith and Ava get back together. I think they did, I’m choosing to believe in it. I don’t know what on earth that last chapter was about

Maria Davis 

tina

Maria Otero

ava was a insufferable character however very relatable which made me hate her. very sally rooney esq and i felt stupid reading it because i’m an american reading about european people with rich white people problems but it was good. very thought provoking in ways 

i read this while on holiday, because someone else had a paperback copy, and i am easily intrigued. it's a suitable beach read, but that's it really. the characters were quite boring (julien was the most interesting character just because he wasn't supposed to be a "cool relatable millennial") and the plot was very slice-of-life predictable. one of my least favourite books of 2021 (although i am usually excellent at picking books i know i'll like, so grain of salt.) the bisexuality is its most redeeming feature. 

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Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

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