Oh boy, the string of bad decisions begins - let's run away at 15 and join the army due to an obvious scam to get young boys to come in as drummers. All because he can't see his mother is a human being and not just his mother. Here it comes.

Mr. Narrator reveille = REV-a-lee not re-VAL-ee. Just so you know. Oh and Concord, Massachusetts isn't Con-Corde like the plane. Never has been.

And now he's taken a loan on his earnings from a book that was published by a swindler. I mean...duh. He's not a "rich man" he's one with a very big debt. Dumbass.

Ok, so now he's trying to turn his latest paramour into his former. Big mistake. And of course it can't be kept a secret forever. Busted.

While similar to his previous books in the 'fake autobiography' mode, this one reads more like a novel as it is not largely created as a journal or diary. There are some letters, but the 3rd person perspective helps distinguish it from his other books.

Also, Cashel is less self-obsessed and horny than other male leads Boyd has produced. Despite his inability to make a good decision for himself, he makes a couple that involve crime and other people that are good and on the side of right. I was very worried that toward the end his final meeting with R was just a set up, but it wasn't and the real end came soon enough. He went in circumstances that were not too bad, doing what he always did and it was quick. ( )

Cashel Greville Ross's life pretty much covers the 19th century, from his birth in Ireland in 1799, to his death some 83 years later. And what a life. His complicated family circumstances make him a soldier at Waterloo, take him to London, to Italy where he meets the Romantic poets Shelley and Byron, and later, the love of his life, with whom he is destined not to spend his life. His travels, his adventures go on in Europe, America and Africa. He's a writer too, cataloguing his experiences - that's how we know so much about him (nudge, wink. The book is full of playful asides and footnotes). As at Waterloo, and in Italy, Cashel finds himself a footnote in history, so it continues throughout his long life. In some ways a life of achievement, in other ways, a life which laves little behind as his memorial. Tis is the paradox Boyd explores throughout the book, which is a thoroughly involving tale with much to reflect upon in the reading. ( )

A well named novel from a popular and very talented author. This tracks the life story of a provincial Irishman making his way through a 19th century world and the social moors and difficulties of that age. A common thread throughout the whole of the book is a very Tepid approach to emotional relationships. Indeed, it is towards the end of the understands that this emotional disconnect may well have been the guiding factor with regards to the difficulties in his life. This is all doom and gloom though and he’s various romances as well as his deep friendships with People around him, really does justify his title as the romantic. Well worth reading and will stay with the reader long after it is finished. ( )

Great fun, rollicking journey through a man's life and the twists and turns he puts himself through, by virtue of stubborness and the demands of his heart and conscience. Echoes of Barry Lyndon and Patrick O'Brien. Very occasionally some annoying anachronisms: an army physician laments a regiment plagued by "the pox, herpes, syphilis, pubic lice and crabs". Two of these are synonyms of the other two, and herpes wasn't recognised as an STI until 60 years later. BUT this is rank carping, and I read the entire thing in one sitting during a long international flight. ( )

Retracing the life of Cashel from growing up in Ireland to school in England, war veteran and business entrepreneur in Europe, America and Africa, the novel spins a web of romance with an Italian countess, then marriage to an American with post partum depression, and various business liaisons in the 19th century. A page turner from cover to cover. ( )