"Ripley Bogle, a self-proclaimed bum, an excoriating and expectorating Irish expatriate from Belfast, is a Cambridge dropout who, penniless but unbowed, wanders the streets of London. Here lies the mystery of this book: how could anyone of Bogle's prodigious intelligence and powers of perception end up in vagabondage? Chain-smoking his way around London, young Bogle looks to stitch together the pieces of his ragged life - to forgive himself his sins and to find a place of warmth within his own dark thoughts. Life has dealt him a lousy hand and is not to be forgiven - though, in the end, it is to be celebrated."
"Le récit déambulatoire et cocasse d'un clochard que la critique décrit comme "cet aristo de la dèche absolue, ce prince égotiste de la déchéance, ce surdoué du déclin extrême". Un roman attachant en un style fantaisiste très efficace."
"A young man without a future flees Northern Ireland to find that England is no panacea. Although there is less violence and more work, he is among foreigners, they don't like him and he doesn't like them."