Perpetual Comedown by Declan Toohey
As a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Darren Walton is trying to decode an elaborate conspiracy he stumbled across as an undergraduate. To do so he must locate an alternate Ireland named Camland, the existence of which is proven when he discovers a literary journal whose contents mirror his own past. With proof of his wild theories, Darren is sure academic fame is imminent. But for this he is willing to sacrifice not just his sanity and physical safety, but also his relationships with the ones who love him most.
In breathless prose, Declan Toohey weaves a contemporary yarn of academic intrigue and youthful irreverence, sexual fluidity and neurodiversity. Experimental, trippy, hilarious, compassionate, Perpetual Comedown is a riotous reckoning in the construction of the self.
As a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Darren Walton is trying to decode an elaborate conspiracy he stumbled across as an undergraduate. To do so he must locate an alternate Ireland named Camland, the existence of which is proven when he discovers a literary journal whose contents mirror his own past. With proof of his wild theories, Darren is sure academic fame is imminent. But for this he is willing to sacrifice not just his sanity and physical safety, but also his relationships with the ones who love him most.
In breathless prose, Declan Toohey weaves a contemporary yarn of academic intrigue and youthful irreverence, sexual fluidity and neurodiversity. Experimental, trippy, hilarious, compassionate, Perpetual Comedown is a riotous reckoning in the construction of the self.
As a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Darren Walton is trying to decode an elaborate conspiracy he stumbled across as an undergraduate. To do so he must locate an alternate Ireland named Camland, the existence of which is proven when he discovers a literary journal whose contents mirror his own past. With proof of his wild theories, Darren is sure academic fame is imminent. But for this he is willing to sacrifice not just his sanity and physical safety, but also his relationships with the ones who love him most.
In breathless prose, Declan Toohey weaves a contemporary yarn of academic intrigue and youthful irreverence, sexual fluidity and neurodiversity. Experimental, trippy, hilarious, compassionate, Perpetual Comedown is a riotous reckoning in the construction of the self.
About the Author
Declan Toohey was born in Scotland and grew up in County Kildare. His fiction has been published in Soft Punk, Channel, and the anthology Queer Love, among other outlets. In 2021 he was a co-winner of the IWC Novel Fair, and in 2022 he won the Maeve Binchy Travel Award and received an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. More recently, he graduated from University College Dublin with an MFA in Fiction.
Praise for Perpetual Comedown
Declan Toohey is a little genius.
— Anne Enright
Declan Toohey writes with lapel-grabbing flair and wit, and Perpetual Comedown fizzes with narrative invention, literary intrigue and esoteric mayhem. As contemporary Irish novels go, it’s out there in its own wild, fearless place.
— Rob Doyle
I finished Perpetual Comedown last night. Such a surprising book; it reveals its secrets slowly, so what seems first to be a work in the great tradition of Irish surrealism actually becomes something real, and genuinely affecting. Through the hijinks, the satire and the fun poked at academia and literature comes heart-breaking humanity: love, loss, fear and fragility. The result is a novel that’s wild, beautiful, and poignant.
— Lisa McInerney
Publisher: New Island Books
Date Published: 13 February 2023
Paperback, 256 pgs.
ISBN: 9781848408487
