Welcome to the life of Alexander Vespucci: Irishman, economist, drifter in life, admirer of women. He suffers from in situ dislocation and longs to flee, but can manage to do so only in fantasy. Alexander's friends, his family, his girlfriend — everyone seems to find him a bit odd. And he isn't entirely in sympathy with them either.
But Alexander is on to something. He has a facility for seeing beauty, truths. He notices being. He comprehends motion and ambiguity. When the Taoiseach shakes his hand and congratulates him on a job well done, Alexander appears to be sinking into ignominous failure. But maybe that is also OK. Perhaps failure is a portal to something bigger.
Set during the pinnacle of the bubble in Dublin, Being Alexander is a book about life, about knowing and noticing things and a satire of Irish society at the height of Celtic Tiger madness.
