As it is Ramsey rings her anyway and invites her out to dinner. Irina is reluctant but she notes that for the past five years in a row, they’ve seen Ramsey on his birthday and it would seem hurtful to avoid it now. They don’t see him for a year until Lawrence, away at a conference on “nation building” in Sarajevo, rings Irina to remind her to take Ramsey out to dinner for his birthday. Ramsey long outstays his welcome, finally departing at 3am much to Lawrence’s chagrin (Lawrence has a limited social appetite). When Jude and Ramsey split up and so as Ramsey doesn’t think they’ve abandoned him, they have him over to dinner for his birthday. During their foursome dinners, it is he who engages Ramsey, talking snooker constantly. Lawrence has developed a healthy appreciation for the game during this time living in London. Afterwards as Lawrence berates for her for ‘why didn’t you tell me her husband was Ramsey Acton?’ she realises she has seen him on TV when Lawrence has been watching snooker tournaments. Upon first meeting Ramsey, Irina feels a jolt of recognition, although she cannot place him at the time. The couple occasionally form a foursome with the author of one of the books Irina is illustrating Jude and her professional snooker playing husband, Ramsey Acton. Both are American ex-patriots living and working in London, Lawrence at some political, intellectual think tank that seems to deal primarily with terrorism, and Irina as an illustrator of children’s books. The Post-Birthday World is the story of Irina MacGovern, half Russian, who lives with her reliable-but-slightly-boring partner of 9 years, Lawrence. I would resent the pause in reading to ponder a meaning of a word, or the time taken to actually look it up.īut Lionel Shriver, oh how I love your books! Ordinarily, this would probably annoy me. I feel like I need to read these books with a dictionary close by. I’ve read 2 novels by you now and both are bricks, both use language I’ve not heard in customary day-to-day life, in fact both often use words I’ve never even heard of.

The post birthday world