On Their Manor

Set at an elite liberal arts college in a Western Massachusetts university town, picaresque On Their Manor depicts the experiences over the course of a fall semester of Mick McNulty, an assertive working-class Londoner of Irish parentage, member of the soccer team. McNulty challenges breezy, underachieving teammates who regard soccer as a trapping of suburban life, an expression of hipster correctitude. Prominent in the novel is the development of the friendship between McNulty and his roommate and teammate, Brendan Kelleher, a refined, mildly depressive New Englander who obsesses over the ironies of the new multiculturalism and the Irish-American experience. Far from another sanguine tribute to "The Beautiful Game," On Their Manor addresses the conflict surrounding soccer and the sport's role in the American culture war. Accounts of McNulty's impatience with the affectations of teammates, opponents, and observers, introduce readers, especially those drawn to the novel for its humor and boldness, to soccer's less celebrated gritty side and to a concept of leadership born of uncompromising London swagger and Irish intensity.