Further subtitled ""In which Richard Condon Advises, Comforts, and Confesses, what he's been doing for 19 years in 7 countries; what he ate, where he stayed, whom he met, and how he survived -- Learn from his mistakes, benefit from his clues -- And, finally, how a good American family had the temerity to buy and restore a country house in Ireland and, even so, live happily ever after."" That is, Gentle Reader, in the manner of picaresque saint, Condon, popular novelist (The Manchurian Candidate, The Vertical Smile, Arigato, etc.), conducts a sprightly foray into autobiography, including not only Himself but a wife, two daughters, and one ""aristocratic dachshund,"" beginning in the year 1953, the time when ""General Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles shared a desk at the White House, sending little Dick Nixon out for coffee,"" and ending with a fair tumultuous architectural project in County Kilkenny, the dream of every man jack one of us with a drop of the leprechaun in his veins. It's that sort of adventure -- gloriously personal, infectiously giddy, and downright likable.