"[1]: 27–28  In the late 1960s, the Irish government passed legislation permitting foreign writers, composers, and artists to live in Ireland without being subject to local income tax.

[1]: 31 Much of the book is devoted to his purchase and excruciatingly long and expensive restoration of the country house, with many incidents about incompetent plumbers, electricians, and other trades people, all directed by a fictional "Capo" invented by Condon as a humorous device.

How to tell a Rolls Royce from a Mercedes),[1]: xii  and there are frequent asides and anecdotes about food and its preparation in various cultures, as well as about some of Condon's books, particularly his first one, The Oldest Confession, and his most famous one, The Manchurian Candidate.

"[1]: 147 ...The idea of masterpieces of Spanish painting hanging in stone castles all over Spain, high and invisible in the darkness, stayed with me and gradually formed itself into a novel called The Oldest Confession, which got me over the wall to freedom and got us off the high road to high-style, free-lance emigrating.Back in New York, Condon began turning his initial concept into a screenplay—until his wife pointed out, correctly, that he was writing it in the past tense instead of the present, which is obligatory for screenplays, and that it should be turned into a novel.

[1]: 150 In contrast to most of Rossenarra, which is distinctly flip in manner, some of Condon's comments in Chapter 19 about the supposed similarities between the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and his The Manchurian Candidate, which had been published three years before the murder, are both heartfelt and bitter in their assessment of the American character.

"[1]: 14–15 Disney stared at me the way Eleanor Roosevelt would have looked at Heinrich Himmler... his face gone white and haggard... so shocked that his lower lip bobbled... "It's like you were working for Metro and you tied up three of their biggest stars with National Embalming Week"...