There are no messers in Heaven - Rated 
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958 and saw his first novel, "The Commitments" published in 1987. It was later adapted for the big screen, a version that saw Star Trek's Colm Meaney and a very young Andrea Corr among the cast. Doyle went on to win the Booker Prize in 1993 with "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha".
The book is set in the 1960s Barrytown, and is told by Paddy Clarke- the eldest child of his family. Although he has a few younger sisters, it's only his younger brother Sinbad who features to any degree. He's a Manchester United supporter, and particularly idolises George Best. His chief hobbies involve playing football, and messing around with his friends on neighbouring farm and nearby building sites.
Sinbad doesn't always get a fair deal from his brother. He cries constantly, wets the bed and as a baby, he once got his head stuck in the bars of his cot. He never smiles in photos and doesn't eat his dinner - something that particularly infuriates his Paddy Sr. Despite wearing glasses with one black lens - to deal with an eye problem - he's a great dribbler on the football pitch. (Paddy and his friends used to make Sinbad be Nobby Stiles when playing football - so he stopped supporting United, and started following Liverpool).
Out of Paddy's friends, he's probably closest to Kevin Conway - though, to be honest, Kevin isn't an entirely likeable kid. James O'Keefe, for the most part, is a good deal more - deapite being, quite possibly, the biggest liar in Barrytown. O'Keefe is hated by their teacher Mister Hennessy - he even gets blamed on making noise in class when he's off sick. (Henno does appear to have a slight vindictive streak in him - in fact, he reminded me a little of a teacher I once had at secondary school). The two most likeable of Paddy's friends, however, are a pair of brothers called Liam and Aidan. The boys' mother is dead, and though their father is trying his best, he seems to be a little lost. The neighbours aren't above gossiping about him and - although they are officially part of the gang - Liam and Aidan are also on the receiving end of a fair few nasty comments. As much as Paddy loves going over to their house, even he's not immune to a touch of snobbery.
The story is told more from a child's point of view rather than by an adult looking back on things. There are some things that raised a smile - the childhood theories about Purgatory, for example - and it even inspired a touch of nostalgia sometimes. However, it's set at a time when not only is Barrytown changing, but Paddy's home life is changing dramatically too. Naturally, Paddy doesn't always understand his parents and the things they say - so it's only gradually, as the frights become more and more frequent, that you come to realise there are problems between Paddy's dad and mum. There's a certain sadness about watching Paddy grow up as the story is told, while the difference between Paddy at the book's beginning and on the book's final couple of pages is tragic. A lovely book, though very sad.
Not his best work - Rated 
I found this book rather hard going to read as it seems to me very disjointed and doesn't flow well. The insights into childhood are great and the dialogue is cracking on the whole but somehow the lack of plot means that the book just doesn't get going. My least favourite of the Barrytown triolgy.
What the child can teach the man... - Rated
The Barrytown trilogy were such fantastic heart warming novels the only question left was how can Roddy Doyle follow this? With hindsight it was obvious; write `Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha'.
Paddy is a ten year old boy growing up on a new housing estate built to accommodate the urban sprawl of Dublin in 1968, this is not really his story but the story of his parents divorce seen from his perspective. The novel is written in the first person by a middle age man who somehow manages to write with all the breathless excitement and wonder of a questioning mind and an uncluttered logic which make the voice totally convincing as a ten year old. The depiction of childhood is so totally convincing it crosses cultural, regional and generation gaps to make the nostalgia for 1960's Ireland to still reverberate with 1980's England and I'm fairly confident that today's' ten year olds will find common themes should they be reading this ten years from now.
This novel was totally inspirational for me on addressing my own past and putting it into context. Paddy Clarke shows us that we are all products of our own past but that it can still be celebrated for what it was.
It restored the word "gick" to my vocabulary - Rated 
Classic Doyle. I've wanted to read this book for over 10 years and I finally got around to it this weekend. It is a superb insight into the mind of a young boy, but it is set in a Dublin that has long since vanished and typically Doyle manages to communicate so much through his dialogue.
The book follows little Paddy Clarke as he reflects on life. He is a kid and so the story jumps for serious to trivial in the space of a paragraph. He is a smart kid though so you end up laughing out loud constantly at the scrapes he gets into. I was once a little boy and the unflinching cruelty that their ignorance can bring out is captured superbly by Doyle. This is no sentimentalising of childhood. Clarke is a little brat at times.
As the novel progresses we get to see a child's eye view of the breakup of a marriage and the effect that this has on the world the protagonist lives in. It is done with real expertise. I have read some reviews that had difficulty with the plot-less-ness of the book, but for me Paddy is the subject. He is a boy who is telling us how things are. Of course he won't be able to impose a plot on events.
Its a typically witty, warm and insightful read from Doyle's Barrytown days. You'll love it.
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - what a book! - Rated
I studied this text for my GCSE Literature exam, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It tells the story of a boy growing up in working class Dublin - the boy's family is central to his existence, yet his parents grow increasingly apart, bickering and fighting steadily. His father eventually strikes his mother and leaves soon after. Meanwhile Paddy grows anxious, loses sleep, deliberately toughens himself and loses his friends... It is remarkable for its authentic "child's eye" view of events. Paddy is extremely observant, has a fantastic vocabulary, and the book is written in a very anecdotal style - all of these things account for a truly exceptional read!
|
