The Book Depository The Guts by Roddy Doyle
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Price: £9.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: The Guts : Paperback : Vintage Publishing : 9780099587132 : : 26 Jun 2014 : Longlisted for the 2015 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Jimmy Rabbitte is back. The man who invented the Commitments back in the eighties is now forty-seven, with a loving wife, four kids. He isn't dying, he thinks, but he might be. Jimmy still loves his music, and he still loves to hustle. The Book Depository The Guts by Roddy Doyle - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780099587132
MPN: 9780099587132
GTIN: 9780099587132
Author: Clady Lad
Rating: 5
Review: Once again Roddy Doyle hits the nail on the head with a pitch-perfect story beautifully told and written in his inimitably masterful style. A tale light on lingering descriptions but one so superbly dialogue-driven that it effortlessly captures Dublin in all its wonderfully irreverent yet caring perfection. Doyle's ear for the authenticity of dialogue is on a par with that of Flann O'Brien's and leaps from the page as if the reader is eavesdropping on real-life conversations. His skill to be able to steer the narrative in this way makes the pace relentless and gripping. To visit the Rabbittes after all this time is like dropping in on old friends who are essentially unchanged in many ways. The sharp wit, endless banter and bad language are still there in spades, however now that Jimmy Jnr. is middle-aged and fighting bowel cancer, it serves to strike a chord with the Barrytown trilogy's original readership that none of us are immortal, or indeed immune to the ravages of time or the omnipresent life-threatening serious health problems we all face as the Grim Reaper sharpens his scythe. Roddy Doyle is my favourite contemporary writer and this tremendous book only serves to enhance my view of his work. Dark, light, funny and poignant, The Guts has it all.
Author: Roger Risborough
Rating: 2
Review: So Jimmy Rabbitte is back after more than twenty years, trying to artificially resuscitate the careers of Irish bands that weren't very big the first time round. So Roddy Doyle is back more than twenty years after The Commitments, trying to artificially resuscitate his literary career with two of the oldest tricks in the book (world), ie revisiting old characters (as described) and playing the cancer card (not once, but three times, just to make absolutely sure). It's 2012, and with Ireland still on its knees economically, James Rabbitte is on his back (a lot of the time) due to infirmity (bowel cancer) and infidelity (Imelda Quirke), but this doesn't stop his constant efforts to come out on top in whatever life (or his barrel-scraping creator) is throwing at him. This is a book without chapters (you can hear the editorial discussion: "hey, real life just doesn't break down into neat chapters!"), and one that tries far too hard to create natural streams of dialogue. "Natural dialogue, mi hole" as Jimmy might say . . . this is laziness dressed up as naturalism, without any sense of direction, crafting, nuance or depth, and at times it's just plain incomprehensible and indegestible. Pass me the Alka Seltzer someone.
