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Editorial Review:
In Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, an Irish lad named Paddy rampages through the streets of Barrytown with a pack of like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys and Indians, etching their names in wet concrete and setting fires. Roddy Doyle has captured the sensations and speech patterns of preadolescents with consummate skill, and managed to do so without resorting to sentimentality. Paddy Clarke and his friends are not bad boys; they're just a little bit restless. They're always taking sides, bullying each other and secretly wishing they didn't have to. All they want is for something--anything--to happen.
Throughout the novel, Paddy teeters on the nervous verge of adolescence. In one scene, Paddy tries to make his little brother's hot water bottle explode, but gives up after stomping on it just one time: "I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I didn't do it again. Sometimes when nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen." Paddy Clarke senses that his world is about to change forever--and not necessarily for the better. When he realizes that his parents' marriage is falling apart, Paddy stays up all night listening, half-believing that his vigil will ward off further fighting. It doesn't work, but it is sweet and sad that he believes it might. Paddy's logic may be fuzzy, but his heart is in the right place. --Jill Marquis
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A worthy winner of the 1993 Booker Prize My Mum is a born and bred Dubliner and having lived through the same generation as Roddy Doyle who himself was born in Dublin the pulls to read Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" were too strong and too curious for me to ignore. Doyle comes with a reputation of masterfully describing the Irish - when I completed the book I could only concur that such hype was entirely justified. It must be said though that an Irish background is not essential for such a read (although it might help you understand some of... more info
A tragi-comedy from 1960s Ireland Written from a ten-year-old's perspective, this book will remind anyone of the fun, the pains and the misunderstandings of growing up. The star of the book is constantly asking "why", but gets no answers to find out what makes these strange adults behave as they do. Set in poorest Dublin, the adult characters struggle to make a life for themselves, while their children celebrate in the adventures of "messin". The black comedy finds highs in childhood, but eventually reflects on the challenge to sustain... more info
There are no messers in Heaven 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... more info
Not his best work 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.
