The Snapper - Roddy Doyle

...to you live all over the Ciao community, broadcasting the latest news and reviews on all that is good and all that is not so good. So listen up you eejit people to what is coming at you live and unabridged (until the sensors get at it that is).

Yes, we are back with Roddy Doyle and the second book in the Barrytown trilogy, the Snapper. Our dear Jimmy Rabbittee Jr is now trying to be a DJ, having dispensed with the Irish Soul band (see ...
...nonsense and the type of Gibberish in my first paragraph, is what the Rabbittee family have to listen to thumping down from the ceiling.

Yes it is another Roddy Doyle review as you may have guessed I am into this author at the moment and for good reasons, but here is a rundown of the Snapper.


At 4, the plot.

Once again the book is set in working class Dublin and this time the book focuses on Jimmy ... more

Hello there you mad eejits, this is KingHerrod coming to you live all over the Ciao community, broadcasting the latest news and reviews on all that is good and all that is not so good. So listen up you eejit people to what is coming at you live and unabridged (until the sensors get at it that is).

Yes, we are back with Roddy Doyle and the second book in the Barrytown trilogy, the Snapper. Our dear Jimmy Rabbittee Jr is now trying to be a DJ, having dispensed with the Irish Soul band (see the Commitments review, the first Barrytown novel) and all that nonsense and the type of Gibberish in my first paragraph, is what the Rabbittee family have to listen to thumping down from the ceiling.

Yes it is another Roddy Doyle review as you may have guessed I am into this author at the moment and for good reasons, but here is a rundown of the Snapper.

At 4, the plot.

Once again the book is set in working class Dublin and this time the book focuses on Jimmy Rabbittee Sr and his eldest daughter Sharon, who is pregnant and rather worried about how the family will take it. Well the answer is just grand, until the suspicions about the father are taken up, is the father a Spanish Sailor, or is it the fat old Mr Burgess from across the road who runs the junior football team? We as the reader know from the start it is Mr Burgess who had taken advantage of young Sharon when she was rather drunk, in fact it could almost have been rape.

So begins the story of Sharon’s pregnancy and the trials of having an illegitimate baby in Dublin Ireland. Will the whole family be viewed of as shamed? Will Mr Rabbittee Sr accept the course of events and his daughter’s wishes that nobody knows the true identity of the father despite all the finger pointing? Oh yes of course and will Jimmy Rabbittee Jr, become a famous DJ!

The main drive to the book is charting the pregnancy of Sharon, through her own eyes and the eyes of her father and they both have their wobbles, but there are nice sub-plots involving the whole family and the whims of children. Darren, another Rabbitte offspring wants a bike, his twin daughters go through fads like there is no tomorrow and his poor wife Veronica tries to keep the family together.

At 3, the style.

Once again as with the Commitments most of the book is written as dialogue between the main characters and this makes for some very amusing reading, much more so than the Commitments that had me laughing, but this book will have you in stitches.

However, in this book there is far more depth than the Commitments, as we see the thoughts of the young woman who is going to have the illegitimate baby to the scorn of the community and the thoughts of the father whose daughter has been scorned. These aspects of the book are brilliant and bring home how hard it is to go against the norm in a prejudiced community. (Of which all communities are to some extent.)

But what makes the book stand up is the witty interchanges between family members, Jimmy Sr shows his affection by taking the mikey the whole time and this is very funny. Once again Roddy Doyle shows his talent for observing and bringing to life ordinary Irish people, my girlfriends family is Irish and I could just picture her father in the character of Jimmy Sr. This makes the book excellent as you can relate to it and to its characters.

But most of all what makes the book well written is that it is very easy and relaxing to read.

At 2, the message.

Well as with most Roddy Doyle books there is a strong social message to this book that is how a family deals with adversity and how hard it still is in Ireland to have a baby and not marry or even name the father. This serious subject is given a delicate and amusing touch and is dealt with excellently, in fact you would think you were reading a comic book, not one with a serious social message. Doyle seems to be raging at Ireland to try and make it a more tolerant and less rigid society, by showing how a family can deal with these issues sensibly and in fact obtain joy from the birth of the baby. In all the message at the end is, it is a new life, it is loved so why the scorn from the rest of you.

At 1, will you like it?

I think the answer is yes, it is easier to read than most of his books and is much more amusing and makes the Commitments look a poor book, which it is not. If you are looking for a Roddy Doyle book to start with this is the one, easy to read, very very funny and very observant. A great book that you will devour and not realise that you have just read nearly 300 pages.
 

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