The Snapper
July 3rd 2006 03:57
The Snapper is Roddy Doyle's second book, and a damn fine one too. If you're looking for an easy read that will probably actually make you laugh out loud, then this is it.
The Snapper centres on the Rabbitte family (first introduced to us in Doyle's first book, 'The Comittments'), a typically Irish working-class bunch who live in the suburb of Barrytown, in Dublin. The eldest daughter of the family, 19 year-old Sharon, discovers she's up the duff and about to have a baby (or a snapper, if you speak the local language). She won't tell anyone who the father is, not even her friends, and it's her bluff and course Dad who becomes her saviour in what would otherwise be a troubled time.
Despite the subject matter - unwed teenage pregnancy in close-knit community - it's surprisingly light-hearted and not bleak in the slightest (though it doesn't sugarcoat anything and remains realistic right through to the end). The book's biggest strong point is in the character of Jimmy Rabbitte Sr, the hero of the piece, who would have to go down as one of the most engaging and loveable aresholes to ever grace the written page.
Like Doyle's previous book, The Snapper is pretty much all dialogue. There is a little bit more internal prose but it still remains very much a study in conversational language, and every line of dialogue is an absolute joy to behold. I read this book in the space of a few hours whilst on holidays, I didn't want to put it down - it strikes me as the kind of book I could re-read again and again.
So if you're looking for an uplifting but realistic comedy that doesn't sentimentalise life and is never boring, this is the book for you. And whilst it's the second book in Doyle's 'Barrytown trilogy' you don't actually have to have read the previous book, 'The Comittments'. The lead characters in The Snapper barely feature in 'The Comittments'. So go grab a copy!
The Snapper
The Snapper centres on the Rabbitte family (first introduced to us in Doyle's first book, 'The Comittments'), a typically Irish working-class bunch who live in the suburb of Barrytown, in Dublin. The eldest daughter of the family, 19 year-old Sharon, discovers she's up the duff and about to have a baby (or a snapper, if you speak the local language). She won't tell anyone who the father is, not even her friends, and it's her bluff and course Dad who becomes her saviour in what would otherwise be a troubled time.
Despite the subject matter - unwed teenage pregnancy in close-knit community - it's surprisingly light-hearted and not bleak in the slightest (though it doesn't sugarcoat anything and remains realistic right through to the end). The book's biggest strong point is in the character of Jimmy Rabbitte Sr, the hero of the piece, who would have to go down as one of the most engaging and loveable aresholes to ever grace the written page.
Like Doyle's previous book, The Snapper is pretty much all dialogue. There is a little bit more internal prose but it still remains very much a study in conversational language, and every line of dialogue is an absolute joy to behold. I read this book in the space of a few hours whilst on holidays, I didn't want to put it down - it strikes me as the kind of book I could re-read again and again.
So if you're looking for an uplifting but realistic comedy that doesn't sentimentalise life and is never boring, this is the book for you. And whilst it's the second book in Doyle's 'Barrytown trilogy' you don't actually have to have read the previous book, 'The Comittments'. The lead characters in The Snapper barely feature in 'The Comittments'. So go grab a copy!
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