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Title: The Van by Roddy Doyle ISBN: 0-14-017191-6 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Arguably The Most Humorous
Comment: I had seen the screen versions of Roddy Doyle's, "The Commitments" and "The Snapper", prior to reading his written work. As I have now experienced his work in both mediums, its as funny on the page as it is on the screen. "The Van" is the last in this trilogy and it definitely focuses on the older of the generations. The movies actually enhanced the book as the actors were spectacular and the memories of their performances kept returning to mind.
The book is almost pure dialogue, and the humor will certainly leave you in pain. The issue of colorful language has been mentioned and while there is no denying its prevalence I don't believe there was any increase in this particular book. When his work is read every word is as clear as the reader's vocabulary, when on screen the accents often rendered dialogue difficult to decipher. The cadence of his writing is so well done, that even when spoken the humor works with a word or two missing, the structure implies the emotion.
Mr. Doyle also wrote, "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors", and this was the previous work of his that I had read. As a writer he has remarkable range as the previous work was dark and violent, and the humor too was black as pitch. It was not just sad it was unsettling. His ability to portray the Human Condition whether bleak or bright, or even with humor when it is all that keeps a character going, in simply brilliant.
If you have not read this man's work or seen the movies I would recommend both formats. His material is great regardless of the medium.
Rating: 3
Summary: I think I'll give the fish & chips a miss
Comment: "The Van" is the third and final part of Roddy Doyle's "Barrytown Trilogy", following "The Commitments" and "The Snapper", and it's the best of the three.
Jimmy Rabbitte Sr and his friend Bimbo live in Dublin and are unemployed. They hit upon the idea of starting up a business selling burgers and fish and chips out of a dilapidated van in order to beat (or rather supplement) their dependence on state benefits. How will their entrepreneurial venture turn out?
Doyle's dip into working class life in Barrytown is great if you can cope with the patois, and if you are into the humour: there's much in "The Van" to raise a laugh, but I felt that the dialogue only sparked intermittently. Be warned: the descriptions of food preparation in the van could I suppose turn stomachs, and confirmed my darkest suspicions about mobile fast food joints.
I suppose a case could be made that beneath all the ribaldry, Doyle is saying something more profound about the desperate lives of the unemployed and/or their resilience - the fact that Jimmy Sr's son Darren is doing well at school and appears to have something of a future is a near miracle given his background. This can be contrasted with darker parts of the novel in which a violent, disaffected, hopeless youth "culture" is exposed.
At least one other reviewer has commented that "The Van" is more of a film script than a novel. It can read that way, but so did its predecessors. But because it's so heavily dependent upon dialogue, that dialogue has to be very strong, witty or compelling throughout: too heavy a burden to carry at times. There were patches of the novel where I felt I was just coasting through the pages, with nothing really happening in the plot, awaiting the next incident which would attract my interest.
It's all entertaining enough in an uninvolving sort of way, but it wouldn't make me go out of my way to read more of Doyle's stuff.
G Rodgers
Rating: 1
Summary: Corny
Comment: The Van is one of those books disguised as fiction but is actually a potboiler. The characters are unimpressive and the plot is filled with one clichéd situation after another. The third person narrative is unsuccessful because it doesn't have enough emotional impact. The lack of quotation marks makes it a very frustrating read. The prose resembles a screenplay with pages of dialogues interspersed with descriptions. The Irish dialect is tough to understand. I did start to enjoy it during the last few pages, but it wasn't worth to reread the book again. If you're interested in Irish fiction, skip this and read Dubliners by James Joyce.
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Title: The Snapper by Roddy Doyle ISBN: 0140171673 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Commitments by Roddy Doyle ISBN: 0679721746 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 July, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle ISBN: 0140233903 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle ISBN: 0140255125 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: By the Lake by John McGahern ISBN: 0679744029 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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