Goodreads Ireland discussion

I moved this post from the original thread, after mistakenly thinking that there weren't going to be spoiler threads this month, after a conversation in the nominations thread. :)

I came to The Snapper having never seen the film, and have to say that I absolutely loved it. As I posted elsewhere before, I thought that the dialogue heavy approach was perfect, and was so visual that it felt like I was sitting in the room with the Rabbittes, or with Jimmy Sr and his mates or Sharon and hers. Similar in that sense to The Royle Family or Shameless.

I laughed out loud so many times, which is something I'd not do that much with a book, and, possibly because I was born into a 'working class' background (albeit into a perfectly functional family) and lived in a council estate for my first 7 years (both sets of grandparents lived in estates until they died), I was able to identify with the characters Doyle created, and could recognise many of their traits in people that I know / knew.

It was often the small details that cracked me up the most-like when the twins wanted to watch Jimmy Sr beating Darren for something he'd done, or when they talked about having got a wee girl in their class back for saying nasty things about Sharon by assaulting her in various ways, then 'scribbling over her sums' (I was actually in tears of laughter at this point)-even Jimmy Sr's reluctance to cut the grass, and poor Veronica having to slave over the various dresses / dinners etc without a word of thanks-all of these details had me in stitches.

And that's without even mentioning the darker element of the story, with what was essentially a child born out of rape...

Definitely one of the best books that I have read this year.

Here's a BBC podcast of an episode of 'A Good Read' that encouraged me to read the book during the summer. The contributors loved the book as much as I did!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04bng0z

Allan wrote: "I came to The Snapper having never seen the film, and have to say that I absolutely loved it."
Allan, I also never saw the film and absolutely loved the book. I couldn't believe what she named her daughter at the end! What a hoot.

Yeah that is a nice touch Diane :-)

'And then they got beaten by the Italians and that was the end of that'-classic line! :)

Emma, Sharon was not date raped… she was raped, pure and simple. A date rape is when she is actually in a date. The kind of rape that Doyle portrayed was one that is common, unfortunately in every society.
I find this trilogy absolutely brilliant, and Doyle a genius.

Emma wrote: "Your probably right Cphe. In the 60s Sharon would have either gone to England or given Gina up for the adoption. By the late 80s things were beginning to change, though it was still far from common..."

I'll add the the brilliant journalist Nell McCafferty wrote about the girl Ann Lovett who died in the grotto.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Laqw...

I loved this book. I think it is the strongest of the three books that compile the fascinating Barrytown Trilogy. The narrative never gets bogged down, it sweeps along with a pace and vigor I would love to emulate in my own fiction. There is not a spare scene or extra word in the whole book and that is quite a feat for an Irish writer. I get tired of the constant father son relationships in so much of our fiction, it was truly refreshing to show a father daughter relationship in such a tender, humorous way. In fact the humor of this book belies the very seriousness of the issues that Doyle tackles. Teenage pregnancy, rape, social exclusion. A generation previously Sharon might have been put into a laundry. Now her dad can be proud and step up to the plate and show his support for his beloved daughter. Society as a whole is much better off as a result. This illustrates how all the social changes, largely brought about by the women's movement and the loosening of the grip of the Catholic Church on Irish society, has improved the lives of both men and women. My only small cavil is that when Sharon has the baby she names her daughter, Georgina, after the Rapist, George. I don't buy that and it upset me the first time I read it and upset me again this time. I once asked Roddy Doyle at a reading why he did that and he said that she was doing it to annoy her father. It is something I didn't think plausible. Sharon was raped by an older man when she was drunk in the parking lot of a disco. Her father supports her decision to have the child - and she calls it after the rapist?
This, as I said, is the only false note in an otherwise perfect read.

Emma, yes loved this book, was anybody else bothered by the naming of the baby, or was that just me?

I have a question: can anyone tell me what Easy Slices are?

My guess is they are the square slices of rubbery, overly processed cheese. If I'm right they're called EasiSingles now, then again I could be wrong. :)

Processed cheese usually given to small children in their sandwiches for school :-)

Okay sounds like the Kraft Singles processed cheese slices here. Now, what is a brasser?

Prostitute I think...

And a yoke? Jimmy Sr. was talking about Jaffa Cakes at the time.

A yoke = a thing, thingymabob, watchyoumacallit
Just a general term for 'something'.

More recently it refers to drugs, but I doubt it was used in that context.

No, for sure not drugs. Thank you Kevin.

If I was just rating "The Snapper," it would get 5 stars. Part way through reading it I wrote, "The Snapper is effing brilliant so far. Doyle writes with humor and compassion." I was particularly impressed with how well Doyle writes Shannon, a somewhat vulnerable unmarried pregnant 20 something year old. I absolutely think male authors can write believable in depth female characters (and vis versa), but I don't think they all put the necessary effort into it. I think one of my favorite bits is when Sharon talks about being harassed on the street by some guys.

"Still, she was shaking and kind of upset when she got home and upstairs. She didn't know why really. Men and boys had been shouting things after her since she was thirteen and fourteen. She'd never liked it much, especially when she was very young, but she'd looked on it as sort of a stupid compliment. Tonight was different though. Being called a ride wasn't any sort of a compliment anymore."