Life as seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old Irish boy, Patrick Clarke, is a poignant voyage through a bewildering, ever-changing world of family, friends, dreams, and growing up. Winner of the Booker Prize. Reprint. Tour.
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
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
Ghosts of Christmas Past:
Imagine someone filled you full of 3 beers and a few shots of whiskey, then grabbed you, groggy, by the collar and dragged you through a bittersweet nostalgic trip back through childhood. Doyle reminds you of the kid's-eye view of life, less naive and ignorant than we generally mis-remember. The mixture of cruelty and enjoyment is realistic, not exaggerated like, say, Lord of the Flies. The view of teachers and parents is forgiving, as all children are wont to do. But then the shock when you realize you are... more info
Phenomenal:
My second Roddy Doyle book and it was no less impressive than the first. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is the story of a 10-year-old boy growing up in Ireland. His experiences range from boyhood friendships to the classroom to his parent's increasing fights. Doyle is immensely talented and consistently manages to embrace his characters and represent them in a nearly too real fashion. Paddy Clarke not only feels like it's a story of a 10-year-old boy but is specifically narrated by a 10-year-old boy and by the end... more info
Not a compelling read. The naysayers are right.:
This is a well-written book about a young boy in Ireland, but I'm about 137 pages into it and I'm struggling to finish. Doyle's quality prose isn't enough to keep you interested in Paddy Clarke's story, which is told from the first-person perspective of the boy himself. There's just never enough insight into the boy to really care. If you want to read a bunch of vignettes from a boy's point of view, knock yourself out, but know what you're getting. This is the fourth Roddy Doyle book I've read and... more info
