"Pure, undiluted pleasure" (The Washington Post) from Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle Roddy Doyle 's beautifully wrought tale revisits the Dublin housewife-heroine of his earlier acclaimed novel, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. Paula is now forty-seven, her abusive husband is long dead, and it's been four months and five days since she's had a drink. She cleans offices to get by and lives from paycheck to paycheck. But as she manages to get through each day sober, she begins to piece her life back together and to resurrect her family. Told with the unmistakable wit of Doyle's unique voice, this is a redemptive tale about a brave and tenacious woman.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Great read:
I'm surprised to be recommending a book about an alcoholic middle aged mum so enthusiastically, but if you read Paula Spencer and don't love it, there's a good chance you're an idiot. I didn't pick this up for a couple of weeks after I bought it - I wasn't ready for what I thought might be a dark read, but I needn't have worried. I'm sorry to have finished it.
Sweet, Simple, Sad, Amazing:
Not much happens in this book, but that doesn't seem to matter. We're stuck in Paula's head for the length of this novel--an amazing place to be stuck. The smallest movement forward feels huge for Paula and just as huge for the reader. The book is deeply compassionate, tender, sad and unforgettable.
Yet Paula never asks,"What did I do to deserve all this?".:
A couple of other reviewers have told what story there is to this novel,so I won't try to enlarge on it.
Really,there is not much story at all.What we see; is what life is like to a woman who has not have an easy time of it ;and that is an under statement.
Paula,is now 48,and she has lived what should have been the best years of her life,and we are taken right into her heart and soul for a year or so.
It is not pretty,but Paula is not defeated by remorse or even worrying about why her... more info
Please release "Family- Charlo, Paula, Nicola, John Paul on DVD !!!:
I have been waiting for YEARS for the BBC series based on these books "Family : Paula, Charlo, Nicola, John Paul" to be released on DVD, please, please, release this series in the United States so we can have this... the books from Roddy Doyle on Paula Spencer have been fantastic, I highly recommend them..... for those of you who have not seen this series based on the book, demand it be released on DVD....
