From the Back Cover:
"Together, [A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing] constitute one of the most remarkable achievements in recent Irish and American literature. And we re left with the tantalizing possibility of a third novel to follow." -Atlanta Journal- Constitution
"Oh, Play That Thing chronicles the birth of the American century, from the shores of Ellis Island through the Jazz Age and into the Great Depression . Doyle s characters are too lively-too full-blooded and lusty-to be mere ciphers, and the Booker Prize-winning author gets the feel of things-jazz, regret, memory-right." -Boston Phoenix
"Written in a combo jazzed-up sassy poetry-rhythms part Irish, part New York street, part Chicago South Side blues This is Doyle s rambunctious tale of the 20th century s immigrant America." -Chicago Sun-Times
"Vibrant, punchy images come in quick succession, evoking city streets teeming with life and possibility like the gritty poetics of John Dos Passos." -Philadelphia Weekly
"Doyle can make music come alive like no one else. His prose will bop and bang its head to punk or bump and grind to the blues . [And he] understands that becoming an American-whether you re black or Irish-is a game of improvisation, just like jazz." - New York Daily News
"A sprawling tale steeped in the grit, lawlessness and hardships of the early 1900s it all unfolds in Doyle s bold, vivid writing that, at its best, echoes the adventure and rhythm of jazz . By the end, he has us hooked, racing for the finish to a book we wish wouldn t end and eager for the final installment." -Rocky Mountain News
About the Author:
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin, Ireland. He attended St. Fintan’s Christian Brothers School and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from University College. For fourteen years he worked as an English and geography teacher in Kilbarrack, North Dublin, and his students provided inspiration for his first published novel, The Commitments. When Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha won the Booker Prize in 1993 while he was still in his thirties, he dedicated himself to writing full-time. After writing from nine to five each day, he spends his evenings with his wife and kids, “because it’s what I love to do.”
He achieved widespread recognition when The Commitments, about a young working-class Dubliner who organizes a soul band, was made into a hugely popular film in 1991 by Alan Parker. However, Doyle had first published the book himself in 1987 because he didn’t feel The Commitments fit in with other books coming out at the time; convinced it would be rejected, he and a friend figured out how much it would cost to publish it themselves – the same as a good second-hand car – and got a bank loan.
Meanwhile he got a lucky break when his first play, Brown Bread, was produced by a theatre group and staged at a large venue. The Commitments sold a few thousand copies and got a lot of attention because of a good cover and what Doyle calls an “arrogant” press release, but didn’t sell in big numbers. Then two Dublin writers gave the book to friends of film director Alan Parker in Los Angeles and he liked it; the film came out three years later. The book was picked up by a British publisher, and from then on his work would gain international acclaim and success.
The Commitments and his next two novels, known as the Barrytown Trilogy after the north Dublin estate modelled on Kilbarrack where they are set, focus on the Rabbittes, a family whose lives are a mixture of comedy, depressing poverty and domestic chaos. The second book, The Snapper, concerns the relationship between Jimmy and his eldest daughter when she becomes pregnant and faces becoming a single mother. Irish author Maeve Binchy called it “the most amazing account of a pregnancy ever written.” The Van focuses on a middle-aged man facing the loneliness and shame of unemployment and his effort to raise himself out of it by buying a rundown van to sell fish and chips from as the Irish soccer team wins its way into the finals of the World Cup. The Van was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1991 and all three books were made into films.
Doyle’s next novel, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, about a ten-year-old boy who watches his parents’ marriage disintegrate, won him the Booker Prize, Britain’s highest literary award in 1993. It is the most commercially successful Booker winner to date and is now available in nineteen languages. The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, about an abused wife, was published three years later. Like the Barrytown Trilogy, both novels focus on families, which Doyle says is natural since it’s common in Ireland to live with your family right up to your mid-twenties and not stray far when you move out. “I’ve always lived within about three miles from where I was born.”
His work often involves brutality and violence. A Star Called Henry, the first installment of the Last Roundup Trilogy, was no exception. It encompasses the 1916 Rebellion and sectarian violence, something both Doyle’s grandparents would likely have been involved in. It received the best reviews he has ever had.
Doyle writes rowdy novels, full of Dublin vernacular and cursing so vibrant and charged that it is almost musical, vulgarity turned to poetry. His characters often fail but are survivors; their lives are tough, but beauty, dignity and tenderness prevail. He’s been called one of the great Dublin working class writers, but his work speaks to people all over the world. “What I try to do with my stories is take universal issues and set them in a couple of square fictional miles in Dublin.”
From the Hardcover edition.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.