The Novels of Roddy Doyle

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This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 WIDTE, CARAMINE, PhD. The Novels ofRoddy Doyle. (1996) Directed by Dr. Keith Cushman. 232 pp. This dissertation is a critical examination of the five published novels of Roddy Doyle, The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and The Woman Who Walked into Doors. Since this dissertation will be the first of its kind about Doyle, its basic purpose will be to introduce the novels to the reading public and to convince the reading public that Doyle, although a very popular artist, is also a gifted writer who should be taken seriously. There are six chapters: an introduction and a chapter devoted to each novel. The introduction offers an overview of Doyle's works and a discussion of the qualities of his novels each subsequent chapter will examine. Each chapter discusses one of Doyle's novels by examining the following: his innovative use of language; his manipulation of his audience's reaction via humor and comedy; the role, however slight, of religion and politics; his overall social vision as projected in the novels both individually and as part of the complete body of work. The analysis also examines other prominent aspects of the individual novels, namely, the function of music in The Commitments; Sharon's character development in The Snapper, the grimness and despair of The Van; the use of double-writing in Paddy Clarke; and the way Paula's life may be seen as a metaphor for the abuses women suffer in a patriarchal society in The Woman. An extensive interview with Doyle, which he was gracious enough to grant me several months ago, is included as an appendix. APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University ofNorth Carolina at Greensboro. /"\ Committee Members 5 --~~~----~--~~~·~./??")/ Date of Acceptance by Committee r- o~ trt~ Date of Final Oral Examination u TABLE OF CONTENTS Page APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................... ....... u CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................... 1 II. THE COMMI'I'MENTS........................................................................... 33 ill. THE SNAPPER....................................................................................... 59 IV. THEVAN................................................................................................ 86 V. PADDYCI..ARKE HA HA HA .................................................................... 107 VI. THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO DOORS ........................................ 133 VI. CONCLUSION........................................................................................ 169 BffiLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................... 175 APPENDIX A INTERVIEW WITH RODDY DOYLE............................................ 183 Ill 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Roddy Doyle, one of the brightest stars on the Irish literary scene today, knows the Dublin working-class characters ofhis books intimately. He was born in 1958 and raised in Kilbarrack, an area similar to Barrytown, the fictional Dublin suburb which is the setting for his first four novels. In a lengthy interview he recently granted me (which is included as an appendix to this work), he talked a little about his parents: his father was a printer, and "would have been blue collar, since he had ink under his fingernails .... he was definitely working-class" (Interview 223). His mother was ''more middle-class-her father was a civil servant." For the experience of his inter-class upbringing, Doyle is grateful: "I've grown up with a foot in each class. It's a very useful position, especially socially. People who have grown up solidly working-class seem to be hopelessly lost in a different version of reality. Whereas being from the gray area, you seem to be a little more street wise .... It's a useful position to be in, especially as a novelist" (Interview 224). Doyle is the only one of his three siblings to go to college. He graduated from University College in Dublin. In 1980 he started teaching English and geography at Greendale Community School, Kilbarrack. "Punky'' Doyle, so dubbed by his students because of his spiky haircut and earring, enjoyed teaching but stopped when his success as a writer began to interfere with his classes. He retired from teaching in 1993 to devote 2 himself to his writing and his family, consisting of his wife, Belinda and two sons, Rory and Jack. Doyle's first five novels have all been well received critically and popularly. The literati praise him: his fourth book, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, won the prestigious Booker Prize in Britain in 1993, while The Van, his third novel, was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1991. Although he has on occasion been "condescended to as merely entertaining, just popular and funny" (Shepherd 164), the reviews of his work have been consistently good. He has been called "the laureate to a generation of thirty-somethings now ready to reconsider that experience (of growing up on 1960s housing estates) .... Doubtless, Paddy Clarke will soon be included on school syllabuses, as Salinger and Twain before it ..." (Kiberd 24). And Doyle keeps getting better: "Each novel bears distinct resemblance to but is arguably better than its predecessor" (Shepherd 163). Doyle is also a commercial success. His first two novels have been turned into popular movies, and a film version of the third has been completed. Paddy Clarke, the biggest seller of all the Booker Prize winners, has been translated into at least nineteen languages. Because ofhis popularity, in 1993 the BBC gave Doyle carte blanche to write something for television. He created The Family, a four-part mini-series about a family in turmoil, which was widely viewed and discussed by its Irish audience. Doyle's earringed and bespectacled visage is seen on numerous Irish magazine covers, and he periodically makes the international talk show circuit. Stephen Frears, the director of the movie versions of The Snapper and The Van, says of Doyle, ''He's the only Irish writer I ... .J know of who's actually read by the kids he writes about in Dublin. You don't see them walking around with Ulysses" (Christon 5). Doyle has also written two plays: War (1989), a disturbingly dark comedy which counterpoints scenes in a pub in which characters fiercely compete against each other in quizzes and scenes of unhappy family life at the protagonist's home, and Brownhread (1992), a farcical comedy about three unemployed, working-class youths who kidnap a bishop. Both enjoyed a local success: ''He enjoys the reputation of being the most commercially successful playwright in Dublin since Sean O'Casey.... Roddy Doyle (is) a cult figure" (Eaton n. pag.). Considering his popularity today, it seems farcical that he initially had to publish The Commitments, his first novel, at his own expense. The accessibility of Doyle's novels is partly responsible for their popularity. "Too often, when you read an Irish literary novel, even one that you're enjoying a lot, you get the feeling 'I've got through 20 pages of that. I deserve a rest.' I've wanted to produce books that are readable in the proper sense, books that you don't have to give up half your life to read" (Doyle qtd. in O'Toole ''Leaving Spaces" n. pag.). These books are lively, realistic, engaging, hilarious, and they feature characters with whom one can

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