BELLA FAMIGLIA

As much as I liked The Commitments , the first novel in Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy, The Snapper – book two – is much more satisfying. It’s just as funny and profane, but it has more emotional depth, an amusing if troubling mystery and characters who feel alive and authentic. It focuses on Sha Leggi tutto

Actual rating 3.5 stars. This is the second instalment in Doyle's The Barrytown trilogy, following on from The Commitments. The focus has shifted to the former protagonist's father and elder sister, and details another generation of life inside suburban Ireland. Sharon Rabbitte is pregnant. But the j Leggi tutto

One drunken evening young Sharon gets a kneetrembler outside some scuzzy club from a most inappropriate person and finds herself up the duff. She is then presented with several difficulties, involving the seven major types of embarrassment. When should I tell my folks, when should I tell my best mat Leggi tutto

This is a funny book with the dialogue between the family hilarious in parts. Set in Barrytown Dublin the story follows the announcement by Sharon the daughter of Jimmy Snr and Veronica that she is having a baby or snapper. What follows is the mystery of the father and Jimmy becoming more involved w Leggi tutto

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as The Commitments , although there is a lot of the same humour here. This book is about the Rabbitte family and centres around eldest daughter, Sharon and her father Jimmy Sr (Jimmy Jr is one of the main characters in The Commitments). Sharon is pregnant and won’t say Leggi tutto