Bullfighting

Roddy Doyle sure knows what goes on in the minds of straight, white 40-something Dublin men, because they're the protagonists in each one of the 13 stories in Bullfighting . Approaching midlife, Doyle's men are slowing down, taking stock, facing mortality, yet not going down without a fight – or at le Leggi tutto

Various middle-aged to older Irish men populate and narrate this collection of short stories. The first few, in chronological order, were mostly whining husbands trapped in a plotless meandering. The stories got much better with Funerals , about a man taking his elderly parents to funerals once or tw Leggi tutto

These stories are no match for Kevin Barry's whose collection I just finished. Too simple, too easy, too sweet. The writing is common, the voices in the stories are too much alike, speaking in short sentences and constantly correcting themselves. "And that made it worse. And made him more annoyed. A Leggi tutto

Roddy Doyle and I have an interesting relationship (though he doesn’t know it, of course). We’re the same age, plus-or-minus eighteen-months, were born sixty-miles or so apart. But I left Ireland at a very tender age, and he didn’t. I liked The Commitments when I first read it, but when Paddy Clarke Leggi tutto

3.5* New Yorker fiction - title story only, rtc. A good analysis of the story by Dave Eggers, i agree the dialogue in it’s abbreviated state is authentic, also that it makes it play at the speed of realistic conversation. I was admittedly waiting for emerging melancholy, the hidden internal struggle Leggi tutto

This is one of those ratings where I am perhaps shortchanging the author. Really, Doyle perhaps deserves a four...his writing far surpasses that of many other authors, but I prefer his novels to his short stories, and well, while this collection of short stories is good, it's not the best of Roddy D Leggi tutto

“Bullfighting” is a collection of short stories mostly about Irish men nearing or in their 50s. I enjoyed the “voice” I heard in these different stories. The men were different, but they sounded similar, approaching their aging with reflection. And quite often calling something “grand” that really w Leggi tutto

You can breeze through this collection of Roddy Doyle short stories, but why not take your time with each and savor the flavor of Dublin today. I love how Doyle has matured in his subject matter but kept his writing style. You can almost imagine the boys from "The Commitments" are grown up and facing Leggi tutto

A satisfying collection of short stories, all of which deal with the middle-aged male. Fears of aging and death are prominently featured. Some of the tales were downright touching as older fathers recalled happier times with much younger children. Sentimental without being sappy, everything is laced Leggi tutto

A collection of stories about middle-aged men & their lot in life, it contains everything from the sublime to the ridiculous to the decidedly odd. Some stories will hit you full in the face, while others will leave you cold...but the one constant is Roddy Doyle's prose style, which holds everything