

Sinossi
Dublino, giorni nostri. Victor Forde, cinquantaquattro anni, è da poco tornato a vivere nel quartiere popolare della sua infanzia. Si trova per la prima volta da solo, alle spalle ha un matrimonio fallito e una carriera di giornalista che non è mai decollata veramente. Deve crearsi delle nuove consuetudini: fare la spesa, scegliere il pub che diventerà il suo pub, dove magari potrà incontrare nuovi amici e una donna con cui spassarsela un po’... Il Donnelly’s fa al caso suo e la pinta quotidiana lì diventa un appuntamento fisso. Una sera un uomo più o meno della sua età lo avvicina, si chiama Ed Fitzpatrick e sostiene di essere un vecchio compagno di scuola. Victor non riesce a ricordare di averlo frequentato, i suoi modi rozzi e sfacciati lo infastidiscono, ma nonostante questo qualcosa in lui lo attira. Si rivedono spesso al pub, e il legame che si instaura tra loro è anche l’occasione per rivivere il passato: vecchi episodi di quando frequentavano una scuola cattolica nella quale Victor, timido e introverso, era oggetto degli scherzi crudeli dei compagni e forse anche delle attenzioni particolari di uno dei professori. I ricordi si alternano alle discussioni nel pub, il rapporto fra i due si fa sempre più forte, c’è una strana tensione che li attrae e li allontana, li mette alle strette, fino all’imprevedibile colpo di scena finale…
- ISBN: 8823518784
- Casa Editrice: Guanda
- Pagine: 240
Recensioni
I'm not sure that anyone writes poor, scrappy white kids like Roddy Doyle. And, Jaysus , can this man summon Voice. Almost no living writer today writes dialogue better than Doyle, and the back streets we've journeyed together. . . the cobbled and the whole. . . have conglomerated in my mind like one Leggi tutto
3+ stars. Roddy Doyle has been around for a long time. I had read some of his earlier novels and not much since. I've never been to Ireland but always feel that he captures the sensibility of his country. I liked Smile for that reason. But I didn't love it. It's an oddly almost dreamy short novel to Leggi tutto
(Contains spoilers) As soon as you reach the end of Roddy Doyle’s extraordinary novel, ‘Smile’, you’re tempted to go back and read it straight through again to work out whether you should have anticipated the narrative trick Doyle has just pulled and whether or not the whole thing actually works. I ha Leggi tutto
4.5 rounded up One Amazon reviewer: ". All the reviews that talked about the shocking twist had to be paid off because anyone could see that twist coming." BS. I was knocked off my chair. If there was one word to describe how I felt after finishing this novel, I think it would have to be "shocked." I Leggi tutto
We’ve got a couple of months to go, but it’s safe to say that Roddy Doyle’s “Smile” is the most bitterly ironic title of 2017. Ha, ha, ha, indeed. Doyle, who won the Booker Prize in 1993 for his portrayal of young Paddy Clarke, is the Irish master of crumpled hope — and no country provides stiffer com Leggi tutto
This is my first taste of a Roddy Doyle novel and this book highlighted to me the authors excellent writing style, full of wit with a disturbing backdrop. Having just moved into a new apartment, Victor Forde goes to Donnelly’s pub for a pint, He is interrupted by a strangely dressed man in shorts an Leggi tutto
Smile by Roddy Doyle is a psychological novel that touches on memory, repression, isolation and the desire for friendship. The main protagonist, Victor, goes each evening to a local pub for a few drinks. One evening, he meets a man in shorts and a pink shirt. His name is Fitzpatrick. Victor doesn't
4.5⭐️ Wow. I did not see that whiplash of an ending.
Roddy Doyle does gritty, real life Dublin life with a sense of humour and a great ear for dialogue. It's what he is famous for. Recently he published a series of short dialogues on current affairs, narrated over a pint of beer in a bar (Two Pints). These were previously published in newspapers and w Leggi tutto
I knew what I'd just done. I'd invented something that would live for years. My own monster, and I was giving it to my friends, the only people I cared about and the only people who really, really frightened me, because of how things shifted, how the wrong word, the wrong shirt, the wrong band, a
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