Rating: 
Summary: Irishmen Joyce Never Knew
Review: The Ireland of Jimmy Rabbitte, Sr. and his out-of-work friends from Barrytown,the lower class section of Dublin, is not the Ireland of James Joyce, "Danny Boy," or The Chieftans. The lives of Jimmy and his lads move from the laughter and tears of real homes to their great adventure of operating a fast-food van during the World Cup of 1990. Hysterical bumbling, too much drink, deep friendships tested, and the detail of real lives are all created in the truest of voices by one of Ireland's greatest living writers.Prepare to wet yourselves!! And watch for the movie coming soon. Doyle has given us The Commitments and The Snapper, too
Rating: 
Summary: Corny
Review: The Van is one of those books disguised as fiction but is actually a potboiler. The characters are unimpressive and the plot is filled with one clichéd situation after another. The third person narrative is unsuccessful because it doesn't have enough emotional impact. The lack of quotation marks makes it a very frustrating read. The prose resembles a screenplay with pages of dialogues interspersed with descriptions. The Irish dialect is tough to understand. I did start to enjoy it during the last few pages, but it wasn't worth to reread the book again. If you're interested in Irish fiction, skip this and read Dubliners by James Joyce.
Rating:
Summary: Corny
Review: The Van is one of those books disguised as fiction but is actually a potboiler. The characters are unimpressive and the plot is filled with one clichéd situation after another. The third person narrative is unsuccessful because it doesn't have enough emotional impact. The lack of quotation marks makes it a very frustrating read. The prose resembles a screenplay with pages of dialogues interspersed with descriptions. The Irish dialect is tough to understand. I did start to enjoy it during the last few pages, but it wasn't worth to reread the book again. If you're interested in Irish fiction, skip this and read Dubliners by James Joyce.
Rating:
Summary: Corny
Review: The Van is one of those books disguised as fiction but is actually a potboiler. The characters are unimpressive and the plot is filled with one clichéd situation after another. The third person narrative is unsuccessful because it doesn't have enough emotional impact. The lack of quotation marks makes it a very frustrating read. The prose resembles a screenplay with pages of dialogues interspersed with descriptions. The Irish dialect is tough to understand. I did start to enjoy it during the last few pages, but it wasn't worth to reread the book again. If you're interested in Irish fiction, skip this and read Dubliners by James Joyce.
Rating:
Summary: The trilogy's best.
Review: Third volume in Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy. It's as well to note how the emphasis of the trilogy shifts over the course of the three novels. The Commitments was about Jimmy Rabbitte, the eldest son, and his mission to bring soul to Dublin. The next was ostensibly about his sister Sharon, and her pregnancy, though we began to see Jimmy Snr take a far larger part, eclipsing his ambitious son. In the Van Jimmr Snr. gets the entire novel to himself. Jimmy is unemployed and worried that, now time has passed, he's grown to like it. The other members of the family ghost in and out of his life, as much a source of puzzlement as affection. His wife is reading George Eliot for some kind of course, his daughter is enclosed with her baby and friends, Jimmy Jnr. still follows his dream (in the bathroom). This is entirely apt: in the world of the long-term unemployed, enforced idleness causes every thought and motivation to dissolve, and minimal achievements become the sole produce of an entire day. But Jimmy will not lie down or be content to read crap books from the library or take up offers of employment for McDonalds. As much out of a desire to assert his presence as for self-respect, Jimmy Snr. and a friend buy a beat-up van and remake it as a chipper van. It's set at the time of the 1990 world cup, when Ireland did well and England didn't - much is made of the bubbling nationalist sentiment (it's good for business), and the sudden collapse when Ireland is finally knocked out. I think reviewers who fault the novel on the grounds of its dialogue ('can't understand Irish dialect' - and, likely, any other non-US dialect) are wrong to such a degree that the effort of pointing it out seems barely worthwhile. To counter this armchair criticism, let me tell you this: the Irish are a race of talkers. The words from our mouths, like the events in our lives, are a ceaseless flow - uncontrived, alive, bad, good, but always closer to the surface of life than anyone else's. Think of James Joyce, who always wanted a musical career rathr than a literary one. His words are as just as important when spoken as read and Doyle continues, in his way, this very project. (As does the booker-prize winning author James Kelman in Scotland, whose vernacular novels long predated both those of Doyle and Irvine Welsh) It is rather amusing that one reviewer suggests ignoring The Van in favour of Dubliners, and another castiagates the novel for its lack of quotation marks. Joyce insisted that quotation marks in Dubliners be replaced with dashes to ensue an easier flow of speech - vital to an Irish author with any hopes to accurately render the nature of things. As does Doyle. His characters are very much the contemporary heirs to Joyce's paralysed, hopeful inhabitants of Dublin nearly a century ago. There are many others authors who do, also. I recommend John McGahern (lionised by John Updike), Mary Lavin, and Eugene McCabe. Colm Toibin, also.
Rating:
Summary: The trilogy's best.
Review: Third volume in Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy. It's as well to note how the emphasis of the trilogy shifts over the course of the three novels. The Commitments was about Jimmy Rabbitte, the eldest son, and his mission to bring soul to Dublin. The next was ostensibly about his sister Sharon, and her pregnancy, though we began to see Jimmy Snr take a far larger part, eclipsing his ambitious son. In the Van Jimmr Snr. gets the entire novel to himself. Jimmy is unemployed and worried that, now time has passed, he's grown to like it. The other members of the family ghost in and out of his life, as much a source of puzzlement as affection. His wife is reading George Eliot for some kind of course, his daughter is enclosed with her baby and friends, Jimmy Jnr. still follows his dream (in the bathroom). This is entirely apt: in the world of the long-term unemployed, enforced idleness causes every thought and motivation to dissolve, and minimal achievements become the sole produce of an entire day. But Jimmy will not lie down or be content to read crap books from the library or take up offers of employment for McDonalds. As much out of a desire to assert his presence as for self-respect, Jimmy Snr. and a friend buy a beat-up van and remake it as a chipper van. It's set at the time of the 1990 world cup, when Ireland did well and England didn't - much is made of the bubbling nationalist sentiment (it's good for business), and the sudden collapse when Ireland is finally knocked out. I think reviewers who fault the novel on the grounds of its dialogue ('can't understand Irish dialect' - and, likely, any other non-US dialect) are wrong to such a degree that the effort of pointing it out seems barely worthwhile. To counter this armchair criticism, let me tell you this: the Irish are a race of talkers. The words from our mouths, like the events in our lives, are a ceaseless flow - uncontrived, alive, bad, good, but always closer to the surface of life than anyone else's. Think of James Joyce, who always wanted a musical career rathr than a literary one. His words are as just as important when spoken as read and Doyle continues, in his way, this very project. (As does the booker-prize winning author James Kelman in Scotland, whose vernacular novels long predated both those of Doyle and Irvine Welsh) It is rather amusing that one reviewer suggests ignoring The Van in favour of Dubliners, and another castiagates the novel for its lack of quotation marks. Joyce insisted that quotation marks in Dubliners be replaced with dashes to ensue an easier flow of speech - vital to an Irish author with any hopes to accurately render the nature of things. As does Doyle. His characters are very much the contemporary heirs to Joyce's paralysed, hopeful inhabitants of Dublin nearly a century ago. There are many others authors who do, also. I recommend John McGahern (lionised by John Updike), Mary Lavin, and Eugene McCabe. Colm Toibin, also.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't stop laughing.........
Review: This is a wonderfully engaging read, I couldn't put it down. The language and the characters were very realistic, in fact they were people I felt I knew from my own childhood. If the language offends you then may I suggest you are privileged. Unfotunately, this is a side of life that too many of us know too well. If you can stand the swearing and you enjoy Roddy Doyle then this one should not be missed. It will make you laugh out loud.
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