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Summary: A StarCalled Henry
Review: I loved this book! As a Dubliner currently living in the USA, I often find myself in search of a well written book about my homeland. Roddy Doyle usually provides a way for me to feel at home. Although the poverty and violence in the book could not have been further from my own life in Dublin, the characters were all people I knew. Like any well written book, I became emotionally attached to the main character, Henry, and could not put the book down. It was an interesting blend of history and fiction. Roddy took the reader through a wide range of emotions connected to the problems in Ireland and the problems faced by the poor in every city.
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Summary: Roddy Doyle does it again!
Review: I have to admit to being a Roddy Doyle fan. I have read all of his books and this one definitely does not disappoint. I think it is his best work yet. I enjoyed this book as I learnt a lot more about the terrible conditions in which a lot of people lived in Ireland at that time and also about the Irish struggle. This is a powerful work as it also illustrates how corruption and greed set in amongst some of the people fighting for freedom and how this impacted on Irish people. Roddy Doyle is a great author and I hope we see more books from him in the future.
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Summary: Poor Roddy Doyle
Review: I feel sorry for Roddy Doyle having to publish one of his best works yet alongside the 'other' Irish export, Frank McCourt. Now, this is not a review of any of McCourt's work, which just happens to be a great mass of 'poor me' drivel. Nevertheless, I believe that after the last two years of the McCourts putting forward one particularly scewed version of Irish history, Doyle has now been lumped into the same category. This is unfortunate because 'A Star Called Henry' is one of Doyle's most important displays of writing to date. Every passage entrances and Doyle's gritty, tough writing brings you into the story so that you are fighting beside Henry, laughing beside him, and almost dying beside him as well. Doyle is a very real writer, and although Henry may do some very surreal things in the book, the fact remains that Doyle's honesty and knowledge of his own past shine through brilliantly. Doyle's rendering of the Anglo-Irish war and the subsequent Civil War are by far the best that any author of fiction has penned to date. Frank McCourt Tisn't, Roddy Doyle Tis'.
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Summary: Do Your Research
Review: If you are not familiar with the particulars of the Irish Rebellion, you'll enjoy HENRY more if you grab an encyclopedia and read up a bit. The author assumes that the reader has a certain amount of knowledge, and this can be frustrating if you don't. I also recommend watching the movie MICHAEL COLLINS with Liam Neeson, which covers the same historical events as the book. Together they give a fairly complete picture of this period of Irish history.HENRY isn't my favorite Doyle title, but it has his usual scintillating writing. This is a tough story about a scrappy lad in a nasty time in Irish history. Worth reading.
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Summary: 1999 highlight
Review: Along with "Disgrace" and "Headlong," definitely one of the best books of the year. Wonderful.
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Summary: Looking forward to the next installment
Review: This book took a while to get into, but once I did I could not stop reading. I enjoyed the beginning and middle more than the rather over-the-top ending, but overall the book is still highly recommended. It also inspired me to pick up some of Roddy Doyle's older novels (The Barrytown Trilogy, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors) which are amazing as well. Discover this wonderful Irish author for yourself!
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Summary: Mealltach Cac
Review: I am a huge fan of Roddy Dolye's previous work, but this book is extremely disappointing. There is potential here, but the characters are underdeveloped and trite. The story seems to have been done a billion times before. Why is Roddy going down this well beaten path? He should leave this topic to Frank McCourt and the Clancy Brothers. If you have had the misfortune of purchasing this book do not pass it to a friend unless they have a 3 legged couch. A star for "A Star Called Henry". Let's all pray this is not a trilogy.
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Summary: HENRY!
Review: I tought that this book was very intresting and it kept me reading. I enjoyed it very much!
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Summary: A great introduction to the IRA for a Non-Irishman
Review: Engaging, thought-provoking writing. Brought me to Ireland in my imagination.
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Summary: who is Henry!
Review: I usually feel trilogies are somewhat commercially manipulative. The reader is given a piece of a story and obligated to finish the epic over a period of years. Somehow it seems to rob the book of its compression and intensity-- its finality. Doyle has created a memorable set of characters. His description of the Easter Rebellion is scintillating. The depiction of the poverty and desperation of the Dublin slums poignant. The life of an IRA volunteer is unromantically and realistically portrayed in all its bloody carnage. His language is eidetic and at times mesmerizing (which saved the 4 stars). There seems to be a tendency, though, to present Henry as a personna while keeping the person a mystery. Other characters are left fustratingly oblique. I'd suggest that developing subsequent books around the lives of some of the characters here-- the martyrs of Easter, the madame, Henry's father-- would a better literary route than Henry himself, who seems chiseled in stone rather than flesh and blood.
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