The Woman Who Walked into Doors

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly evocative
Review: I love the way Roddy Doyle writes, but I was especially touched and moved by this book. How on earth could a man understand so completely and totally the way a woman feels in this situation? All of Paula's thoughts and feeling are so accurate, tears came to my eyes more than once in the telling of them. At the end, also a hopeful book, and strongly recommended for anyone dealing with a similar situation

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable
Review: I read it in a day. The theme is old, sometimes overdone, yet I found myself unable to part from Paula Spencer. The narrative style of Roddy Doyle tells this story in a circular and timeless fashion. The story doesn't begin, the story doesn't end. It happens every where and all the time, yet Paula feels that she is the only person to suffer her fate. She feels that she deserves it, that she has provoked it. She grasps at any sense of healing she can find. Yet she barely notices it in front of her own face, inside her family. Doyle's story telling techniques didn't let me down. He remarkably captures an extremely colloquial working class. He uses vocabulary to suit the less educated, the "thicks". He explains things perfectly as some one in Paula's position would. Doyle's couragous use of repetition was outstanding! He constantly re-uses scenes and slowly builds to an expanisive understanding of Paula's life. We being to realize things alongside Paula. And we understand that if one remembers the good-they must also remember the bad. Comparably-to remember the bad, we also take with us the good. With out hitting readers (or the main character) over the head, Doyle has explained to us why some people allow such terrible things to happen to themselves. He tells us, and he tells us again. He is teaching us to see. He wants us to "ask" those people, and offer them the help they want. He shows us that when all else fails--we have our family.

Rating:
Summary: A funny and heartbreaking book
Review: I read part of The Woman Who Walked Into Doors maybe 18 months ago in the New Yorker. At the time all I thought was "Yeehaa! A new Roddy Doyle!" It's safe to say that I would read his shopping list and probably be enthralled. I thought it was an enormously well-written book in that the writing and writer were indetectable and all there was was Paula and her story. It's heartbreaking to read about this bright happy girl who one day discovers that she's "thick" after being put in the dumb-kid class at school. And from then on her life, and those of her friends, schoolmates and sisters revolve around men. The way men treat them, the way they are either a "slut" or a "tight bitch". The way they only become someone or make a name for themselves in relation to men. The worst part though is how much she did love Charlo before he began to beat her. It would have been more bearable if she'd just married the first thick that knocked her up. But that this man that she loved, and that genuinely loved her would destroy her like that was horrible. This book really affected me. I felt almost as though I'd lived it through it all myself. Very moving, very sad.

Rating:
Summary: A funny and heartbreaking book
Review: I read part of The Woman Who Walked Into Doors maybe 18 months ago in the New Yorker. At the time all I thought was "Yeehaa! A new Roddy Doyle!" It's safe to say that I would read his shopping list and probably be enthralled. I thought it was an enormously well-written book in that the writing and writer were indetectable and all there was was Paula and her story. It's heartbreaking to read about this bright happy girl who one day discovers that she's "thick" after being put in the dumb-kid class at school. And from then on her life, and those of her friends, schoolmates and sisters revolve around men. The way men treat them, the way they are either a "slut" or a "tight bitch". The way they only become someone or make a name for themselves in relation to men. The worst part though is how much she did love Charlo before he began to beat her. It would have been more bearable if she'd just married the first thick that knocked her up. But that this man that she loved, and that genuinely loved her would destroy her like that was horrible. This book really affected me. I felt almost as though I'd lived it through it all myself. Very moving, very sad.

Rating:
Summary: Visuals actually jump from the pages
Review: I recieved this book as a present on my birthday and began reading it straight away, a big mistake ! I couldn't put the book down and spent my birthday in reading and drying my eyes

Rating:
Summary: A touching story
Review: I thought that "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" was a nice story. The beginning is nice but in the middle of the book it gets a little bit long-winded and boring. The end of the book was very touching and I think that this book shows how it is when somebody you love mishandles you. Overall it's a nice book but sometimes I almost fell in sleep because it was too boring and long-winded. It was also a long story so I recommend to people who have to read this book for their english assignment Make a good planning!!!

Rating:
Summary: I Read it for the purpose of Higher English
Review: I thought this book "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" was a very visual book. As you read this book you could actually visualise the violence going on and the pain Paula was experiencing. I don't read many books and this was the 1st Roddy Doyle book i had read and i can that i would read another of his books. I only gave this book a star rating of three because i feel that the book did not really have a proper ending, It doesn't tell you whaty happens to Paula after the death of Charlo. Does she get a better life? or stay miserable for the rest of her life? Did she meet another man? Does she manage to defeat her alcoholic problem? These questions were left in my head.......maybe that was his purpose, tho leave the answer to my imagination?!! Overall Doyle does convey the mental and physical effects of domestic abuse and the effect it has on a family.

Rating:
Summary: I Read it for the purpose of Higher English
Review: I thought this book "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" was a very visual book. As you read this book you could actually visualise the violence going on and the pain Paula was experiencing. I don't read many books and this was the 1st Roddy Doyle book i had read and i can that i would read another of his books. I only gave this book a star rating of three because i feel that the book did not really have a proper ending, It doesn't tell you whaty happens to Paula after the death of Charlo. Does she get a better life? or stay miserable for the rest of her life? Did she meet another man? Does she manage to defeat her alcoholic problem? These questions were left in my head.......maybe that was his purpose, tho leave the answer to my imagination?!! Overall Doyle does convey the mental and physical effects of domestic abuse and the effect it has on a family.

Rating:
Summary: I Read it for the purpose of Higher English
Review: I thought this book "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" was a very visual book. As you read this book you could actually visualise the violence going on and the pain Paula was experiencing. I don't read many books and this was the 1st Roddy Doyle book i had read and i can that i would read another of his books. I only gave this book a star rating of three because i feel that the book did not really have a proper ending, It doesn't tell you whaty happens to Paula after the death of Charlo. Does she get a better life? or stay miserable for the rest of her life? Did she meet another man? Does she manage to defeat her alcoholic problem? These questions were left in my head.......maybe that was his purpose, tho leave the answer to my imagination?!! Overall Doyle does convey the mental and physical effects of domestic abuse and the effect it has on a family.

Rating:
Summary: A sensitive, powerful masterpiece and a must-read!
Review: I write book review part-time, and have done so for the past six years. This is simply the best, and certainly the most important, novel I've reviewed in all that time. Mr. Doyle's skill in expressing the mental and physical suffering of a battered wife will take your breath away. If you have not yet read this unforgettable novel, put it in your shopping cart right now. You can thank me later. What you'll get is a literary experience that will remain with you for years to come.