The Woman Who Walked into Doors

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I'd seen the movies made from Doyle's earlier books (The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van), but hadn't read any until this. Despite the somewhat depressing tale it's great writing. The book is the recounting by a 39-year old Irish woman of her family and social life growing up, interspersed with her life now, a year after the death of her abusive husband. Told first-person, as if she is sitting at a kitchen table with the reader, the stories of her life are engrossing and entertaining. Although the actual battering doesn't come until the last third of the book, it lurks in the background of everything leading up to it. And when it does come, it dominates and is terrible in its harshness. It's a pretty impressive story, especially coming from the pen of a man.

Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Book
Review: In 'The Woman Who Walked into Doors', Doyle tells the story of a battered wife. He explores the depths of Paula's mind, thoughts, feelings and memories. We see the effect of a cruel male-dominated working-class society on a young, ambitious but vulnerable girl. Through the novel Paula is cast as a victim of male abuse. A victim of her father, her younger brother, her husband and even strangers in the street ('...Jesus, if you went wrong once you were a slut. -Slut. My little brother. -Slut. My Father. -Slut. Everyone. They were all in on it.') Doyle successfully attempts to convince his readers of the realism of Paula's situation. Doyle manipulates narrative structure and language to create a real sense of intimacy with his protagonist Paula. He creates a mass of confusion, misunderstanding and sorrow. He deliberatly skips around Paula'a memories in order to mirror her confusion and desperation. He calls out for help for the repressed section of society that is chosen to be ignored by the rest. Paula is so deeply in love with Charlo that she is blinded to the truth, he is a monster. She is forced to realise and accept the situation. The end of the novel shows Paula, as she overcomes a violent marriage, a violent childhood, a repressed potential and an addiction to alcohol for the love of her children.

Rating:
Summary: Roddy Doyle's 'The Woman Who Walked into Doors'
Review: In 'The Woman Who Walked into Doors', Doyle tells the story of a battered wife. He explores the depths of Paula's mind, thoughts, feelings and memories. We see the effect of a cruel male-dominated working-class society on a young, ambitious but vulnerable girl. Through the novel Paula is cast as a victim of male abuse. A victim of her father, her younger brother, her husband and even strangers in the street ('...Jesus, if you went wrong once you were a slut. -Slut. My little brother. -Slut. My Father. -Slut. Everyone. They were all in on it.') Doyle successfully attempts to convince his readers of the realism of Paula's situation. Doyle manipulates narrative structure and language to create a real sense of intimacy with his protagonist Paula. He creates a mass of confusion, misunderstanding and sorrow. He deliberatly skips around Paula'a memories in order to mirror her confusion and desperation. He calls out for help for the repressed section of society that is chosen to be ignored by the rest. Paula is so deeply in love with Charlo that she is blinded to the truth, he is a monster. She is forced to realise and accept the situation. The end of the novel shows Paula, as she overcomes a violent marriage, a violent childhood, a repressed potential and an addiction to alcohol for the love of her children.

Rating:
Summary: Originally a TV Series
Review: In 1994, while my husband and I were living in England, I happened to watch a multi-part television program written by Roddy Doyle about Charlo and Paula Spencer and their family. I don't recall the title, but the program obviously was the inspiration for this book. The TV production was riveting, so I was excited to find this book, partly to see if it would follow a similar storyline, which it does (although in much more depth). As I read the book, I couldn't help but picture the faces of the actors who portrayed Paula, Charlo and Nicola. I believe the TV show was a BBC production, so it might be possible to find it on video somewhere. It would definitely be a valuable companion to the book.

Rating:
Summary: Nineteen years ago, Paula fell in love & kept on falling...
Review: In THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO DOORS, Doyle does an excellent job of weaving the story of Paula and Charlo. He tackles the social problem of spousal abuse head on and asks the difficult question: "Why does society allow this to happen?" In doing so, he forces the reader to examine his/her own culpability in relation to social problems. At times depressing, and always troublesome, THE WOMAN WHO WALKS INTO DOORS triumphs in the end.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful Social Commentary
Review: In this book, Roddy Doyle creates a character who is just like anyone you'd meet on the street. Through her eyes, we the readers see hope, heartache, pain, and lost dreams as well as a look at greater social ills. This is an excellent book for bibliotherapy or anyone who enjoys a good story from a master storyteller.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful Social Commentary
Review: In this book, Roddy Doyle creates a character who is just like anyone you'd meet on the street. Through her eyes, we the readers see hope, heartache, pain, and lost dreams as well as a look at greater social ills. This is an excellent book for bibliotherapy or anyone who enjoys a good story from a master storyteller.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Amazing
Review: It is was of the most amazing novels I have ever read. It was completely involving, with stunning realism. It is hard to put into words the emotions it stirs up whilest you are reading it. It is absolutely impossible to put down and read without crying for Paula. It is very thought provoking and I would highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Doyle gets under the skin
Review: It might have been easy for Doyle to write Paddy Clarke as he did from the child's point of view, not least because he has been a child. But to write an account of a life from inside a woman's mind is surely no easy task. A hefty leap of the imagination would be required for any man to speak as a woman today within a well defined culture, but to then defy all by embracing the theme of wife battering takes some guts.

Doyle handles it well, with his idiosyncratic writing style, and one is left in no doubt that this woman - Paula - is real. The pride and humiliations she experiences are sharply contrasted with the cowardly male - Charlo - in her life. However, Paula is not without her own foibles - she is no angel and is thoroughly human. This is the Doyle triumph, not allowing his characters to become stereotypical, yet robustly typed enough for me, at least, to know someone who might be Paula (and Charlo).

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant And Very Upsetting
Review: Mr. Roddy Doyle is a brilliant writer, however his work, "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors", is exceptional even for him. The majority of this work is written as a monologue recounting a 17 year marriage, however the voice is that of a woman, and for Mr. Doyle it demonstrates yet again how incredibly talented a writer he is.

You will find this work funny if you find sociopaths amusing. You will find it sexy if violence and rape are entertaining. There is a difference between dark humor and, "the smile of a Nazi". If a joke or two resides in a book it does not qualify as a comedy, and if there is a memory or two of young love that can be called fond, it does not qualify as sexy. If a child is holding an ice cream cone and the contents fall to the ground, the look on the child's face can be called sad. When the question of, "left or right", is not a choice of streets rather the side that sadistic cruelty is inflicted upon the person who is asked, to be judged sad is to read the judgment of an imbecile.

This book is as good as anything this writer has offered to readers, and is by far the darkest work of his I have read. To state this is a book about an abusive relationship is to qualify for making an understatement of epic magnitude. This book is as brutal to read, as the savagery committed within it is an everyday occurrence around the world. Even when a type of justice of finality is visited upon the sadist in this book it is for yet other actions of his.

I really thought I was beyond being upset by anything I would read. Mindless violence while a daily event is hardly surprising. Behavior that manages to disturb due to a writer's ability to truly deliver the pain, insanity, and premeditated cruelty is as important as the crimes committed are repulsive. That which Mr. Doyle writes about is common, that he is able to present what we have become numb to in a manner that is profoundly disturbing is extraordinary.