Dublin's Got Soul

The Commitments - Roddy Doyle - Book 

As I'm now living in Dublin I thought I should read an Irish classic, Roddy Doyle. Doyle has written a trilogy called the Barrytown Trilogy; The Commitments in the first in this. In total Doyle wrote ten novels for adults, books for children, screenplays and dozens of short stories.

The reason why Doyle is so famous is due to his writing style. When you and I write things how they are spelt, he writes them how they are said. 

His Barrytown novels are based on the working class in Dublin and his writing includes 'Jaysis' (Jesus) and 'eijit' (Idiot). He doesn't use speech marks, or chapters, or well anything else you can think that would structure a 'normal' book. Doyle pushes the limits of literacy and it really pays off. 

Some of his novels were made into films and his books are used in schools/colleges teaching youngsters about the art of language. 

I have read the first in the trilogy The Commitments. It based on a group of working class kids in Dublin forming a band and troubles and turmoils they face trying to make it. 

The band 'And And And!' go to Jimmy Rabitte for advice on where they should take their music. Jimmy is the music king in Dublin and he steers them towards soul music, gives them a new band name 'The Commitments' and new names themselves. They begin recruiting for musicians and a singer which leads onto them meeting some colourful characters. 

The thing about this writing style that makes it so unique is because everything is spelt phonetically, you say it that way in your head, even if you don't have the accent to go along with it! 

The novel is full of colourful characters, each one bringing their own life and energy into the book. Even the characters such as Imelda, Bernie and Natalie who have fairly small roles in the book bring life into each one of their sentences. 

This is quite a feel-good story with a few sad bits thrown in. Jimmy continues on through the Barrytown trilogy and what a main character he is. Jimmy is calm, cool and collected with the odd swear word thrown in. Because well he is Irish after all! 

It can be difficult to follow at times especially if you're not familiar with the Irish terms.  Because of the way Doyle writes there isn't such thing as structure so you have to open your mind while reading it.

7/10

I think if I didn't live in Dublin it would be harder to follow. However,  it is definitely a good read and I would recommend it to anyone, maybe get an Irish dictionary to go with it!