It was interesting to read about domestic violence from a woman's point of view...written by a man. The first part of the book felt significantly different from the second part--the tone, the voice, the narrative itself. One part raised the questions and shuffled the puzzle pieces around so they wouldn't quite connect for the reader, and the second brought the reader directly into this woman's psyche as her husband is literally beating her soul out of her. Certain segments were brutal and almost too much to read, but that's what kept me reading--the fact that Roddy Doyle could have written this convincing female character and that I, as a woman, sympathized and understood her. E poi vorrei farlo anche a tutte le persone, medici infermiere vicini di casa parenti colleghi, che fanno finta di non vedere i lividi, le fratture, le bruciature, gli occhi pesti, i denti saltati, i capelli strappati, credendo, come un bambino crede alle favole, come una donna crede a quell'uomo che dice di amarla, che esistono davvero, ancora oggi, le donne che sbattono nelle porte. Roddy Doyle introduces us to her in all her complexity. Through him she tells her life story. We meet the young, pretty girl who “swooned the first time” she saw Charlo, the man she married and we get the measure of the enormous sexual attraction between them. In the book two narratives are woven together, the happy story of Paula's life and the unhappy one. There is the story of the girl who spends most of her honeymoon in bed having a great time with Charlo, conceiving their first child, and the woman who is repeatedly beaten up and cowed by him. The bruises and broken bones, as we might readily guess, are the result, not of accidents, but of marital violence and Charlo takes her to the hospital, not out of concern for her, but to make sure she doesn't tell. Your early work is filled with rapid-fire dialogue and with humor that helps alleviate —and even celebrate —the hardships of working-class life. In Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha you used humor to make the darkness more tolerable. In this novel the humor is less prevalent and the novel is driven less by dialogue than by a strong narrative voice. What’s the reason behind this evolution?

The Woman Who Walked into Doors | Theatre | The Guardian The Woman Who Walked into Doors | Theatre | The Guardian

Do you view yourself as part of the Irish literary tradition? Which writers have been influential in your work? Tenho um tímpano rebentado. Sítios onde deviam estar dentes. Marcas de queimaduras. Uma dor nas costas o dia inteiro. Um dedo partido. Cicatrizes, cicatrizes, cicatrizes,... Christgau, Robert. "A Class Act: Roddy Doyle's 'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors' ". robertchristgau.com. Robert Christgau. I decided to re-read this before reading the sequel Paula Spencer. I had forgotten just how good this book is, just how well Doyle does a female protagonist. The book is painful and sad and unflinching in it's descriptions of marital abuse and alcoholism but as always, Doyle adds in warmth and humor to make it all hurt less.Paula Spencer, nee O'Leary, is 37 years old. She looks much older, although she might have been good-looking once. The booze and the fags have taken their toll. She has four children, one of whom is an addict. They have not been well fed, probably because the money goes on vodka, and they've all been bed wetters. She was married to a small time crook who managed to get himself killed by the Garda during a bungled robbery. He was a charmer, though, and handsome, always very concerned about her when she had yet another fall under the influence. He would take her to the hospital and stay with her whilst she was treated.

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Penguin Books UK

I like seeing into other people’s houses. Funny, I hardly ever feel jealous. And I should, because some of the houses are incredible. Huge. Some of the stuff in them, I wouldn’t want most of it myself but it must have cost a fortune. Dark furniture, flat-screened tellies, CD players with tiny little speakers. I love music. There’s one house I do on Mondays, in Clontarf; they’ve a great collection of CDS, all the seventies stuff. I got her to show me how to use the CD player. There was no problem. I like her, the owner. Miriam. We’re the same age. We both went to the same dances when we were kids. I don’t remember her. She married a doctor. I married Charlo. "In 2018 the Gate Theatre commissioned Doyle to write a stage adaptation of The Snapper. The show was directed by Róisín McBrinn and was revived in 2019. [23] Awards and honours [ edit ]