Less than 90 pages long, Roddy Doyle’s latest book sounds like a must have… I must admit I have never heard three reviewers so obviously break down in laughter over just one book as on Saturday Review (12.02 in) this weekend.
This extract from the Irish Times Review section is all I have to say on the matter, till I have a copy in my hand:
– Have yeh made your mind up yet?
– A pint – same as always. I haven’t had to make me mind up since –
– I meant the election.
– Ah, shove it.
– Well, it’s either tha’ or the Greek default.
– Alrigh’ – fuck it. Who’s goin’ to
win?
– Hard to say. They’re all shite.
– I seen Mary Davis’s Sex an’ the City posters.
– There yeh go. An’ Mitchell. He said you can see the house he grew up in – in Inchicore, like – from the window of the Áras. An’ he’s goin’ to look out at it every mornin’.
– An’ shout, Fuck you, Inchicore.
– He could get the queen to do it with him the next time she’s over.
– A bondin’ exercise.
– Exactly. She probably never gets the chance to say “fuck” at home.
– Talkin’ abou’ fuck an’ the queen. What’s McGuinness up to?
– Says he’ll only pay himself the average industrial wage.
– The fuckin’ eejit.
– I’m with yeh. He says he’ll employ six young people with the money left over.
– Cuttin’ the grass an’ washin’ diesel. What about the Senator?
– Ah Jaysis. It looks like Greece is goin’ to miss its deficit target an’ has fuck-all chance of avertin’ bankruptcy.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty