Finished: The Snapper and The Van

Title(s): The Snapper and The Van

Author: Roddy Doyle

I read The Snapper when I was in high school, and was always interested in completing the Barrytown Trilogy (first book, The Commitments). Purchased a book with all three, read The Commitments, started to re-read The Snapper and slacked off.

Well, after spending three or four days glued to my computer screen during break, I decided I needed to find a different way to spend my time. Generally, during breaks, I get down to business reading right away. But because it has been several months since I have had even a free second to read, I forgot how enjoyable a pastime it is and skipped straight to the computer. Furthermore, I had no idea what to read!

Then, I remembered that I had to complete the Trilogy, and once I picked up my book, I could not stop. I plowed through the first hundred pages of The Snapper, virtually without stopping, in one night. Woke up and finished it the next day, then read two-hundred-and-thirty pages of The Van later that day, hardly even noticing that I had almost finished.

The books are written in a very colloquial Irish style. The casualness, and large amounts of dialogue, make it easy to get lost in these books. Rarely do we see a book in the third-person-omniscient, but these books are, well done, too. In said person, it is easy to confuse the reader by detailing the thoughts and feelings of all characters, but Doyle's writing is anything but confusing.

The only thing I would say is confusing is the dialect used by the characters, but that is only due to the fact that I am not accustomed to calling the bathroom "jacks" and rarely use the word "bollix." Anyway, once the reader begins to understand the dialect, it is easy to get into the flow of the writing.

Excellent books, realistically and relatably written.

Four stars.