The Ha Ha (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle)

Member Name: GodsLittleAngel

Product:	Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle
Date:	05/10/01 (457 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Humouress, Witty, Clever

Disadvantages: Sad, reminds you of your cruelty as a child

One of the wittiest and sharpest books I have read this year has to be "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" by Roddy Doyle. In his Barrytown trilogy (The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van), Roddy Doyle brilliantly explored family life through various members of the Rabbite family. These three novels combined comedy and sadness to such effect that they established the author as a major new talent. In "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" Doyle maintains the Barrytown/Dublin setting but focuses on a different family, and the narrative point of view is changed to a boy of ten - Paddy Clarke - growing up fast and discovering new aspects of childhood as each day passes.

Paddy Clarke has a realism which helps to explain Doyle's success. Through this realism the reader can rediscover some of the forgotten tragic and comic areas of childhood.

"Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" deals with Paddy and his hatred for his brother, peer group and his mother and fathers rocky marriage in 1960's Ireland. Paddy tells the story throughout the novel and due to this sometimes we are not understanding the situation fully, just as we do not fully understand the ramblings of a ten year old's day at school. Roddy Doyle's use of dialogue in this novel brings you back to your childhood as you remember how cruel children can be to each other,

"-Really, the referee will have to take control of the situation.
-Shut up you.
-I'm supposed to talk. It's my job.
-Shut up; your dad's and alco."

This insult is deliberately chosen to hurt. Aiden's father is an alcoholic and his friends don't think twice about using this as against Aiden and his brother, Liam.

Paddy's brother Sinbad, is another victim of this cruelty, however it is physically. Three of the boys, one being his brother Paddy, hold a lighter and match to Sinbad's mouth waiting for him to open it. Eventually his mouth is force
d open and Sinbad looks like he has no lips for two weeks. Another example of child cruelty.

Paddy's understanding of his mother and fathers marriage and their problems is very simple, and we feel we'd like to know what is really going on, but as its Paddy's story we do not get to know this. This, in a way, changes our perception of things in Paddy's life.

Roddy Doyle's dialogue and style, to the reader, is comic, with its flat, matter of factness. But also deep, even though it's from a ten year old's viewpoint. "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" is a superb novel which succeeds realistically conveying childhood. Through the novel, the reader can look back on his own childhood and remember incidents which mirror many of their own. Doyle's techniques are supremely effective in conveying a child's view of life. The reader can, as a result, almost take a step back and rediscover himself.

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