If you don't read this book I'm gonna give you a dead leg! (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle)

Member Name: Whitehorse

Product:	Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle
Date:	03/07/03 (3108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully written, Funny, Very moving

Disadvantages: It'll probably make you cry

I vaguely remembered hearing about this book some years back but I didn't think it would appeal. I'm much more you're fantasy magic sort of gal. The idea of reading something about a ten year old kid brought back far too many memories of having to read "My Pal Spadger" at school which I loathed more than I loathed custard. Back then I wanted to read about horses and nothing else but horses - the occasional book about dogs when pushed.

So Paddy Clarke Hahaha is there on the local tat stand, dumped with a box of books on politics, pages suspiciously looking like mould had gotten a hold. I leafed through and figured I should broaden my horizons a bit. Afterall, it won The Booker Prize in 1993 and even though I haven't read it read I know they made a great choice with The Life of Pi.

"I prefer magnifying glasses to matches. We spent afternoons burning little piles of cut grass. I loved watching the grass change colour. I loved it when the flame began to race through the grass. You had more control with a magnifying glass. It was easier but it took more skill. If the sun stayed out long enough you could saw through a sheet of paper and not have to touch it, just put down a stone in each corner to stop it from blowing away. We'd have a race; burn, blow it out, burn, blow it out. Last to burn the paper completely in half had to let the other fella burn his hand. We'd draw a man on the paper and burn holes in him; in his hands and his feet like Jesus. We drew long hair on him. We left his mickey till last."

Welcome to the world of Paddy Clake, 10 years old living in Dublin. The year is 1968 (the year I was born incidentally) and Paddy is growing up in a tough world. His family are poor, mother constantly pregnant. Paddy already has two baby sisters and a younger brother named Francis (he calls him Sinbad). Paddy tells us everything about his life in the unself-conscious babble of a youngster jumping from

one conversation to another at frightening speed, asking question after question. Paddy's tough and probably wants to be tougher. He hates Sinbad and he loves him. He can move from his best friend being the best thing on earth to his worst enemy. He is bully and victim, class hero and most hated. He runs and jumps, pinches stuff he shouldn't, experiments with swearing and smoking, wrestles with the pre-dawning of sexuality and hates Mr. Henno at school. He pours lighter fluid in Sinbad's mouth and lights it, he pours salt on slugs and watches them burn - deep in the middle of the night he holds his breath as his parents begin to fight - again.

Paddy Clarke leads us on a journey back to childhood - to those days when everything was 'brilliant' or everything was bad. He reminds of 'Chinese burns' and 'dead legs', lies that so easily trip off the tongue when you know you're in trouble, How much you can hate your best friend, teachers, parents and how much you love them too. How you know Santa doesn't exist anymore but there's still a tiny piece of you that hopes he does. Paddy Clarke is every bit as complex, naive, sweet and nasty as you or I.

Roddy Doyle made a name for himself with the novel The Commitments and he later wrote the script for the film of the same name. Heralding from Ireland himself, he captures the Dublin lilt with ease. However it is the grace in which he can so eloquently express the pattern of speech of a 10 year old. His attention to detail is profound yet the novel moves fluidly along as if Paddy himself is gushing beside us.

I didn't expect to enjoy this novel but I was glued to it within the first few paragraphs. I loved how Paddy is constantly questioning and commenting on life and his voracious appetite for facts. I can remember being like that as a kid - endlessly wanting to know and know more; hating those non-committal answers of parents and stock phrases
like
'because I said so'. I always wanted to know why.

Paddy wants to know why Da doesn't love Ma anymore. He wants to know what he can do about it. He even thinks it might be his fault.

I think the genius of this novel is in the way it seems so utterly unstructured. There are no chapters, it's just 282 pages of Paddy talking. Yet weaved into this is an incredible poignancy as the arguments between Paddy's parents become more serious. We literally watch Paddy loose his innocence. It's like a slow process of erosion. On more than one occasion it tapped into my own memories of holding my breath, listening in the dark as muffled shouts float from somewhere else in the house. Despite the fact that we see Sinbad only through the eyes of Paddy the reader too is drawn into his world. I found myself horrified and angry at how oblivious parents can be to their children and how their behaviour affects them.

I feel that everyone should read this book, especially those like me who come from the era in which the novel is set. It is a heady reminder of those days that I would never want back yet also sometimes a soft nudge to remind us of the good times too. I chose the quote above because I too could remember hours of patiently sitting with magnifying glass in one hand and paper in the other. I also remember lego and making mazes for ladybirds (poor things!), catching tadpoles in jars, tea and cake at my Nan's on a Sunday afternoon and a time when schools were a place where the teachers instructions were heeded without question. You were too petrified of doing anything else! As Paddy says more than once you knew you'd 'get killed' if you didn't!

Paddy Clarke Hahaha is a novel that explores many themes without becoming simply a social commentary. Doyle reminds of how vicious childhood can be, how innocent, how soul destroying, how free.

The novel ends in the only way it could (which I
won't
remotely give away here) Suffice is to say that initially I felt a tiny bit disappointed as I had expected something different. A few hours later though, I realised that this in itself was part of it's brilliance - that childhood is filled with expectation and disappointment in dysfunctional families. Doyle ended Paddy's story perfectly and now I find myself wondering what Paddy would be like as an adult - Paddy and Sinbad infact.

This book will most likely make you laugh, it'll trigger memories, it'll make you want to get out your colouring books and jump in puddles. It'll also pull at your heartstrings without mercy leaving you perhaps in agreement with me that people should have to apply for a licence before they breed.

Summary: