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A Star Called Henry (The Last Roundup #1)
by
Roddy Doyle
-- A New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, New York Post, and Independent bestseller
-- A Star Called Henry -- one of only four works of fiction -- was chosen by the editor's of The New York Times Book Review as one of the eleven Best Books of the Year
-- Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Boston Globe, Entert...more
-- A Star Called Henry -- one of only four works of fiction -- was chosen by the editor's of The New York Times Book Review as one of the eleven Best Books of the Year
-- Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Boston Globe, Entert...more
Paperback
Published
September 1st 2000
by Penguin Books
(first published January 1st 1999)
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Mar 10, 2009
Suzanne
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
summer-read,
irish-writing
My favorite Roddy Doyle book, "A Star Called Henry" is the fictional story of a young man, Henry Smart, growing up in the Ireland of the early 20th century. I much preferred this over the more well-known, but sentimental, "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt.
Doyle doesn't mince words, and much of his imagery contradicts the Ireland many of our grandparents may have described to us growing up. It may not be the Ireland they chose to remember and tell us about, but it is the one they chose to leave...more
Doyle doesn't mince words, and much of his imagery contradicts the Ireland many of our grandparents may have described to us growing up. It may not be the Ireland they chose to remember and tell us about, but it is the one they chose to leave...more
After a brilliant opening, I'm afraid this book lost me. I didn't end up caring about anyone or any situation. A great pity, especially considering that I found Doyle's other Irish-influenced fiction to be top rate. Maybe this side-turn into historical epic is some sort of achiles' heel...?
Feb 16, 2009
Sydney
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Patrick O'Hagan
This is the best Roddy Doyle book I have read thus far. It starts off as so many Irish books do...a poverty-stricken young boy, raised in Ireland at the turn of the century. So, it begins as this tragic, yet enjoyable story...one that is reminiscent of Angela's Ashes. At some point you realize this book is not going to end in any typical way, though, because the boy named Henry Smart is one of the founding members of the Irish Republic Army - what many consider to be a terrorist group today. I w...more
I thought this book was really fun. I'm hugely fascinated with early 20th century Irish history, and it was a delight to read about Henry casually rubbing elbows with everyone from James Connolly to Michael Collins. It didn't even strike me as contrived, which is almost amazing considering how clumsily historical figures are typically used in fiction.
What was even better was the sheer amount of life in Doyle's writing; Henry jumped off the page from the very beginning and didn't let up. I loved...more
What was even better was the sheer amount of life in Doyle's writing; Henry jumped off the page from the very beginning and didn't let up. I loved...more
This was the story of an extremely impoverished kid growing up in turn of the century Dublin. But instead of an Angela's Ashes-style weepfest, the kid turns out angry, and much of the book is focused on the peculiar brand of class warfare he engages in for the rest of his life. He participates in the Easter uprising, then becomes a hired killer for the IRA. Doyle makes a good case for a 'meet the new boss, same as the old boss' situation in Ireland after the rebels took over. While the war was a...more
A superior story entertainingly blending the facts of the Irish Rebellion with the fictitious Henry. Doyle tells Henry's story with extraordinary craft, developing the background of the Irish cultural struggle against the British as well as creating an intriguing character to follow.
The adventure, humor, sentiment, history, and development of each really construct an interesting story. Henry's connection to his father and adventures in the Irish city and country are informative, but just plain e...more
The adventure, humor, sentiment, history, and development of each really construct an interesting story. Henry's connection to his father and adventures in the Irish city and country are informative, but just plain e...more
My idea was to finish this book before our honeymoon trip to Ireland - I figured who better to introduce me to the corners of Dublin and expanses of Dingle and Killarney than Roddy Doyle (or possibly Frank McCourt, but "Henry" was already on my husband's shelf).
In retrospect, I should have reversed my plan: that is, seen Ireland's dark history up close, then read Doyle's book. The "star" of the story is not really Henry Smart, but the Frankenstein-ish growth of the Irish Revolution at the turn...more
In retrospect, I should have reversed my plan: that is, seen Ireland's dark history up close, then read Doyle's book. The "star" of the story is not really Henry Smart, but the Frankenstein-ish growth of the Irish Revolution at the turn...more
Roddy Doyle spins a yarn about a brash youngster growing up in the worst of circumstances during the Irish War of Independence in his book A Star Called Henry. Henry was named for his father and dead brother who his mother tells him is a star in the sky. Henry's father has a wooden leg which Henry inherits when his father disappears and Henry ends up raising himself and his brother Victor by whatever means available to him.
While there are shades of Angela's Ashes in this book Henry Smart is more...more
While there are shades of Angela's Ashes in this book Henry Smart is more...more
Roddy Doyle exhibits his penchant for creating power by using a narrative that is richly minimalist in his story about the Irish struggle beginning with the Easter 1916 Uprising in the General Post Office in Dublin. I had flashbacks to the maximalism of The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, which also concerns a violent political standoff in a Post Office. Doyle's style is extremely accessible and vivid and powerful in the way that Hemingway created strength by his use of short, punchy syntax like a new...more
I received this paperback book in the mail from a friend of mine with whom I visited Dublin, Ireland, in May 2007. Even 91 years later, we saw evidence of the fight for independence from Britain by Irish rebels, including bullet holes in the columns in front of the General Post Office, the center of the Easter Rising of 1916.
Irish writer Roddy Doyle in his 1999 historical novel has vividly re-created the Dublin of 1900-1921, including the years of the ill-fated and not-well-organized seven-day...more
Irish writer Roddy Doyle in his 1999 historical novel has vividly re-created the Dublin of 1900-1921, including the years of the ill-fated and not-well-organized seven-day...more
What would an Irish Superman be like? Or, more like it, an Irish Heracles. I think, coming from Ireland in the early part of the 20th century he'd be a figure with more weight on his shoulders than either.
Henry is in some ways the classic larger-than-life (literally) historical novel main character, playing a key, unacknowledged role at various turning points in history. But he is also that Irish Heracles who held my interest despite the expected tragedy of his surroundings and his uncertain mor...more
Henry is in some ways the classic larger-than-life (literally) historical novel main character, playing a key, unacknowledged role at various turning points in history. But he is also that Irish Heracles who held my interest despite the expected tragedy of his surroundings and his uncertain mor...more
I had to read this book for school and I think it describes a very realistic perspective of the Irish history. It becomes clear that all the fighting was not necessarily to gain independence from Great Britain but furthermore to establish a government where militant and selfish Irish men, e.g. Ivan Reynolds, control the people. Moreover it shows the negative effects that every war has: Poverty and fear.
In general you can compare Ireland's struggle for independence with Henry's struggle for love...more
In general you can compare Ireland's struggle for independence with Henry's struggle for love...more
Wow. I remember enjoying this very much when it came out in paperback, about ten years ago, but I'd forgotten just how much. Now that the third installment of Henry Smart's story, The Dead Republic, has been published, I thought I'd give myself a refresher. Wow. This is in my opinion the most "mature" novel of Roddy Doyle, in terms of plot and themes, character development, subplots and all that, but it still has the freshness and vibrancy that has marked almost all of Doyle's work. And that fre...more
I am vaguely intrigued by the character of Henry Smart (or Fergus Nash or Michael Collins or any other such alias he holds). I am intrigued in that by the age of 20 (and the close of this novel) he has done more than most characters accomplish in novels spanning 30 years of adulthood; the 'vaguely' part comes in as I find Henry to be a not entirely cohesive storyteller.
He has a wife (who was his teacher), a handful of alternate egos (used to survive the Irishmen war against the English), a mothe...more
He has a wife (who was his teacher), a handful of alternate egos (used to survive the Irishmen war against the English), a mothe...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a great novel covering the historic events surrounding the Easter Rising and the early years of Irish independence.
Roddy Doyle's writing style pops like bullets ricocheting off the page. The book starts with Henry's birth into the slums of Dublin, Ireland in 1901. The descriptions of the poverty, filth and hunger which drive Henry to the streets at the tender age of five are brutal. Henry is fighting against social injustice and his story takes him to the...more
Roddy Doyle's writing style pops like bullets ricocheting off the page. The book starts with Henry's birth into the slums of Dublin, Ireland in 1901. The descriptions of the poverty, filth and hunger which drive Henry to the streets at the tender age of five are brutal. Henry is fighting against social injustice and his story takes him to the...more
This is brilliant storytelling, it's myth-making and myth-breaking, it's ambitious and subversive, and one of my favourite books. Doyle's complex blend of history and myth and politics is a must read. The characters are remarkable and compelling, and Henry is flat-out magic.
A novel in four parts. In the first we meet Henry Smart, a street kid on the streets of Dublin, at the beginning of the 20th Century. His story is similar to that of Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes, the lanes of Limerick swapped for the streets of the Dublin slums. His father is a one legged bouncer for Dolly Oblong's brothel, where all the girls ("hoors") are called Maria. Like Frankie McCourt, Henry Smart has a younger brother die in the night, victim of the grinding Irish poverty.
In the secon...more
In the secon...more
This book is just fantastic. It takes the history every Irish person has grown up with and makes it into a living breathing scene that you're slap bang in the middle of. The characters, the legends, the scurmishes that are deeply familiar to us suddenly shout in our ear, you can taste their smells on your tongue. For me, that was the pure joy in this book. It was like it was connecting me to something deeply personal from the history that has surrounded me all my life. No, it's not a very object...more
This is a really funny and charming in book. The book follows the life of a poor Irish lad named Henry growing up in Dublin. Saying his family is dysfunctional is an understatement. I mean, this kid roughed it growing up and nowhere in this book will you hear any whining. The things he goes through and the things he does are extremely interesting and ridiculous. As a character, I found him charming and humorous. In my opinion, he seems a little like Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean exc...more
Great book. Traces the life and times of the street urchin Henry Smart in the dirty, disease ridden streets of ealry twentieth century Dublin.
It starts with Henry's childhood into the slums and deprevation of British ruled Ireland. As Henry grows up he is indoctrinated into the Republican revolution as a foot soldier - so Doyle is able to depict the average man's fight against imperial rule, rather than the well known leaders of the Republican fight.
Doyle's narritive can take a while to get us...more
It starts with Henry's childhood into the slums and deprevation of British ruled Ireland. As Henry grows up he is indoctrinated into the Republican revolution as a foot soldier - so Doyle is able to depict the average man's fight against imperial rule, rather than the well known leaders of the Republican fight.
Doyle's narritive can take a while to get us...more
I have now added a bit at the end of this review, thoughts that have later occured to me.
The making and breaking of an IRA man. I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into when I started this one, but I am very glad I read it. No regrets - on reading it that is. I had a hard time with the dialogue, but it was right. I liked the whole book - the start, the middle , the end. Easter Monday 1916 - read about it through Henry Smart's eyes. It stands out, but I wont say why. Truly - a ggod desc...more
The making and breaking of an IRA man. I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into when I started this one, but I am very glad I read it. No regrets - on reading it that is. I had a hard time with the dialogue, but it was right. I liked the whole book - the start, the middle , the end. Easter Monday 1916 - read about it through Henry Smart's eyes. It stands out, but I wont say why. Truly - a ggod desc...more
This is historical fiction about a boy who grows up on the unbelievably squalid streets of Dublin in the early 1900s and comes of age as a member of what would become the Irish Republican Army. For example, as a 14-year old, he is part of the Easter Rising.
Real people (Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera) make cameo appearances in the book, and the battles and destruction of Dublin are probably accurately described. Someone interested in getting this perspective on Irish history would probably like...more
Real people (Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera) make cameo appearances in the book, and the battles and destruction of Dublin are probably accurately described. Someone interested in getting this perspective on Irish history would probably like...more
My favorite book of all time, ever, is a teensy weensie little tome called "At Swim, Two Boys," a sprawling Irish novel, a love story set against the Easter 1916 rebellion against the British in Dublin. Discovering this book caused me to seek out other modern Irish literature and even take a grad school class in the genre. I fell in love with Roddy Doyle's childhood-as-breakneck-play-and-heartbreak novel "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha," and found things to enjoy about his earlier novel "The Snapper" too...more
Henry is a young man living in Dublin during the Easter uprising. The book begins with his childhood and bleak it is. Hunger is a word with meaning to him. He comes into his own during the Uprising and never looks back. The characters he meets are quite something, some are real ones like Michael Collins and some are individiuals like his grandma, who will only give him information about his parents if he brings her books to read, preferably written by women. He falls in love with a forbidden per...more
This is more 3.5 stars for me. I really, really five-star loved the first bit of the book when Henry Smart is recounting his family tree. It reads a little like "Angela's Ashes" (which, ironically, I didn't really care for) but the pacing and rawness and tone are just fantastic.
I loved some of the descriptions in the book...the sound of the Irish revolution being bicycle chains... and the way that Doyle bent time and illustrated the passage of time to fit the needs of the narrative. I loved som...more
I loved some of the descriptions in the book...the sound of the Irish revolution being bicycle chains... and the way that Doyle bent time and illustrated the passage of time to fit the needs of the narrative. I loved som...more
I had heard a lot about Roddy Doyle writing style and began this book hoping I'd like it. After the first chapter I was apprehensive. After the second, I had lost interest. It took me a long time to finish the book. Every time I came back to it I found it even more depressing. I realise that this is a difficult part of Irish history, but everybody remembers at least one good thing happening to them in their life.
I've always been a stubborn person and will always finish a book and was hoping tha...more
I've always been a stubborn person and will always finish a book and was hoping tha...more
I cannot seem to escape this genre of Irish historical fiction series. First, "The Galway Chronicle" and now "The Last Roundup." In it, Roddy Doyle has created Henry Smart, a cast-off child of the streets of Dublin in the years leading up to the Easter Rising. Although it is not written, in the strict sense, in Joycean "stream of consciousness," it does contain elements of that style in a sort of frenzied way. Doyle has noted that he was not a particular fan of Ulysses' Leopold Bloom, but Henry...more
Anything by Roddy Doyle is worth reading, of course, and this novel all the more so because of its uniqueness relative to his other books. Filtering events through its title character, the novel moves with verve, humor, and irreverence through the painful moments of early twentieth century history in Ireland, making it simultaneously an unconventional bildungsroman and a meditation on the vagaries of historical narrative. I never ended up caring all that deeply for Henry Smart, and perhaps notic...more
I have become a huge Roddy Doyle fan. I picked up Oh, Play That Thing while I was in Ireland (well Northern Ireland), because I happened to know he was Irish, and got very lucky. This is the first book in a trilogy (oh, play that thing is the second), and so far Doyle is crushing it. He has a poetic style of writing that beautiful combines humor with harsh realism.
The story is about Henry Smart. He starts off the son of a missing father and is living on his own in the streets by age 5 or so. He...more
The story is about Henry Smart. He starts off the son of a missing father and is living on his own in the streets by age 5 or so. He...more
I have liked Roddy Doyle's other books and was looking forward to Henry. I was a little disappointed. It's a good read, but there was something about the style which grated on me every so often. Also, I actually skipped some parts of the story because I was not interested... I wanted to get on with the meat of the plot.
Overall, I liked it, but not as much as his other work... particularly The Commitments and The Van.
Overall, I liked it, but not as much as his other work... particularly The Commitments and The Van.
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Roddy Doyle (Irish: Ruaidhrí Ó Dúill) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He won the Booker Prize in 1993.
Doyle grew up in Kilbarrack, Dublin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from University College, Dublin. He spent several years as an English and geography teacher before becoming...more
More about Roddy Doyle...
Doyle grew up in Kilbarrack, Dublin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from University College, Dublin. He spent several years as an English and geography teacher before becoming...more
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