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12th out of 269 books
—
260 voters
The Snapper (The Barrytown Trilogy #2)
by
Roddy Doyle
Meet the Rabbitte family, motley bunch of loveable ne'er-do-wells whose everyday purgatory is rich with hangovers, dogshit and dirty dishes. When the older sister announces her pregnancy, the family is forced to rally together and discover the strangeness of intimacy. But the question remains: which friend of the family is the father of Sharon's child?
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
June 6th 1991
by Vintage
(first published 1990)
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This book is almost totally dialogue, hilarious dialogue. Back with the Rabbitte clan after The Commitmentsand they are in fine form Jimmy is a DJ, Les is no where to be found, the twins are irritating as always, Darren is sweet and enthusiastic and Sharon is in a spot of trouble. This book focuses on Sharon and Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. I love Jimmy Rabbitte Sr, he is is hilarious the whole way through his reactions are never what you expect and always entertaining. No matter what important matter is...more
Jul 20, 2009
Mallory
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Irish people, dialogue fans
Recommended to Mallory by:
Maryanne Mazzola, Kristen McMahon
Like Juno, but without the annoying hipster music and with lots of drunk Irish people yelling at each other.
This was a fun read. You know I embarrassed myself a few times by laughing out loud on the subway. This story chronicles a young, single, Irish girl from a blue-collar Dublin family who finds herself pregnant. She won't reveal who the father is. Despite the Lifetime-movie setup, this book is hardly melodramatic. It's a funny, lighthearted look at pregnancy. The dialect and conversations ar...more
This was a fun read. You know I embarrassed myself a few times by laughing out loud on the subway. This story chronicles a young, single, Irish girl from a blue-collar Dublin family who finds herself pregnant. She won't reveal who the father is. Despite the Lifetime-movie setup, this book is hardly melodramatic. It's a funny, lighthearted look at pregnancy. The dialect and conversations ar...more
My girlfriend suggested that I liked this book 'cause I "love all things Irish." While not entirely true, ever since taking a class in Irish Lit in grad school, I have loved most Irish lit and pretty much everything written by Roddy Doyle. This book is a sequel, of sorts, to The Commitments, and the middle book of Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy focusing on the Rabbitte family. While The Commitments was about Jimmy's attempt to form an R&B/soul band in Dublin, this book is about his sister Sharon'...more
Picked this one up at Epilogue Books in their final days of business. I'd seen the movie years before and had enjoyed it, so I figured what the hell. It's the story of a working class Irish family, and what happens to them after their eldest daughter, 20-year-old Sharon, becomes pregnant and refuses to tell who the father is. Despite the subject matter, it's actually a light-hearted, comedic tale.
I found it a bit hard to get into, for it is full of Irish slang and accents, but after about 50 pag...more
I found it a bit hard to get into, for it is full of Irish slang and accents, but after about 50 pag...more
I think for a lot of Roddy Doyle's work you have to be Irish to fully appreciate the dialogue and slang. He has a habit of slipping in colloquialisms that only make sense to the Irish. I lived in Dublin city for three years and let me tell you, there are a lot of Jimmy Snrs about!
The Snapper's pace is good, the characters are hilarious and true to life. I loved the bit with the racing bikes myself. It's a story that is uplifting, because although there is very few happy moments, people seem sat...more
The Snapper's pace is good, the characters are hilarious and true to life. I loved the bit with the racing bikes myself. It's a story that is uplifting, because although there is very few happy moments, people seem sat...more
It sure was fun to re-read this, it really is pretty much exactly like the movie--excellently played by Colm Meaney. It reads pretty much like a play--lots of dialogue and written out like how they speak in slang and everything.
I love that there is a bit more in the written version...stuff like Jimmy Sr. deciding to go out front and cut the lawn (I imagine its a bit hard to keep up with in green Ireland, if my experience living in Seattle is of any comparison) He decides to cut the lawn because...more
I love that there is a bit more in the written version...stuff like Jimmy Sr. deciding to go out front and cut the lawn (I imagine its a bit hard to keep up with in green Ireland, if my experience living in Seattle is of any comparison) He decides to cut the lawn because...more
I loved this book so much I would read it out loud to myself just to give myself a 2nd laugh. Lots of the F word on EVERY page and it just added to the flow. I loved interpreting the little bit of Irish dialect which was included (which wasn't hard-actually fun) and reading this book was like reading a play. The author didn't waste precious ink on flowery descriptions of scenery. He saved it for the impact of the statement. Simple lines like "They roared." referring to a group of girls in a bar...more
The eldest daughter in a large, blue collar Dublin family is pregnant and will not tell who the father is. As the truth is revealed, the pregnancy becomes a neighborhood scandal that draws in the rest of her family. A whole, often hilarious world is created with just vivid dialogue, especially when the story follows the surprisingly sympathetic father of the pregnant girl, whose pride is affected by the things that people say about his daughter.
"The Snapper" is collected with Doyle's other brie...more
"The Snapper" is collected with Doyle's other brie...more
Mar 20, 2009
Stephanie "Jedigal"
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Stephanie "Jedigal" by:
Bookclub
Shelves:
bibliobabes,
to-reread-someday
Fun book. Almost all dialogue, very colloquial, brings the thick Irish accent right into your mind... This is a short book, but a LOT is covered!! Apparently if you eliminate description, you can cover a lot of ground. Story revolves around Sharon, a young woman who gets pregnant by a friend's father (although she won't reveal his identity), and tells how she and her family deals with it. Although the relationship between Sharon and her father is central, her mom and several siblings play large...more
Such a weird book! There aren't really any life lessons or lasting impressions outside the ones you might expect out of an Irish (?Scottish??) author-- people eating fish and chips out of newspaper, drunk people, people walking along the roads, and family members screaming colloquial obscenities at each otter. Having never been to Ireland or Scotland, I don't know if this is a stereotypical depiction or if the poor play out their stereotypes as well overseas as they do at home, but I this one is...more
Apr 09, 2013
Elizabeth
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Readers who enjoyed Steinbeck's Cannery Row
Recommended to Elizabeth by:
Kurt
3.5 instead of 3. I keep waffling on just how much I may like this book. Part of my enjoyment came from the fact that I was reading Iris Murdoch's Jackson's Dilemma at the same time & The Snapper dealt with some of the same situations in a more direct, refreshing way. I also liked that The Snapper held some of the seeds of Doyle's short story "Bullfighting." So in contrast to other books, this novel was fun to play around with. But the story can seem lacking in direction at times & some...more
***SPOILER***
Twenty year-old Sharon Rabbitte is raped in a nightclub parking lot and discovers she's pregnant, but she was so blind drunk when the rape occurred that she can't remember who the man was.
Does this sound funny to you? No? Me neither, but the blurbs on the back say it is- "...another winning comedy about family life in north Dublin." And "Mr. Doyle has an astonishing talent for turning the humdrum into high comedy...Even the family dog rings true." Okay, the family dog gets left out...more
First ten pages, when browsed, killed. Funny, biting, humane, subtle.
***
last ten pages, when perused, killed again. Moving, well-wrought, sympathetic yet deeply comic, fuckin' hilarious and subtly felt.
The Rabbitte clan is a boisterous, goofy, cross, sloppy, warm-hearted, emotionally dense (that's more the Da, but you know how it is...) and Sharon is a great character. Doyle writes with constant wit, acuity (he's got working class Dublin down like a frown, apparantly that's the field he's plow...more
***
last ten pages, when perused, killed again. Moving, well-wrought, sympathetic yet deeply comic, fuckin' hilarious and subtly felt.
The Rabbitte clan is a boisterous, goofy, cross, sloppy, warm-hearted, emotionally dense (that's more the Da, but you know how it is...) and Sharon is a great character. Doyle writes with constant wit, acuity (he's got working class Dublin down like a frown, apparantly that's the field he's plow...more
Doyle doesn't present much of a plot in The Snapper, as it's a simple tale about family strife, intimacy, and togetherness. But it's more a snapshot of working class Ireland in a small town, and there it excels. Nobody gets the 'sound' better than Doyle, and his interpretation of the rhythm of working class Irish conversation is fantastic.
It happens to be a good story as well, and for all the family disfunction, there isn't a character in The Snapper you can't like, or relate to.
It happens to be a good story as well, and for all the family disfunction, there isn't a character in The Snapper you can't like, or relate to.
What's funnier than unwanted pregnancy? Not much, if you're Roddy Doyle. Sharon, the oldest daughter of the Rabbitte family, is knocked up by a man she won't identify. In the aftermath of the subsequent minor scandal, her family rallies around to support her, each in their own weird way.
Mostly, though, this book is about Jimmy Sr., father of the Rabbitte family - an old-fashioned working-class Dubliner who largely just gets drunk and says funny things. It's your typical story of an emotionally...more
Mostly, though, this book is about Jimmy Sr., father of the Rabbitte family - an old-fashioned working-class Dubliner who largely just gets drunk and says funny things. It's your typical story of an emotionally...more
This book is funny and entertaining. Set in 1980's Dublin, the twenty year old daughter of a working class family gets pregnant and shenanigans ensue. Out of Doyle's books, this one is my favorite. I love that the family rallies around her and the use of language. Spellings like “Jaysis” make me laugh, and I learned a lot about writing in mostly dialogue and hope to use it to make my own more fluid. I recommend this book to anyone who likes dark comedy.
Roddy Doyle is brilliant. His writing style/voice is so unique in every one of his books. While his voice is very different than that of other Irish authors, his way of giving intimate glimpses into the less-than-perfect lives of his characters & the sometimes downright upsetting things that experience/do, is told in with a comedic tone that's very reminiscent of Frank McCourt in this way. The stories are almost more heartbreaking because of the naively hilarious way in which they are told,...more
May 07, 2012
Nina J. Kors
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
neutri-colpa-mia
Un altro libro che mi è piaciuto tanto e mi ha fatto ridere. I dialoghi sono perfetti e il libro scorre.
Ma, sebbene siano passati 16 anni da quando l'ho letto, mi pare strano non ricordare nessuna scena se non un vago senso di piacere.
Forse a volte i libri, come il cibo, arirvano nel momento giusto, svolgono la loro funzione e poi vengono accantonati nella memoria.
Ma, sebbene siano passati 16 anni da quando l'ho letto, mi pare strano non ricordare nessuna scena se non un vago senso di piacere.
Forse a volte i libri, come il cibo, arirvano nel momento giusto, svolgono la loro funzione e poi vengono accantonati nella memoria.
Jul 17, 2010
Molly Westerman
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone wanting a good laugh; people interested in Irish fiction/culture; parents and parents-to-be
Shelves:
pregnancy-birth-parenting
I've read this book several times and always, always find myself laughing out loud. It's about a working-class Irish family (the Rabbittes, also the focus of Doyle's The Commitments and The Van) and an unmarried daughter's pregnancy. The family--dysfunctional, loving, close-knit, and a big mess--curse like sailors and drink quite seriously; their dynamics, and Sharon's experience of her pregnancy, are treated with an interesting combination of emotional nuance and (sometimes slapstick) hilarity....more
Such a wonderful book. Roddy Doyle has a conversational way of writing, so much that it's hard to step back and say you don't actually know the people he's writing about. This story is about a 20 year old girl who got knocked up by someone in her village, and her relationship with her father as the pregnancy progresses. A wonderful story!
I had a hard time getting into this one in which the plot and humorous aspects were minimal. Set in Ireland it deals with a family's reaction to the unplanned pregnancy of the twenty year old daughter. It is also obvious that this was written some twenty odd years ago as these days a pregnant mother drinking would be frowned upon.
I chose to read this book as the author was on the Irish Authors list from Goodreads. It was one of the stupidest books I have ever read with no redeeming value at all. I kept hoping the end would give a snappy finish, but it was stupid-stupid-stupid, with the F word being the author's favorite expression.
I think I liked this one a bit more than The Commitments, though I'm not sure why. The fact that Sharon was always drinking during her pregnancy didn't stop being funny to me, and I also enjoyed when Jimmy Sr. was reading the pregnancy books. Anyway, this is more slice of life Irish fiction from Roddy Doyle.
Great, a proper kitchen sink drama, with 'real' people that you can relate to! I've only just discovered Roddy Doyle,I read 'The Woman That Walked into Doors', very harrowing, but, unfortunately, probably very true. Can't put his books down, I need my next Roddy Doyle fix!
I couldn't put this book down. Another great read from Roddy Doyle. I laughed out loud more than once reading this book. Roddy has a unique gift in that he uses dialogue like no other author I have read. I felt like a fly on the wall in Rabitte's home and I loved it!!
This book reminded me how much I like Roddy Doyle books. Well written, with characters you had sympathy for, and an interesting account of the '80s in Ireland (I especially liked the main character, who is pregnant and spends most nights in the pub getting drunk!!).
the snapper is one of my favourite books, ive read it atleast three times, and everytime i find it just as funny - its filled with dublin wit and i defy you not to laugh out loud while reading it!i would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!
I loved the movie (and the others in the series) but I couldn't get past the graphic descriptions of the pregnancy and what it does to your body. Yuck! And, while the dialogue was amusing, I just wanted something to "happen".
This book was initially hard to read. Not hard to get into, just hard to read. It is written in an Irish dialect. The story was funny, poignant and cute. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure I would recommend it.
So many people love The Commitments. Whether that's because they love the movie or they've actually read the book, I don't know. Which is a shame, really, because although it is a good story, I think it's the weakest of the Barrytown Trilogy. I much prefer The Snapper. It is warm, full of the Irish spirit, and hiLARious.
This story gives you a much fuller picture of the Rabbitte family than either of the other books in the trilogy. While The Commitments focues on Jimmy, Jr and the younger crowd,...more
This story gives you a much fuller picture of the Rabbitte family than either of the other books in the trilogy. While The Commitments focues on Jimmy, Jr and the younger crowd,...more
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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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Jun 27, 2011 01:30pm