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What Members Thought
Murray gets a lot right in this novel.
I’m not usually a fan of books that take place in schools or have teachers, or students as their main characters, but I really enjoyed Skippy Dies. Maybe because it takes place in an Irish school that’s Mr. Chipps meets Alec’s Droogs meets My So Called Life I was able to put aside my usual distaste for the genre.
He nails the fouled up nature of male adolescence without being either romantic, and therefore disconnected from the time or judgemental. He gets ...more
I’m not usually a fan of books that take place in schools or have teachers, or students as their main characters, but I really enjoyed Skippy Dies. Maybe because it takes place in an Irish school that’s Mr. Chipps meets Alec’s Droogs meets My So Called Life I was able to put aside my usual distaste for the genre.
He nails the fouled up nature of male adolescence without being either romantic, and therefore disconnected from the time or judgemental. He gets ...more
You can't get much more ambitious than naming your novel with a spoiler. This book is a saga of a preparatory academy in Ireland mixing a modern perspective of story with some mythological Irish imagery, but never loses track of the inner lives of its characters and an ever driving plot.
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I felt guilty picking up this tome instead of Infinite Jest this winter, especially because Skippy Dies has more than a little bit in common with DFWs monster. I only managed to get through the first 100 pages of Infinite Jest in January. I finished Skippy Dies. Which is something.
So, you may like this book if you enjoy boarding school stories (check), coming-of-age novels (check), pitch dark humor (yup), and outlandishly colorful sex talk from Irish adolescents (sure, why not). You must also en ...more
So, you may like this book if you enjoy boarding school stories (check), coming-of-age novels (check), pitch dark humor (yup), and outlandishly colorful sex talk from Irish adolescents (sure, why not). You must also en ...more
The book was a finalist for the Booker Prize. Young boarders in an Irish school talk about sex, buy and sell drugs and talk about string theory (well, at least one does). It really left me cold.
First half was a five, last hundred pages lost me. Still, loved the parts I loved.
Amazing. Beautifully written and structured.
Oct 13, 2010
corky
marked it as to-read
Oct 22, 2010
Rachael Uggla
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Dec 10, 2010
gwen g
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Dec 20, 2010
Amy
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Jan 13, 2011
akaellen
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Sep 15, 2011
Jessica
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Nov 14, 2011
Sophie
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Nov 28, 2011
Mindi
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Jan 09, 2014
Kate McCartney
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Feb 23, 2014
Melle
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Jun 08, 2016
Becki
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Jun 04, 2017
Lorena
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Dec 04, 2019
Kai
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May 11, 2020
Sean
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