October Monthly Read: The Snapper

[Trelawn]

I started this today and am about three quarters of the way through it. I loved the movie so am surprised that the book isn't grabbing me. It feels dated or something and while they are moments where I smile to myself I am not laughing out loud. I think because there is so much dialogue it naturally worked as a film and the actors portrayed the Rabbittes so well.

[Trelawn]

I don't know that it's the subject that's dated to be honest. I think it's the over the top reaction to everything and not a sentence goes by without half and dozen F***s and B*****s. I thought this was hilarious when I first encountered the story but now it just seems laboured.

[Diane]

Oh dear, and here was me thinking that was normal Irish conversation. :-)

[Trelawn]

It can be Diane :-) I read another bit last night and it got better. Maybe my memories of the movie are colouring the experience for me.

[Clare]

The Snapper is valuable for bringing a female viewpoint to show us the council house life which Doyle, a teacher, was immersed in at the time.
Also this is a father-daughter story as two generations interact.

Doyle was portraying the changing times - when the parents were growing up, an unmarried mother was a subject for scandal and her young man would be obliged to marry the girl or take the boat to England.
When Sharon is expecting, with no boyfriend in the offing, society is sufficiently different to allow her to continue without censure. So what could introduce tension that might split the community? Doyle weaves his characters together to show us that there are still boundaries.

By this time in Ireland's less well off areas, young women had caught on to the fact that having a baby meant qualifying for a flat to get out of the crowded family council house, and the state paid you to do this so you didn't need a job or partner. Accordingly the benefit system was responsible for a huge surge in teen and young twenties women having babies without partners. Having sponsored this behaviour, albeit unwittingly, the state could not condemn the young women for taking a path which might better their lives. This story is set against that background.

[Sara]

I'm a bit less than halfway through this one, and it's effing brilliant so far. I'm finding that Doyle writes with humor and compassion. I particularly enjoyed the description of baseball as cricket with American accents. I think I know who the father of the baby is, but I will avoid speculation since this is the non spoiler thread.