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Summary In Roddy Doyle's novel, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, young Patrick is so distressed over his parents' fighting with each other that he stays up all night trying to prevent their quarrels. Like many children whose parents break up, Patrick thinks he is somehow responsible, but he does not understand what is going wrong or why. He loves both of them, especially his mother. He acts out his anxiety over the discord between his parents by often getting into fights and by being mean and abusive to his younger brother. For awhile he thinks that if he were to run away, his parents would stay together. He thinks of questions to ask them so they will talk to him and not fight with each other. But his father leaves for good, and Paddy is left with the teasing chant of his schoolmates: "Paddy Clarke, Paddy Clarke, Lost his Da, Ha, Ha, Ha." ”Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha” by Roddy Doyle Roddy Doyle is a master of describing the Irish. In this book he gives the word to a 10-year old boy, and never lets him down using a 'von oben' perspective. Doyle has captured the mind and thoughts, worries and happy moments of this young boy in a most astonishing way. It makes me wonder if it really isn't at least a half autobiographical book. Boys of that age can be really cruel, and Paddy Clarke is no exception. Teasing, bullying and fights are part of everyday life. It is a matter of survival, to never show any sign of weakness. But when there is trouble at home it isn't always easy to be strong. Paddy tries his best to repair his parents' marriage that is falling apart a little more each day. If he can stay awake all night they won't fight... This book provides a close and unsentimental look at a young boy growing up fast, and it also gives a good look at Ireland through a 10-year-old's eyes. Read it. You won't be sorry. Short Description Winner of the Booker Prize 1993 • Paddy Clarke, a ten-year-old Dubliner, describes his world, a place full of warmth, cruelty, love, sardines and slaps across the face. He's confused; he sees everything but he understands less and less. PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA, Roddy Doyle NOTES General • The story of a boy growing up in 1960s working class Dublin … The boy’s family is central to his existence, yet his parents grow increasingly apart, bickering and fighting steadily; his father eventually strikes his mother and leaves soon after… Meanwhile, Paddy grows anxious, loses sleep, deliberately toughens himself and loses his friends … • Remarkable for its authentic “child’s eye” view of events … • Themes: the loss of childhood innocence; the Family; the marvellous nature of a child’s imagination; the harshness of life and the cruelty of children (Lord of the Flies?) … Setting • Dublin, Ireland, the 1960s (references to George Best; The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; the Cuban missile crisis; etc.) … Barrytown, a working class suburb: some families, like Paddy’s, own their own houses and uses terms like “drawing room”; others live in more modest rented Corporation houses and talk about the “television room”… Most children attend local schools; a few attend privileged schools elsewhere … • The setting is reflected in a lot of local slang: gick, eccer, spa, mickey/diddy, mitching etc. • New estates and roads are being built, gradually erasing the fields and farms where Paddy and his friends once played … (A metaphor that mirrors the breakdown of Paddy’s family?) • The Catholic church is a dominant influence: Paddy makes home-made communion hosts and aspires to be an heroic missionary like Father Damien; the house has a picture of the Sacred Heart; exclamations frequently refer to Jesus or a saint; Paddy thinks about mortal/venial sins and worries about purgatory. Point of view • The narrator is Paddy Clarke. He generally speaks in the short, simple sentences of a child: “My da’s hands were big. The fingers were long. They weren’t fat.” The syntax is hardly ever complex. The lexis is generally simple too. There is a lot of dialogue. • On the other hand, when Paddy recounts stories or facts he has read, his language often reflects the complexity of the original text (for example, in the Father Damien story, “The bishop was pleased and edified by the bravery of his young missionary”). • The narrative is not linear. It moves around unpredictably like a child’s thought processes. One moment, Paddy is describing a row between his parents; the next, he is reciting unconnected facts about the inventor of television, capitals of countries, the 1936 Olympics etc. • The novel is full of chants and songs (including the poignant “Paddy Clarke/ has no da/ Ha ha ha”) that reflect a child’s fascination with the power of words. There is a memorable scene in which Paddy and friends dance around a fire, chanting odd-sounding or obscene words in a ritualistic manner. Paddy wonders why a drawing room is not a room where people draw things … Irish is used quite a lot in school, reflecting national pride … • Paddy is evidently intrigued by contrasts between his own family and others, especially the fact that some school friends have no mother. His fascination with incomplete or dysfunctional families implies how important his own “complete” family is to his sense of identity. • Paddy is an eavesdropper on the growing conflict between his parents. He does not fully understand what he observes. He believes that he can control the situation by means of willpower (“—Stop. There was a gap. It had worked; I’d forced them to stop.”) Tone • The dominant tone for about 200 pages or so is one of delight in in mischief, in language, in knowledge. A child is learning about the world. • Towards the end, however, a more serious, anxious, tense tone enters the narrative (“They were fighting all the time now. They said nothing but it was a fight … The silences were worst, waiting for it to start again, or louder.”). The tone becomes especially painful as Paddy becomes aware of his loneliness and tries to understand the disintegration of his parents’ relationship: “Why didn’t Da like Ma? She liked him; it was him didn’t like her. What was wrong with her?” • The conclusion of the novel is very understated. Paddy sees his father hit his mother. His mother composes herself and speaks kindly to Paddy. Paddy Sr tries to act as if nothing has happened. Paddy speaks politely to both parents (“Thank you very much.”). His father leaves home the same day. When his father returns around Christmas, Paddy speaks to him again in the formal tone (“Very well, thank you.”) which has become his defence against the harshness of life. ANALYSING THE NOVEL 1. Read the first few pages of "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha". Then read the first few pages of Maya Angelou’s "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". Both books are about childhood, yet the styles are very different. Comment on: • point of view (child’s? adult’s? naïve/sophisticated?) • diction • syntax (Note examples to support your comments.) 2. What is the most distinctive aspect of Roddy Doyle’s writing? In other words, how is it different from most other novels you have read? 3. Make some notes on each of the following: • The SETTING (decade + contemporary references, geographical setting, social setting) • The MAIN CHARACTERS - especially Paddy and his family (Comment on: personality/interests/views; relationships (to individuals/society); heroes/heroines; socio-economic status; aspirations) • The PLOT – The novel does not have a conventional "Exposition >>> Climax >>> Resolution" structure. You might be tempted to say that it does have a plot. Comment, however, on the plot going on in the background, which Paddy only gradually becomes aware of. (How does Paddy’s physical environment change while these other, emotional changes are occurring?) 4. a) How would you describe this novel? (Comic? Tragic? Tragi-comic? A novel about the disintegration of a marriage? A novel about a child’s perception of adult events? Something else?) Explain. b) What is the theme of the book? (As you think about this, you will need to decide whether Doyle has presented Paddy’s father in a sympathetic light, or as a villain.) 5. What kind of adulthood would you predict for Paddy Clarke? ("Ha Ha Ha" or "Boo Hoo Hoo"?) 6. Building on your notes in No.1 above, what are the similarities and differences between this novel and Maya Angelou’s autobiography? Frankie Meehan Roddy Doyle, Unleashed Dave Weich, Powells.com Roddy Doyle writes like nobody's business. Each of his titles, from The Commitments (Doyle's debut) to The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, has earned both critical and popular acclaim. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, his funny, pitch-perfect perspective of a Dublin ten year old, won the 1993 Booker Prize. Now, in A Star Called Henry, he's upped the ante tenfold, producing some of the most aggressive prose you're ever likely to read. Henry's father's flight, a mere sixty pages into the book, is one of the great narrative achievements of recent years. But for all Doyle's narrative acrobatics, his amazing new novel is, more than anything, an enthralling, spilling-over-its-sides story. On page one, Henry Smart introduces himself through the eyes of his pregnant, soon-to-be-mother - right away, Doyle catches us off guard. Compared by some to the expansive fictions of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Star Called Henry presents the years leading up to and following the 1916 Easter Rebellion in a wickedly crooked, dramatic light perfectly suited to the subject. Henry Smart is a big character, bigger than life. "I've always tried to make sure that everything that was said and done could, in fact, happen," Doyle explained. "This time around I didn't give a toss." A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle Your Price: $5.00 (Used - Trade Paper) More about this book/ check for other copies The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle Your Price: $5.95 (Used - Trade Paper) More about this book/ check for other copies The Commitments by Roddy Doyle Your Price: $7.95 (Used - Trade Paper) More about this book/ check for other copies The Van by Roddy Doyle Your Price: $6.50 (Used - Trade Paper) More about this book/ check for other copies Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle Your Price: $5.00 (Used - Trade Paper) More about this book/ check for other copies Charming Billy by Alice McDermott Your Price: $5.50 (Used - Trade Paper) More about this book/ check for other copies Birds of America by Lorrie Moore Your Price: $6.50 (Used - Trade Paper) More about this book/ check for other copies Dave: I read that the new book is the first of a new trilogy. Doyle: Yeah, well, I'm not committed to the idea of a trilogy. I gave it the general name, The Last Roundup, but somewhere or other, maybe on a press release, somebody called it a trilogy. But I don't know if it will be. I'd be happy if it was. When I sat down to write A Star Called Henry, I thought I was going to write one book, but it just got longer and longer, and I didn't want the length to become an obsession. I thought, if I divide the story into self-contained pieces, people can appreciate Star Called Henry and not have to wait for the next installment, which could be half a decade away. I wanted the freedom to take Henry's life as far as seems right and as far as seems creatively possible - so it could be three books; it might be four; it might be two. I could be hit by a truck and it could be one. The first trilogy wasn't a planned trilogy at all. It happened to end up as three books, which then got called The Barrytown Trilogy. There's no point in fighting it, but I would have thought a trilogy had to be planned. I don't know. But there's no point touring the world saying, "No, it's not a trilogy. It's just three books." Dave: There's so much in A Star Called Henry. To finish it and realize that Henry's only twenty - it's as if he's lived five lives already. Doyle: Which is another good reason for breaking it up. No matter how good the writing, I think, you couldn't sustain that pace. You would have had to yawn a bit after a while. "Oh, Jesus, not more adventures of Henry Smart." I'd have felt that way; presumably the reader would have felt that way. There'd be just too much to take in. There are hints that he gets out of Ireland and comes to America. And as he's getting older, in a new place with a new geography, new confrontations, that's a new book. It would be very hard to do that within the covers of the same book.
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