Product Description

Ten years on from The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Roddy Doyle returns to one of his greatest characters, Paula Spencer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #174191 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-07
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Callum Macdonald, The Herald
`A complex and intricate portrait of an unlikely, yet likable,
heroine'

Claudia Fitzherbert, Telegraph
'There is an intense pleasure in the reading of this book'

The Irish Times Books of the Year.
Chosen by Colum McCann.

Customer Reviews

Fabulous
Is there any more stars available? I truly loved this book. I enjoyed 'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors' so much it was nice to pick back up with the character of Paula Spencer. If you haven't read the prequal I think it will help but would say it isn't a must. Well actually, it would make a lot more sense if you did.

The plot wasn't as good as the first one but still deserving of more than 5 stars. The kids are all grown up now and it was interesting to see the effect on them of Paula's life when they younger. The dialogue could have been a little better, I'm more of a fan of speech marks than I am of dashes; but that's personal preferences I suppose.

Well thought out, well written and well worth a read.

Are there any more stars available?
Is there any more stars available? I truly loved this book. I enjoyed 'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors' so much it was nice to pick back up with the character of Paula Spencer. If you haven't read the prequal I think it will help but would say it isn't a must. Well actually, it would make a lot more sense if you did.

The plot wasn't as good as the first one but still deserving of more than 5 stars. The kids are all grown up now and it was interesting to see the effect on them of Paula's life when they younger. The dialogue could have been a little better, I'm more of a fan of speech marks than I am of dashes; but that's personal preferences I suppose.

Well thought out, well written and well worth a read.

The Woman Who Walked into a sequel
I am a huge fan of Roddy Doyle and `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' so I couldn't wait to get hold of its sequel `Paula Spencer'. To say I was disappointed would be a huge understatement.

First off Roddy had abandoned the first person telling of the story which made Paula Spencer `s initial book so believable and the emotions so convincing. Also the third person story telling is chronological rather than the switching from the past to the present so that the story was not showing us the course and effect of someone's conditioning, which was so successful in the first novel. Also the themes were less dramatic, whist `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' takes us through the emotional ringer of abuse and domestic violence, `Paula Spencer' is more the story of a baby boomer coming to terms with the mobile phone and Starbucks coffee houses. Whilst I appreciate that these are thing our best writers should be criticising in print I can't help but think a character of Paula's backlog of emotional baggage could be better served.

It is generally excepted that sequels very rarely live up to the initial story but I was hoping this would be an exception to the rule as indeed most of Roddy Doyle's writing has been.