Product Description

Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel describes the world of ten-year-old Paddy Clarke, growing up in Barrytown, north Dublin. From fun and adventure on the streets, boredom in the classroom to increasing isolation at home, "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" is the story of a boy who sees everything but understands less and less.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24110 in Books
• Published on: 1994-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, an Irish lad named Paddy rampages through the streets of Barrytown with a pack of like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys and Indians, etching their names in wet concrete and setting fires. Roddy Doyle has captured the sensations and speech patterns of preadolescents with consummate skill, and managed to do so without resorting to sentimentality. Paddy Clarke and his friends are not bad boys; they're just a little bit restless. They're always taking sides, bullying each other and secretly wishing they didn't have to. All they want is for something--anything--to happen.

Throughout the novel, Paddy teeters on the nervous verge of adolescence. In one scene, Paddy tries to make his little brother's hot water bottle explode, but gives up after stomping on it just one time: "I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I didn't do it again. Sometimes when nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen." Paddy Clarke senses that his world is about to change forever--and not necessarily for the better. When he realizes that his parents' marriage is falling apart, Paddy stays up all night listening, half-believing that his vigil will ward off further fighting. It doesn't work, but it is sweet and sad that he believes it might. Paddy's logic may be fuzzy, but his heart is in the right place. --Jill Marquis

About the Author
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of eight acclaimed novels and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Customer Reviews

Brilliantly captures the state of being 10-years-old
I had only read one Roddy Doyle short story before picking up 'Paddy Clarke...', and now I'm addicted. Doyle manages to write so convincingly from the perspective of a ten-year-old that it's impossible to put this book down. It isn't just the language (and the use of native terms is only a small stumbling block), but he also captures the mannerisms and thoughts so accurately. What results is a book that reminds you of your own childhood, the fun things, the scary things and the incomprehensible things. Paddy's bewilderment at grown-ups behaviour is explained through the application of child's logic - he is forever asking "Why?", and never gets an answer.

The book has some hilarious moments, but never tries to be a comedy. It also has some tragic moments, which are treated lightly because of Paddy's minimal grasp of the adult world. He has many flaws which are obvious to the reader but hidden from his own view.

Possibly the best book I have ever read.

***It's my e-mail address...need I say more!?***
I suppose you need to have lived this life, at least in part, to truly recognise this book for all it's worth.

Silver spoons, lavish christmas mornings, a never ending supply of pocket money, parents who couldn't say "NO!". Hmmm...perhaps those amongst you currently nodding internally should steer clear if 'seeing how the other half live' isn't your idea of a gripping read. Then again, it could be an education if you've no idea how the poor manage from day to day.

'Paddy Clarke HaHaHa' is a memorable insight to the trauma, tragedy, love and laughter of 'blue collar' family life. The fact that the main protagonist is a mere ten years old only helps stregthen the narrative. Each turn of events throughout the book is laced with the innocence and confusion surely ALL of us have experienced at one time or another during childhood.

The book is more profound if you allow yourself to search through your own memories and connect to those of Paddy. It's not hard to do so if the home surroundings within the story and the events therein are familiar to you. Personally, they are...sometimes very much so. Doyle's observations, reactions and interpretations within the family unit are priceless. Anyone from a working class background will relate on every level. Read and be enriched....

A compelling and intuitive account of childhood. Brilliant.
Having never read any of Doyle's novels prior to 'Paddy Clarke', I appoached this book with a certain naivety. I recall beginning this book on a crowded tube train and realising, almost immediately, that it was to be a novel of much depth and would require considerable concentration.

The tale is told by a ten-year-old boy called Patrick Clarke and is set, as you would expect, in Dublin. It soon becomes apparent that to successfully navigate this book you must first learn to appreciate some genuine Gaelic lingo. This doesn't present too much of a problem as the learning process only adds to the enjoyment of the book.

The account of Paddy's outlook on life conveys us back in time to an age when the world's greatest woes were classroom quarrels and would you make the under 11's football team this year. It's a truely nostalgic distraction from the troubles of adult life; it's the childhood we try to convince ourselves that we've left behind, but never leaves us fully.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is both hilarious and painfully tragic. It's an artful mix of warm-hearted humour and the trials of family life. Brilliantly written, Doyle portrays Paddy's endeavours in an enchanting, captivating and, sometimes, blatantly painful manner. This makes a recipe for a novel you just can't put down and puts in perspective the things we truely need to cherish.