The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureLiterature

The Guts by Roddy Doyle

The Guts by Roddy Doyle | Book review
7 September 2013
The editorial unit
Avatar
The editorial unit
7 September 2013

Glance through Roddy Doyle’s back catalogue and you’ll see he’s an author who can get a lot out of his characters. Including his latest, The Guts, he’s published ten novels, of which the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is the only one that isn’t part of a series. Alcoholic battered wife Paula Spencer has appeared in two books and freewheeling chancer Henry Smart has had a trilogy. The Guts offers readers their fourth glimpse into the lives of the Rabbitte family, specifically now middle-aged Jimmy Jr., former founder and manager of the eponymous soul band in Doyle’s debut The Commitments.

Now a father of four with a loving wife and occasional dogs, Jimmy’s still in the music business, but he mostly specialises in the nostalgia industry: finding other men of a certain age who still have one foot in the past and are willing to pay him to track down obscure vinyl. It’s not a huge leap to draw parallels between author and subject here, both wringing some extra mileage out of their glory days, but they’re no less likeable or successful for that.

The book opens in the pub (where else?) with Jimmys Sr. and Jr. talking about nothing much. It’s classic Doyle: dialogue-heavy prose that helps draw out his vivid characters, lots of swearing and good jokes. When Jimmy Jr. drops the news of his bowel cancer into the conversation, announcing that he’ll lose 80% of his intestines in the treatment, his dad’s reaction is sad, funny, eloquent and true at the same time: “For f*** sake.”

The rest of the book follows Jimmy through surgery and chemotherapy in recession-hit Dublin. While staying true to the earlier books, with a few old faces making notable appearances, The Guts is committed to its contemporary setting. Sometimes this is effective – like the picture of the economy’s toll on real people that emerges when Jimmy’s neighbours go bankrupt and lose their house. Other details seem to be dropped in arbitrarily:

“‘Ah, no.’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Whitney Houston’s after dyin’.’”

Jimmy’s journey to eventual recovery is bookended by the great opening scene and extended section with Jimmy and his mates – all of them “oul’ lads” – at the 2012 Electric Picnic festival. It would make a brilliant standalone story, but as it stands it’s a hugely satisfying, well-crafted ending to a plot that otherwise has a tendency to wander.

★★★★★

The editorial unit

The Guts is published by Jonathan Cape at the hardback price of £12.99, for further information visit here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Literature

Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading

Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Five books to read in 2021

Lilly Subbotin
Read More

2020 roundup: Top five book releases of the year

Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Five books to read this Christmas

Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Trio by William Boyd

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Sisters by Daisy Johnson

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Jeremiah Fraites – Piano Piano
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Hello Cosmos – Dream Harder
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Public Domain at Southwark Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Win a copy of Link on Blu-ray
    Competitions
  • Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre: Centre stage for diversity
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
  • Mayor
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Chop Shop in Haymarket | Restaurant review
Drones at The Garage | Live review