I have had this book for ages and ages and finally got around to reading it and found it quite difficult to put down at times, which is usually the sign of a good book! And it was! I have enjoyed lots of Roddy Doyle's books and looking on Amazon have several to catch up on too.
This book was set in Ireland from around 1900 to 1922 and tell the story of Henry Smart from his birth to the age of 20 and boy does he pack a lot into those few years. Henry is born into the absolute poverty of Dublin circa 1900, families living in one room, maybe 1 child in 4 surviving infancy, squalor, rats, illness and eviction accompany Henry's family life of no money and no prospects.
Henry's mother disappears from the story early and we don't know what happens to her, Henry returns to the family home and she has gone, as there are two more installments of this story perhaps there is more to come on that part of the story. Henry was named by his father after the already dead son of the couple and from that moment when Henry is only a few days old his mother appears to resent him having that name. Henry becomes a street kid, almost feral and learns all the tricks of living in Dublin and surviving on the streets.
His father is a bouncer at a Dublin brothel and the best thing he teaches Henry is how to escape from the police, "the rozzers" through Dublin's sewer and river system and the only thing he gives him is his wooden leg which Henry carries with him. He again disappears quite early, killed on the instruction of the mysterious Mr Gandon who owns the brothel. And then from the age of 4 Henry is pretty much on his own on the streets, he is joined on his adventures by his younger brother Victor. They briefly find sanctuary in a church school with the teacher Miss O'Shea but that again doesn't last long. Victor's cough (consumption) eventually takes him as it did so many of the children and Henry is truly on his own.
Henry meets James Connolly and is in the GPO in Easter 1916 as a 14 year old, it is here he meets again Miss O'Shea and their real story starts. Henry during the next 6 years meets and is involved with all the major figures in Irish history and plays his very own special part in it, with the help of his father's leg. I have a long standing interest in Michael Collins and he is here in the book too, Henry is part of his gang who ride around Dublin on bikes killing British secret service agents and policemen during the war of independence.
Henry eventually rides around Ireland on his bike training groups of young volunteers for the struggle for freedom and finds his Miss O'Shea again. And after all of that it is hard to believe when the book finishes Henry is only 20. For much of the book Henry is not very questioning of the reasons he is given for doing the things he does, the murders, the training but eventually he begins to question and begins to see parallels with his father's life. Henry's longest running relationship is with his grandmother who is obssessed with reading books written by women and Henry uses the books he steals for her as currency to find out about his father, the mysterious Dolly Oblong and Alfie Gandon.
The book is of course well written, the characters vibrant and alive, it is gritty and violent but Henry is an engaging character charming both within the book and to read about. Roddy Doyle shows the squalor of Dublin, the city of 2 halves the affluent Anglo-Irish and the Irish, we catch glimpses of the history of Ireland through Henry's eyes and it was very easy to picture this boy against the back drop of the Dublin that I know today.
A very enjoyable read, and I will look forward to reading the remaining two installments of Henry's story.
Ciao
Sue
XX
Reading challenge 13/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure
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