This is Doyle back in Barrytown and on top form, especially at the festival which closes a glorious book. Katy Guest, Independent on Sundayĭoyle conjures up a genuine tenderness, empathy and humanity when he writes about family life. What it has…is a melancholy wisdom, and some moments of heartbreaking poignancy. Jimmy Rabbitte is 47 and potentially facing death, but ready to have a good time before doing it. Anthony Cummins, MetroĪs ever with Doyle, there’s wit, warmth and exuberant swearing found in even the toughest of situations. Gabriel Byrne, Irish TimesĪ big-hearted novel of family life in which bad things ultimately happen to other people. Doyle has never written anything that is not about love and its transformational power. In The Guts, Doyle returns once more to those themes he has always written about so singularly: love and family. The biggest joy is Doyle's deftness with dialogue. Smart, sly, raucous, outrageous and tender The Guts will have you cheering for Jimmy and his family and if you’re not already a fan of Doyle’s writing will surely make you one. The novel is rich in sentiment and episodes conveying sentiment. It’s got a bittersweet humour all its own. Reader's DigestĪs one does with old friends, you leap right back into the conversation as if you’ve never been apart. Unchanged is Doyle’s miraculous ability to serve up dialogue that fizzes with great, often quite rude jokes – but never at the expense of the emotions lying behind them. Theo Tait, Guardianīright, jokey, wry and robust. Remarkable, relevant and, surprisingly for a book that’s ostensibly about cancer, joyful. Edmund Gordon, Sunday TimesĪ visceral tragicomedy – as raw and as funny as anything written. The novel is probably the most contemplative that Doyle has written - as a meditation on the importance of family, it is at times almost unbearably moving.

The guts roddy doyle