LoveReading Says
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 9 June 2011.
Brilliantly observed, funny and moving, the stories in Bullfighting present a new vision of contemporary Ireland, of its woes and triumphs, and of the Irish middle-aged male confronting new realities. It is a masterful new collection from one of the country’s greatest writers.
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Bullfighting Synopsis
The men in Bullfighting are each concerned with loss in different ways – of their place in their world, of power, virility, love – of the boom days and the Celtic Tiger. ‘The stories, his memories, were wearing out’ the narrator of the title story thinks, ‘and there was nothing new replacing them.’
The stories move from classrooms to graveyards, local pubs to bullrings; featuring an array of men at their working day and at rest, taking stock and reliving past glories. In the first, ‘Recuperation’, a man sets off for a prescribed walk around his neighbourhood, the sights triggering memories and recollections of his wife, his children, his younger days. In ‘Animals’, George remembers caring for his children’s many pets, his efforts to spare them grief when they die or disappear, looking, in the eyes of his wife, like a hero, like ‘your man from ER’. But now his kids are reared and he’s unemployed, and he’s slowly getting used to that. ‘Suffer, your man Krugman said, when he was asked how Ireland should deal with the next ten years. Well, this is George, suffering.’
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780224091435 |
| Publication date: |
7th April 2011 |
| Author: |
Roddy Doyle |
| Publisher: |
Jonathan Cape Ltd an imprint of Vintage |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
214 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction
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| Recommendations: |
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About Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. His first novel, The Commitments, was published to great acclaim in 1987 and was made into a very successful film in 1991. The Snapper was published in 1990 and has also been made into a film. His third novel, The Van, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was also made into a film. Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha won the 1993 Booker Prize. His most recent novel is A Star Called Henry. He lives in Dublin.
Photo © Amelia Stein
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