I struggled a bit with which of Roddy Doyle’s books to include here, as technically I could just have easily chosen one of the Barrytown Trilogy. A word on those first perhaps. A lot of people first read them because of the film of The Commitments, but all three (there are two sequels) are masterpieces of brevity, pop culture references, and dialogue. They’re also incredibly short to read (possibly because they’re so dialogue heavy, which takes up more space). Because of the style I think a lot more people read them than some other fiction, which is always a good thing.
Paddy is arguably a more ‘literary’ book, but keeps many of the stylistic elements, and has two things which influenced my writing at the time. First, I’ve always been a fan of the picaresque and character driver stories rather than being action heavy, and this helped me learned how this can be maintained effectively. Losing some of the linear to snapshot scenes and evoke or parallel is also something I tried to do more after reading this.
Secondly, while his themes are universal, the early works of Doyle in particular are unashamed in their Dublin settings, and much like the best ‘poetry of place’, this adds to the experience and immediacy rather than putting off the reader. Most of my settings tend to be places I know, and often around the north west of England (or across in a line to Manchester or Leeds) but where I do pick a particular location, I never focus on it unless I know it well, or spend time there to acclimatise, note details and people watch. For this reason over the years I’ve been a big fan of short trips in the UK; Carlisle, Whitby, Tintagel, the Lakes, parts of London (of course). If a place doesn’t feel right for me when I’m there, I don’t use it as a setting, as a reader can usually tell (and spot mistakes) when the location isn’t right.
Not content related, but I also have to mention how much I love the unusual and rule-breaking title! I remember it standing out on the shelves back in my bookselling days.
Stay safe,
Kit