Smile

A Novel

By: Roddy Doyle

Narrated by: Roddy Doyle

From the author of the Booker Prize winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, a bold, haunting novel about the uncertainty of memory and how we contend with the past.

"It's his bravest novel yet; it's also, by far, his best." -- npr.org

“The closest thing he’s written to a psychological thriller."– The New York Times Book Review

Just moved into a new apartment, alone for the first time in years, Victor Forde goes every evening to Donnelly’s for a pint, a slow one. One evening his drink is interrupted. A man in shorts and a pink shirt comes over and sits down. He seems to know Victor’s name and to remember him from secondary school. His name is Fitzpatrick.

Victor dislikes him on sight, dislikes, too, the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers. He prompts other memories—of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor’s own small claim to fame, as the man who would say the unsayable on the radio. But it’s the memories of school, and of one particular brother, that Victor cannot control and which eventually threaten to destroy his sanity.

Smile has all the features for which Roddy Doyle has become famous: the razor-sharp dialogue, the humor, the superb evocation of adolescence, but this is a novel unlike any he has written before. When you finish the last page you will have been challenged to reevaluate everything you think you remember so clearly.

Doyle fan

Not surprising, this book is really good. Unexpected ending. I highly recommend listing. Nice to hear the author s voice.

Ignorance is not bliss

This is my first Roddy Doyle book. I did not know what to expect but was caught up in the writing and the language of Irish boys/middle aged men. While various facts of the story hinted at the ending I was too caught up in the efforts the “I” was making to build a new life to question why he was so much in need of the emotional support of his new surroundings. The reality of his life is still a mystery for me but one that can be imagined.

Vividly entertaining

This is a vividly and weirdly crafted novel, leaving one asking in the end, Where was the substance of this exquisite story? Doyle has a well tuned ear for dialogue and sensitive eyes and heart for people, so that his characters in this novel are round and alive. The story is visceral and ephemeral as Doyle unfolds the plot. This is an entertaining intriguing novel. Doyle’s performance is excellent.

Outstanding writing, dialogue, and reading

This is one of the richest books I have read (listened to). Roddy Doyle is a masterful writer: of structure, narrative, character development, dialogue (among the best), flow, etc. What an amazing novel, and a great reading by the man himself. I wish that he would do readings of his other books. Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha is only available in an abridged version. Would highly recommend.

Masterful dialect Brilliant insights

I expected no less from this familiar writer. Still the dialect was so transporting, and the personal rumination so deftly chronicled, the character and his demons will live long in my consciousness. Brilliant!