 First edition | |
| Author | Roddy Doyle |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Laurie Avon |
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
Publication date | 7 March 2019 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 208 |
| ISBN | 1-787331-18-0 |
Charlie Savage is a 2019 novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle, shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. The novel consisted of a year of appearances in the weekend magazine appearing in the Irish Independent .
Charlie Savage is a 60-year-old grandfather living in Dublin, he dotes on his grandchildren and dogs, has an indefatigable wife playing drums in a sexagenarian punk covers band; and his drinking mate identifies as a woman. Though the short 52 chapters mark a week in his life over a year, the same characters and themes repeat. For example, his chest now has a tattoo of SpongeBob to stop his three-year-old grandson from wanting one; his best mate Martin has now fallen in love with Charlie's first girlfriend Eleanor Pidgeon; and Charlie's love of watching football on Match of the Day .
Niamh Donnelly in The Irish Times says that Charlie "is someone who’s aware of how ridiculous the world can be, but who nonetheless participates in the whole joke...There’s a knack to this character-sketch style writing. It depends on 'on the money' observations and on-point humour. Writing like this is like performing stand-up: make 'em laugh and you can get away with anything...Doyle knows how to work a crowd. His north-Dublinese is fluent; never mocking, never overstated...It's a difficult balance and at times depth is lost in its pursuit. But it's style that bolsters the piece. More than comedy or insight, this work has tenderness." [1]
Jane Bradley in The Scotsman writes that "this book is seriously outdated – I had previously believed that this 'I'm getting old and the modern world is passing me by' schtick went out with Victor Meldrew in the 1990s. It is, of course, all made up, yet reading it made me wonder: is this just Doyle mocking men of his own generation? Or are these the kinds of opinions he would like to express himself, but doesn't dare to under his own name? Either way, it is a lighthearted, easy read which will undoubtedly appeal to men of Doyle's – and Savage's – generation." [2]
Alastair Mabbott from The Herald concludes that "A refreshingly positive take on middle age, it’s optimistic, warm-hearted, blokishly moving and written with master's pin-sharp command of humour. These tales must have been a welcome weekly balm to the Irish Independent's readers for the past two years, and it's a pleasure to have them in a book that's sure to be picked up and revisited time and time again." [3]
Throughout film, television, and radio, British comedy has become known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots, and settings, and has produced some of the most renowned comedians and characters in the world.
Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect. Doyle was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
The Commitments (1987) is a novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle. The first episode in The Barrytown Trilogy, it is about a group of unemployed young people in the north side of Dublin, Ireland, who start a soul band.
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is a novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle, first published in 1993 by Secker and Warburg. It won the Booker Prize that year. The story is about a 10-year-old boy living in Barrytown, North Dublin, and the events that happen within his age group, school and home in around 1968.
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Canadian humour is an integral part of the Canadian identity. There are several traditions in Canadian humour in both English and French. While these traditions are distinct and at times very different, there are common themes that relate to Canadians' shared history and geopolitical situation in North America and the world. Though neither universally kind nor moderate, humorous Canadian literature has often been branded by author Dick Bourgeois-Doyle as "gentle satire," evoking the notion embedded in humorist Stephen Leacock's definition of humour as "the kindly contemplation of the incongruities of life and the artistic expression thereof."
The Barrytown Trilogy, later also referred to as The Barrytown Pentalogy, is an Irish comedy-drama media franchise centred on the Rabbittes, a working-class family from Barrytown, Dublin. It began in 1988 when Beacon Pictures and 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the 1987 novel The Commitments by Roddy Doyle shortly after it was published. The book was successful, as was Alan Parker's 1991 film adaptation. The film received cult status, and is regarded as one of the best Irish films ever made. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked the film at number 38 on its list of the "100 best British films of the century", based on votes from 1,000 leading figures of the film industry.
Charles Savage may refer to:
The Commitments is a 1991 musical comedy-drama film based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle. It was directed by Alan Parker from a screenplay written by Doyle, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Set in the Northside of Dublin, the film tells the story of Jimmy Rabbitte, a young music fanatic who assembles a group of working-class youths to form a soul band named "The Commitments". The film is the first in a series known as The Barrytown Trilogy, followed by The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1996).
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The Deportees and Other Stories is the first short story collection by Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle first published by Jonathan Cape in 2007. All the stories were written for Metro Éireann, a multicultural paper aimed at Ireland's immigrant population and explore their experiences. The stories were written in 800 word chapters and published monthly; as Doyle explains in the foreword to the book :-
"The stories have never been carefully planned. I send off a chapter to the Metro Eireann editor Chinedu Onyejelem, and, often, I haven't a clue what's going to happen next, And I don't care too much, until the deadline begin's to tap me on the shoulder. It's a fresh, small terror, once a month. I live a very quiet life; I love that monthly terror."
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