Doyle followed the success of Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha, where he
saw the world from the perspective of a 10-year-old boy, by placing
himself in the position of a 39-year-old woman - and from the first
page he is as convincing as he is original. The heroine is a Dublin
cleaner, a woman trapped in a dead marriage, hopeless, battered by
the man she loved for years, observed by her children in all her
indignity - and yet throughout she is vital, funny, lovable, big as
the lovely Molly Bloom in Ulysses, strong in her convictions - a
fighter too, though not physically, she leaves her husband to use
the fist, she has wit and pluck, and an eye for elegance. 'Walking
into doors' is the euphemism Paula Spencer used to conceal the
atrocities she suffered at the hand of this violent husband,
Charlo. Since throwing him out of the family home, she has
struggled with her alcoholism, bringing up four children with
virtually no money, and uncomfortable memories that remind her of
why she married him in the first place. Now she finds Charlo has
been shot dead during a failed robbery; her whole life needs an
explanation (where did the 1980s go? Why did she put up with the
abuse?). The answers she finds 'mocked my marriage, my love; they
mocked my whole life'. Paula tries to wrestle free from the guilt
that places her at the centre of the issue; she remembers one visit
to a hospital: 'I was there because of my husband's temper, because
I'd provoked him, because I didn't deserve him'. Yet somehow, this
is not a depressing tale. Roddy Doyle writes her in the first
person, so the story is direct and sharp. He slips under her skin
and stays there all the way to the end. From page one, you know the
spirit that moves this woman beyond everything else is optimism:
optimism in love, in the future, in her children - and you also
know that this woman, despite her poverty and apparent
insignificance, is a very great heroine indeed. The book fairly
cracks along with Doyle's characteristic poignancy and brutality,
and is one of those that is over far too soon. Doyle takes you
right inside Paula and her appalling mess of a life, without once
making her an object of pity. Brilliant. (Kirkus UK)
From the Booker Prize winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and
The Commitments: the story of an ordinary woman whose extraordinary
character will stay with you long after reading. 'He loved me and
he beat me. I loved him and I took it. It's as simple as that'
Paula Spencer is thirty-nine, the mother of four and learning to
live without Charlo, her violent, abusive husband. Paula's started
drinking more and dreaming more, taking herself back to her
contented childhood and audacious teenage years. Everything was
better then, not least the music, the soundtrack to her romance
with Charlo. As the past floats by and mingles with the present
Paula Spencer finds herself coming alive, in all her vulnerability
and her strength. 'Roddy Doyle's unsparing examination of a brutal
marriage transcends the boundaries of class and nationhood' The
Times
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