The Deportees: and Other Stories

By Roddy Doyle

Book Overview

Eight funny and poignant stories of immigrant experience in contemporary Ireland The eight tales in Roddy Doyle’s first-ever collection of stories have one thing in common: someone born in Ireland meets someone who has come to live there. In “Guess Who’s Coming for the Dinner,” a father who prides himself on his open-mindedness when his daughters talk about sex is forced to confront his feelings when one of them brings home a black man. “New Boy” describes the first day of school for a nine-year-old boy from Africa; while in “The Pram,” a terrifying ghost story, a Polish nanny grows impatient with her charge’s older sisters and decides—in a new phrase she has learned—to “scare them shitless.” In “57% Irish,” a man decides to devise a test of Irishness by measuring reactions to three things: Riverdance , the song “Danny Boy,” and Robbie Keane’s goal against Germany in the 2002 World Cup. And in the wonderful title story, Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who formed The Commitments, decides that it’s time to find a new band—a multicultural outfit that specializes not in soul music but in the folk songs of Woody Guthrie. This is classic Roddy Doyle, full of his unmistakable wit and his acute ear for dialogue. With empathy and insight, The Deportees and Other Stories takes a new slant on the immigrant experience, something of increasing relevance in today’s Ireland.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670018457
• ISBN13: 9780670018451
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.9" x 5.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Laugh out loud!

I have not finished the stories, but the first story has me laughing out loud. I am listening to it on CD narrated with a wonderful brogue. I just hope I don't have an accident while laughing at the clever lines. The author is outside the story, but makes you feel you can read the minds of the characters. There is some profanity, but slipped in hilariously. I hope the rest of the stories match the first. Try it and write your review.

Utterly fabulous - I didn't want it to end!

I've always loved Roddy Doyle's writing and this is no exception. The book is fabulous. Very funny and wry. A total joy. I didn't want it to end!

classic roddy

If you are a fan of Doyle's early work, this collection of short stories revisits the style and tone of such works as The Commitments (which is revisited to some degree), The Snapper and The Van, the ever solid Barrytown Trilogy. The tone is generally lighter and more enjoyable than more recent works such as Paula Spencer and The Woman who Walked into Doors, capturing all the lightheartedness and humor and pathos that makes those tales so powerfully human, endearing and enduring while giving us some new characters and a revisit to some of the old, once again capturing the complexity of evolving Irish society, history and the ordinary yet extraordinary people that inhabit all of the world.

A new Dublin

A collection of short stories describing the new immigrants to Ireland - how Irish can they become? A great introduction to the nature of modern Dublin - the Irish barmaid in Boston has become the American barmaid in Dublin.

"There are no good or bad people,only interesting or dull." Wilde

The thing I like about Roddy Doyle's books is that they are all so different fron one another. The first one I read was "A Star Called Henry" and since then I have read all his others,and look for each new one he writes. As with many writers,a reader will like some better than others. I am not a big reader of short stories ,because they usually leave me wanting more. This is the case of each of the 8 stories in this collection. It seems that just as the story gets interesting;it ends. Otherwise,as one can expect from Doyle ;the writing and writing style always engrosses one,and once again we get the same in this collection. The copy I have is the hard cover edition with the picture of the members of the new band "The Deportees". I am really impressed with this and I have commented in other reviews that I thought it would be a great addition to many books if pictures of the characters involved in the story could be included in the book or on the cover.This idea is even workable in the case of fictional characters as has so aptly been done in this case. It was great as we were introduced to each band member,to turn to the cover and find them there. The big question remains;did Doyle describe the characters to "fit " the photos or did they find people to "fit" Doyle's characters,or were they all real?? Anyway;congratulations !! Ich am of Irlonde Ant of the holy lande Of Irlonde. Gode sire,pray ich the, For of saynte charite, Come ant dance wyth me In Irlonde. "Ich Am of Irlonde" [14th century]