Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Very Powerful. February 19, 2008
M. Frampton (UK)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have not read any other Roddy Doyle. I tried to read Paddy Clarke Ha Ha but couldn't. But this book stayed with me in a way that not many do. I have never before read a book written by a man where he writes as a woman character in the first person... and what is so profoundly good about this is that I completely forgot that the book was written by a man, that I really felt that I was getting inside the character and she was so real. I became so involved that I had such a strong emotional reaction to the events and the characters. I have read a lot, but I would always put this on my list of top ten books I have ever read. I found it hard afterwards to read something else because I started several and they all seemed so petty and shallow in comparison.
The dark side of Barrytown. September 28, 2007
Ian Wood, Author of 'Here's 2 Absent Fathers'
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Barrytown trilogy and `Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha' were the greatest feel good comedies to come out of Ireland and `The Van' and `Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha' were respectively and justifiably nominated for and awarded the Booker Prize. So the question was where next? Roddy didn't leave Barrytown for his next project but showed us it's seedier underbelly in the dark and harrowing TV show `Family'. This introduced us to the Spencer family with its domestic violence and abuse. Each episode focussed on a member of the family, Charlo, John-Paul, Leanne and Paula `The Woman Who Walked into Doors.'
Although grim `Family' didn't quite prepare us for `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' which was quite a departure for Roddy. As with `Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha' the book is written in the first person and again the form was a complete success with Paula's voice being totally convincing. That Paddy Clarke, a ten year old boy, could be brought to life by a middle aged man was a testament to Roddy Doyle's talent but that he could give voice to an alcoholic working class woman in an abusive relationship is quite unbelievable. Literature is littered with talented male writers who's writing of women parts is two dimensional and unconvincing, so to tackle this is the first person and with such emotive subject matter was a huge risk. Fortunately it succeeded and the book is a triumph as indeed in Paula's part in the battle of life.
The story works well within the form switching from childhood, adolescence and different stages of the marriage to allow the reader to piece the story together but still not prepare them for the ending of the book. I was so impressed with this form that when I decided on the subject matter of my own novel I used it as the template to tell a very different story.
When I first read `The Woman Who Walked into Doors' I didn't know how Roddy Doyle could follow `Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha', I certainly had no idea it would be possible to better it.
"He gave me a choice--right or left. I chose left, and he broke the little finger on my left hand." April 30, 2007
Mary Whipple (New England)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Written in 1996, this "prequel" to 2007's Paula Spencer, tells of Paula's life from her teen years to her passionate relationship with Charlo Spencer. Part of a family of robbers, Charlo is an exciting man who makes her feel alive and gives her a sense of selfhood. Booker Prize-winner Doyle crafts a dramatic first-person narrative told by Paula, who leaves her rigid home and unsympathetic father to marry Charlo, a man her father disapproves of. Their passionate relationship and remarkable sense of communication vanish when Paula becomes pregnant with the first of their four children. Gradually, Paula finds solace in alcohol, as Charlo becomes an absentee husband and father and eventually a philandering wife-abuser.
Paula begins her story in the present, with Charlo's death--shot by the police after he has murdered a woman during a robbery--then develops the story through her reminiscences about both the good and the bad times. As she relives her courtship and early marriage and explores her early past and her more recent past,, she also tells us about her present battle with alcohol. She regrets that Nicola, her teenage daughter is responsible for the family on many occasions, since Paula works nights cleaning offices and then returns home wanting only to tell Jack a bedtime story and then abandon herself to drink.
As the story of her abuse evolves, the reader is privy to Paula's innermost conflicts. Though she knows that "I lost all my friends--and most of my teeth," she also bemoans the fact that "he beat me brainless and I felt guilty." The tendency of abuse victims to blame themselves, especially when their love has been as great as that of Paula and Charlo, explains Paula's comment that "for seventeen years I was brainwashed and brain dead." She knows that she has made her children suffer, not only because of her abuse but because of her alcoholism, but she has been powerless to change until in one violent moment, she sends Charlo out of the house and determines to live her life on her own.
Doyle's ability to structure a novel such as this one, which moves from immediate present into recent and then distant past, providing important information about character in the process, brings this dramatic novel to life. His trademark humor is subdued here in favor of the ironies of Paula's life. This is a far more serious novel that the Barrytown Trilogy--more in keeping with the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clark, Ha, Ha, Ha, an equally sad story of a deteriorating marriage from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy. This poignant novel is ultimately a celebration of the human spirit as Paula determines to take control of her life and to provide a family for her children. Mary Whipple
The Days of Paula Spencer February 26, 2007
cluricaune (Co. Armagh, N. Ireland)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958 and saw his first novel, "The Commitments" published in 1987. It was later adapted for the big screen, a version that saw Star Trek's Colm Meaney and a very young Andrea Corr among the cast. Doyle went on to win the Booker Prize in 1993 with "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha". This is his sixth novel and was first published in 1996.
"The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" is set in Dublin and is told by Paula Spencer, a woman in her late thirties. Both Paula's parents are dead, while only two of her siblings `appear' in the book - her sisters, Carmel and Denise. She did have another sister, Wendy, who died in a motorbike accident, while her brothers - Roger, Edward and George - are only ever mentioned in passing. Paula's relationship with her father had once been good, though it seemed to have deteriorated as time went on. [...]. Paula, meanwhile, hasn't Roger in years, and isn't particularly bothered about it - theirs was another difficult relationship.
However, it's Paula's relationship with her husband, Charlo, that's central to the book. They have been separated for over a year as the book opens - though they are still technically, married. They couple had four children together, three of whom still live with Paula. (She hasn't seen her eldest son, John-Paul, in quite some time: she last heard of him squatting in some flats and suspects he's on heroin). She works as a cleaner, just about earns enough to make ends meet and is an alcoholic. As if all that isn't enough, the book opens with the arrival of a policeman at her front door to inform her of Charlo's death. Paula spends the book looking back over her life in general and her time with Charlo in particular.
While it isn't always a very cheerful book, Paula's story isn't one that will leave you feeling depressed. She proves to be a character you want the best for and, not only does she manage to raise a smile from time to time, she also manages to leave you with a bit of hope. Absolutely recommended.
So True To Life May 7, 2006
K. D. Gujral (UK)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book had me in tears.....the complete loss of personal identity was so beautifully captured. I honestly found it hard to believe that it wasn't written by a woman who has lived through domestic violence.....and the humour was spot on too!
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