Hooray! You have added the first book to your bookshelf. Check it out now!
[−]
  • Search Digit-count Valid ISBN Invalid ISBN Valid Barcode Invalid Barcode
Blog this item

The Deportees

and Other Stories

By Roddy Doyle

(25)

| Hardcover | 9780670018451

Like The Deportees?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Sign up for free

Book Description

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 fatContinue

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.

Critics

  • Black stripes on the Celtic Tiger

    The Deportees by Roddy Doyle 242pp Jonathan Cape £16.99 A few years ago Roddy Doyle, sick and tired of reading and hearing about racism in Ireland, decided to write something positive about the lives of immigrants in the country. He began writing lit ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • White Irish Need Not Apply

    Declan is Irish and Declan is black. Declan has come from Ireland to study in New York; sick to death of his Dublin professors droning on about Irish writing and its influence on the world he decides, in the penultimate story of Roddy Doyle’s first c ... (read full critics)

    nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

1 Review

Login or Sign Up to write a review

  • Doyle's great strengths are his humor, and his grasp of Dubin's street speak. Both are in great effect here. The book is a collection of eight short stories looking at how Ireland is getting used to the large and sudden influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa. While the language thril ... (continue)

    Doyle's great strengths are his humor, and his grasp of Dubin's street speak. Both are in great effect here. The book is a collection of eight short stories looking at how Ireland is getting used to the large and sudden influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa. While the language thrills at times, the structure did not work for me at all. The stories are written in very short chapters, to be publishable in serialized version. That makes for a bits-and-pieces story-telling technique that never quite lets us get under the skin of any character. Great concept, disappointing execution.

    Is this helpful?

    Brickandrope said on Mar 28, 2009 | Add your feedback

Book Details

  • Rating:
    (25)
    • 5 stars
    • 4 stars
    • 3 stars
    • 2 stars
    • 1 star
  • English Books
  • Hardcover 256 Pages
  • ISBN-10: 0670018457
  • ISBN-13: 9780670018451
  • Publisher: Viking Adult
  • Pub date: Jan 10, 2008
  • Dimensions: 1355 mm x 903 mm x 194 mm Just how big is that?
  • Also available as: Paperback, Others and eBook
Improve data of this book

Prices Change currency & sellers

ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9780670018451 Hardcover -- $12.99 ebooks.com
$24.95 -- The Book Depository
Other editions →
Added to Shelf Added to Wish List

Inline Translation Mode

Left click to navigate, right click to translate.

inline translation guide

or close

Inline translation is not ready for this page yet.

Inline translation mode.

Share this page with your friends.

The viewport has not loaded.