Monday, October 13, 2014

Two More Pints review – Roddy Doyle keeps the laughs coming

The Irish novelist’s deft touch and ready wit underpin the return of the irreverent old Dubliners first featured in Two Pints

Roddy Doyle
'Dazzling, befuddled humour': Roddy Doyle. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
After his successful 2012 collection of comic dialogues, Two Pints, Roddy Doyle returns with a new series of topical and irreverent exchanges between two unnamed Irishmen in a pub. In some people’s hands, this might seem contrived, but Doyle’s impressive comic skills keep the laughter coming. The two characters featured are Dublin everymen, both grandfathers, who – while sceptical about many of the changes that have happened in their country over the preceding years – are not without affection for unlikely figures such as the “nice young one” Kate Middleton and Peter O’Toole.
Moving between the international and the local, the book’s sharp wit might occasionally verge on the repetitive, but the spirit of the absurd is never far away. Even Flann O’Brien might have approved of its dazzling, befuddled humour.

The copious topics touched upon include “that gobshite” Jimmy Savile, Nelson Mandela (“I never thought somethin’ as ordinary as watchin’ someone goin’ for a walk could be so incredible”) and heavy drinking (“I’d need three pints before I decide whether to go on a fuckin’ binge or not”). The odd slightly writerly touch reminds you that a Booker prize-winning novelist is behind the book, and that Two More Pints is a deliberate construction, not merely verbatim recordings of conversations. But the skill and craft are undeniably high. In the dialogue “21-11-12”, for instance, revolving around a uniquely uncomfortable discussion of abortion, Doyle manages to hint at a larger and more serious point but in a comically oblique fashion, so that the relieved comment “We’re over the hump” is both an amusing gag and a nod to a social issue outside the confines of this slim and entertaining book.

Two More Pints is published by Jonathan Cape (£7.99).

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