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| Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 105 reviews)
Sales Rank: 180774
Category: Book
Author: Roddy Doyle
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 4th Penguin pt
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0140233903
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780433391166
ASIN: 0140233903
Publication Date: January 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Life as seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old Irish boy, Patrick Clarke, is a poignant voyage through a bewildering, ever-changing world of family, friends, dreams, and growing up. Winner of the Booker Prize. Reprint. Tour.
Amazon.com Review
In Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, an Irish lad named Paddy rampages through the streets of Barrytown with a pack of like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys and Indians, etching their names in wet concrete, and setting fires. Roddy Doyle has captured the sensations and speech patterns of preadolescents with consummate skill, and managed to do so without resorting to sentimentality. Paddy Clarke and his friends are not bad boys; they're just a little bit restless. They're always taking sides, bullying each other, and secretly wishing they didn't have to. All they want is for something--anything--to happen. Throughout the novel, Paddy teeters on the nervous verge of adolescence. In one scene, Paddy tries to make his little brother's hot water bottle explode, but gives up after stomping on it just one time: "I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I didn't do it again. Sometimes when nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen." Paddy Clarke senses that his world is about to change forever--and not necessarily for the better. When he realizes that his parents' marriage is falling apart, Paddy stays up all night listening, half-believing that his vigil will ward off further fighting. It doesn't work, but it is sweet and sad that he believes it might. Paddy's logic may be fuzzy, but his heart is in the right place. --Jill Marquis
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| Customer Reviews: Read 100 more reviews...
 Booker-prize winning, and deservedly so. A remarkable journey into a child's mind. March 14, 2009
This fantastic book well deserved to earn a Booker Prize. Doyle plumbs the mind of a small boy to a marvelous extent. We are transported into a boyishness of mind. Our protagonist's concerns become our own: his hopes, his fears, his moral dilemmas--all ring astonishingly true. And yet, this is no demeaning view of the small boy's mind. Though he is small he is working through the great difficulties of this world. The prose is delightful, gripping, and page-turning. The book sails along at the hands of a remarkably skilled author. Having just finished [Huck Finn], I am comfortably holding this book alongside that immortal classic. Though Paddy Clarke Ha Ha ha does not enter the greater terrain of his day (while Huck Finn is immersed in slavery), the book does deliver the mind of a child in a way that few books ever written have done. Indeed, we might fairly ask: has any book, ever written, so thoroughly and effectively transported the adult reader to the consciousness of a child? At the very least, that question can be asked. This book is a complete triumph.
 Moving Description of Childhood and the Leaving of It January 28, 2009
This book was published in 1993. It described a few years in an Irish boy's life from around age 8 to 10 in the mid- to late 1960s, in his own voice.
I enjoyed most the way the novel showed the narrator's development -- in perception, use of language, self-understanding. From the beginning, when the only concern was the love of play, the daily explorations and sadistic competitions with friends and baby brother, and early role models like Father Damien and Daniel Boone. Simple joys like the smell of a mother's meal, a warm blanket at night, a compliment won from a father, and a shared laugh with parents. To the first bicycle, the growing love of sport, the radio and television, and inklings of the power of language, including swear words, of course. To the brink of adolescence, where the comforts of a stable home and simple friendships were left behind, and conflicted emotions had to be accepted. It brought back many memories.
For this reader, the story passed over too quickly the religious education of the day, which must have had more impact, as well as the thrill of going to the cinema and the first glimmers that there was more to kissing than at first seemed apparent. The story seemed to lose something of its focus and intensity after the first 100 or so pages and might have gained from some tightening. This at least was the impression I got from the author's style of moving rapidly from one scene and subject to another. Moving ending, though.
Excerpt near the beginning:
"Our names were all around Barrytown, on the roads and paths. You had to do it at night when they were all gone home, except the watchmen. Then when they saw the names in the morning it was too late, the cement was hard."
Later on:
"Sometimes, when you were thinking about something, trying to understand it, it opened up in your head without you expecting it to, like it was a soft spongy light unfolding, and you understood, it made sense forever . . . . Sometimes you gave up and suddenly the sponge opened. It was brilliant, it was like growing taller."
"I didn't listen to them. They were only kids."
There are no messers in Heaven February 29, 2008
1 out of 1 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".
The book is set in the 1960s Barrytown, and is told by Paddy Clarke- the eldest child of his family. Although he has a few younger sisters, it's only his younger brother Sinbad who features to any degree. He's a Manchester United supporter, and particularly idolises George Best. His chief hobbies involve playing football, and messing around with his friends on neighbouring farm and nearby building sites.
Sinbad doesn't always get a fair deal from his brother. He cries constantly, wets the bed and as a baby, he once got his head stuck in the bars of his cot. He never smiles in photos and doesn't eat his dinner - something that particularly infuriates his Paddy Sr. Despite wearing glasses with one black lens - to deal with an eye problem - he's a great dribbler on the football pitch. (Paddy and his friends used to make Sinbad be Nobby Stiles when playing football - so he stopped supporting United, and started following Liverpool).
Out of Paddy's friends, he's probably closest to Kevin Conway - though, to be honest, Kevin isn't an entirely likeable kid. James O'Keefe, for the most part, is a good deal more - deapite being, quite possibly, the biggest liar in Barrytown. O'Keefe is hated by their teacher Mister Hennessy - he even gets blamed on making noise in class when he's off sick. (Henno does appear to have a slight vindictive streak in him - in fact, he reminded me a little of a teacher I once had at secondary school). The two most likeable of Paddy's friends, however, are a pair of brothers called Liam and Aidan. The boys' mother is dead, and though their father is trying his best, he seems to be a little lost. The neighbours aren't above gossiping about him and - although they are officially part of the gang - Liam and Aidan are also on the receiving end of a fair few nasty comments. As much as Paddy loves going over to their house, even he's not immune to a touch of snobbery.
The story is told more from a child's point of view rather than by an adult looking back on things. There are some things that raised a smile - the childhood theories about Purgatory, for example - and it even inspired a touch of nostalgia sometimes. However, it's set at a time when not only is Barrytown changing, but Paddy's home life is changing dramatically too. Naturally, Paddy doesn't always understand his parents and the things they say - so it's only gradually, as the frights become more and more frequent, that you come to realise there are problems between Paddy's dad and mum. There's a certain sadness about watching Paddy grow up as the story is told, while the difference between Paddy at the book's beginning and on the book's final couple of pages is tragic. A lovely book, though very sad.
Ghosts of Christmas Past November 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Imagine someone filled you full of 3 beers and a few shots of whiskey, then grabbed you, groggy, by the collar and dragged you through a bittersweet nostalgic trip back through childhood. Doyle reminds you of the kid's-eye view of life, less naive and ignorant than we generally mis-remember. The mixture of cruelty and enjoyment is realistic, not exaggerated like, say, Lord of the Flies. The view of teachers and parents is forgiving, as all children are wont to do. But then the shock when you realize you are a parent now, and G-d forbid that Paddy Clarke's descriptions should sound familiar.
I doubt that I have any control over Amazon's combination-purchase recommendations, but if I did, I'd say "better bought with A Death in the Family by James Agee".
Phenomenal July 4, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My second Roddy Doyle book and it was no less impressive than the first. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is the story of a 10-year-old boy growing up in Ireland. His experiences range from boyhood friendships to the classroom to his parent's increasing fights. Doyle is immensely talented and consistently manages to embrace his characters and represent them in a nearly too real fashion. Paddy Clarke not only feels like it's a story of a 10-year-old boy but is specifically narrated by a 10-year-old boy and by the end of the book one has to wonder "Doyle, who's he?" Doyle's narrative is addicting and moving and I had to have spent half the book asking people, "Do you remember when..." A definite must read for everyone.
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