"Love" by Roddy Doyle
A book review
Two Irishmen walked into a pub…
That might sound like the beginning of an
unfunny joke, but it is actually the premise of Roddy Doyle’s latest novel - “Love”. Davy and Joe were drinking buddies in their youth. They are now close
to sixty, and Davy has lived in England for more than three decades. However, on his visits to Ireland to check on
his aging and ailing father, he still occasionally meets Joe for the sake of
old times.
The novel unfolds over one such long
pub crawling evening. Joe has surprising news for Davy – he has broken up with Trish, his wife of thirty
years, and settled down with Jessica, an old flame whom Davy remembers from
their old drinking haunts. In a mixture
of self-justification, self-pity and barely concealed pride, Joe tries to
explain the reasons for leaving a wife whom he still loves and is attracted to.
Davy acts as interrogator and interlocutor, by turns fascinated and irritated
at Joe stealing the show. Joe’s story
nudges memories of Davy’s youth – his difficult relationship with his father,
his meeting and falling in love with his firebrand wife Faye. At the end of the story, we also learn of the
real reason why Davy has decided to meet Joe on this particular day.
Roddy Doyle’s latest is certainly interesting
in both theme and execution. It explores
the various facets of “Love” – not just love between the sexes (with its
mixture of attraction, lust, desire for companionship), but also between parents
and children; between friends; love for one’s roots and homeland. “Love” is also formally adventurous, most of
it being in the form of a dialogue. Even
Davy’s reminiscences involve long stretches of conversation. Doyle’s mastery is apparent in the way the
dialogue degenerates (both in coherence and lewd content) as Davy and Joe
become tipsier. There are also the
snatches of that dark humour for which the author is well known.
Yet, even while I admired various elements of
this work, I had to make an effort to finish the novel. Part of the reason for this lies in my difficulty
with following the dialogue. It felt like reading a script, except that I
regularly had to re-check who was saying what. I often found myself thinking
that a conversation between two drunk men is greater fun when you’re one of
them. The arguments going round in
circles, the swing from irritation to sentimental camaraderie… it’s all fine if
you’re tipsy and in the midst of it but as a mere “fly on the wall” I
eventually found it quite tiresome.
There’s also the issue that certain of the novel’s questions remain
unresolved. For instance, at the end of
it all, we still are not sure why Joe left Trish and which parts of his
story are true, which ones he has embellished for effect and which ones he’s
remembering incorrectly. Indeed, the novel is not just about love, but also
about memory and the way we fashion it to our ends.
For me, “Love” is an interesting experiment but
one which is not wholly successful. If this novel were a girlfriend, I would
have broken up with her, albeit admitting that possibly “it’s not you, it’s
me”.
Kindle Edition, 333 pages
Expected publication: May 14th 2020
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