Bull Fighting by Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle’s latest collection of short stories isn’t so much about fighting bulls as about what happens to the bulls once most of the fight has gone out of them. His mostly middle-aged male characters live lives of quiet desperation. Hanahoe is mourning the loss of a close friend, a bereavement that has led him to question his own mortality. A tired teacher welcomes the children of past pupils to his classroom, and muses about a long-ago encounter with one of his own teachers. Terence finds it hard to settle in his own home after an encounter with a rat in the kitchen. Kev’s wife walks out on him but he’s afraid to ask if she’s gone for good. Bill begins to enjoy driving his elderly parents to the many funerals they attend, stopping off for their customary bag of chips on the way home. Another man tries to subdue his vampiric tendencies, but the neighbour’s chicken ends up getting it in the neck. A quietly impressive collection.
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When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
This thoroughly engaging book tells the story of Elly and her brother Joe, their eccentric parents, the series of even more eccentric lodgers, and Elly’s best friend Jenny Penny. Elly’s troubles start when she suggests at school that Jesus may have been “a mistake … an unplanned pregnancy” and goes on to audition for a part in the school play with a thoroughly unsuitable adult monologue involving an abortion and a bottle of gin. She also commits the cardinal sin of naming her pet rabbit god, much to the disgust of her teacher. Her brother Joe, who himself doesn’t exactly fit in with most of his schoolmates, is her constant protector in life and saves an unwitting Elly from the attentions of a creepy old neighbour. When they are grown, however, the tables are turned, and it is Elly who sets off to save Joe in the aftermath of 9/11 and bring him back home. This is a beautifully written first novel, with wonderfully intriguing characters and a great sense of time and place.
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