Reviews

Love by Roddy Doyle

loeezeb's review against another edition

4.0

Beautiful, emotional read. Also, brilliantly captures Irish colloquialisms/ general natter.

danielhume's review against another edition

4.0

Interesting book. Frustrating to read at times but I believe that was the point. Did Joe truly experience something that words can't do justice or is he merely making excuses for sordid actions? This book is more about how the characters click with each other rather than a satisfying plot unfolding. If that sounds like your thing then give Love a shot.

sandiet's review against another edition

3.0

I've always wanted to read something by Roddy Doyle but I don't think this is the one I should have started with. The premise of the story is good, I just thought the execution would have been better. Two old friends meet up after a long separation and during the course of what is basically a pub crawl with the men getting drunker, cruder and louder these two beyond middle age men discuss their lives, wives, children and parents. Their story is presented in dialogue and I found that disconcerting but yet it could have worked if the book was shorter. I felt it repetitive and I guess what is quite possibly typical of male discussions it rambled on with the men getting side-tracked and never quite getting down to the meat of their talk till very near the end of the book. Also because this was a pre-release copy the formatting was off and to be honest that might have thrown me as well. (I would be interested to see if official release copy is formatted the same way).
All in all not a bad book and I think I'll try another one of Mr. Doyle's books to see if it's just this one that wasn't my cup of tea.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada for sending me an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

#Love #NetGalley

mollyok1's review

2.5

Didn’t feel anything until the end. And then I was sad. 

oisin175's review

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My library had this shelved as "romance," which is a horrible genre categorization. Roddy Doyle is excellent at dialogue and it really shows here. The story is really just two old men talking about their lives. Ostensibly it's about Joe explaining why he left his wife and the aftermath, but the narration occurs inside Davy's head and is frequently interrupted with memories and his own thoughts. An interesting story about the impacts that the past, both real and imagined, have on us. A great example of a novel that can leave an emotional mark, keep the reader engaged, and have next to no activity. 

taylorgrace24's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

The format of the book was interesting, but it quickly became incredibly confusing and hard to follow. I didn’t like the plot and felt like this could have been an incredibly shorter story. Nothing actually happened in the entire book. I got into a slump halfway through and only finished the book out of principle. Maybe I just didn’t connect with the story, but this was a huge dislike for me

irisilagan's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

madlymia's review against another edition

“He sat up - and I knew my father like I hadn’t known him before. I could imagine him now with my mother - holding her, being with her, kissing the back of her neck. I saw what he’d lost and I loved him”.

this one took a while to get into but the ending was worth it. love crying in public over a novel

cecilia243's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

barnesstorming's review against another edition

3.0

Great natural language, fully-formed, believable characters. But man, 327 pages seems like an indulgence for the story this book tells. It's a 10-hour pub crawl with two nigh-on-60-year-olds, rekindling their friendship while one tells the other about his new love. Granted, it's dialog-heavy, so it's a quick read even at this length. Honestly, though, you could read the first 50 pages and the last 50 (which, the end is powerful), and you'd be just as good, IMO.

Opening line:
He knew it was her, he told me. He told me this a year after he saw her. Exactly a year, he said.

Closing lines:

Spoiler

We watched the taxi slow, and stop.
--You'll soon be home, Davy, said Joe.
--Yeah, I said. --I will.>