martymohito's review against another edition
1.0
I agree with libsue. I didn't find it that funny at all, and I found the whole juvenile nature of the dialogue very boring after a while. I invested over 150 pages and then ran out of steam and couldn't finish it. Quite obviously about Blackrock College in Dublin. I can't understand how the Irish Times reckoned that it was a dead cert to be on the Booker shortlist. I couldn't see the quality in it at all. I left it behind in Greece on holidays , I hope somebody else picked it up and enjoyed it more than I did. I usually want to keep books in case I might read them in the future again, but I didn't even want to keep it.
moonbeam_'s review against another edition
3.0
first half was forgettable and a bit of a drag but i liked the 2nd half.
lorimichelekelley's review against another edition
5.0
Audio edition: This is the second time I listened to this book. It is one of my most favorite books ever! It is a laugh-out-loud kind of book while at the same time, really gets you thinking about stuff. While it does take place at a boy's boarding school, and many of the characters are around 14 years old, don't let that determine whether you read the book. It is definitely not a young adult book! The other characters are the teachers, the principal, the priest, the swimming coach, parents, and so on. It tells the story of Skippy's demise and how it affects everyone afterward. Along the way you hear stories from history, mythology, ghost stories, scientific theories, and philosophical musings. I liked how one of the teachers had been a student at the school he now teaches at, and from the story of his own time there and then the current story of Skippy and his friends, you get this glimpse into how our past is always reaching into our present, and we decide if we are going to let those childish choices define us, or if we are going to chalk it up to immaturity and just move on. It frustrates the reader because you get all these glimpses into what's really going on, and then you see the impotence of the adults in dealing with it. All that seriousness is lightened by the boys and their obsession with sex (Mario is just too funny in that "oh god!" way) and their conclusions about life based on their limited knowledge and experience. I don't know how the book would read in print, but the audio book, being narrated by a cast of characters, is absolutely perfect!! Highly, highly recommended! I've been singing the praises of this book for years and nobody I know has ever taken me seriously, maybe because the setting seems an unlikely place for a story they could relate to. Well, they are missing out! It's just so GOOD!
nighthawk921's review against another edition
2.0
461 pages of backstory for 50 pages of interest mixed in 200 pages of ending.
The writing in this book is not bad, which makes my loathing of the book that much more unfortunate. The book would have been a whole lot better and probably a whole lot more powerful if it was 400 pages shorter.
The problems with the book:
1) Pretty much every character is detestable. I wanted to like Skippy but his character was hardly present and rarely interacted with the others so I developed no attachment to him, meaning I wasnt terribly sad when he finally did die. His friends did not seem like friends and I kept wondering what made them friends. Ruprecht was the only character I cared for but, again, his friendship with Skippy seemed not to exist so his mourning seemed over the top.
2) All of the female characters were horrible. The girls were stereotypical and shallow, the women were sex objects, mother hens or slaves to men and I despised the writer more and more each time I had to read about one of them.
3) 461 pages of shit characters, pointless encounters, ridiculously long drawn out story-building just to get to Skippy's death again is not a way to keep readers. If this was not a book club book I would have gladly put it down a long time ago and read a 600 page book that actually catches the readers attention from the beginning and keeps it.
4) For all the buildup I felt the ending was really going to come to something. But it failed miserably because it WOULD NOT END. Pretty much all of the important ending points were made between pages 545-590 and yet I kept reading thinking that something would finally HAPPEN! The characters would drink the kool-aid they were preaching and fix things, justice was going to win out. But I guess since its a book about history, its only fitting that it ends as it begins.
The best part of the book was this from pg 547-548:
"...Howard, for one freezing instant, foresees something awful... but he isn't wearing a jacket, nor has he a bag, so it's difficult to see where he might conceal a firearm; anyway, Howard tells himself, that kind of thing only happens in America, not here, at least not yet..."
I have no idea what so many people see in this book. From those I've talked with in my book group, none of them have finished and none of them intend to.
The writing in this book is not bad, which makes my loathing of the book that much more unfortunate. The book would have been a whole lot better and probably a whole lot more powerful if it was 400 pages shorter.
The problems with the book:
1) Pretty much every character is detestable. I wanted to like Skippy but his character was hardly present and rarely interacted with the others so I developed no attachment to him, meaning I wasnt terribly sad when he finally did die. His friends did not seem like friends and I kept wondering what made them friends. Ruprecht was the only character I cared for but, again, his friendship with Skippy seemed not to exist so his mourning seemed over the top.
2) All of the female characters were horrible. The girls were stereotypical and shallow, the women were sex objects, mother hens or slaves to men and I despised the writer more and more each time I had to read about one of them.
3) 461 pages of shit characters, pointless encounters, ridiculously long drawn out story-building just to get to Skippy's death again is not a way to keep readers. If this was not a book club book I would have gladly put it down a long time ago and read a 600 page book that actually catches the readers attention from the beginning and keeps it.
4) For all the buildup I felt the ending was really going to come to something. But it failed miserably because it WOULD NOT END. Pretty much all of the important ending points were made between pages 545-590 and yet I kept reading thinking that something would finally HAPPEN! The characters would drink the kool-aid they were preaching and fix things, justice was going to win out. But I guess since its a book about history, its only fitting that it ends as it begins.
The best part of the book was this from pg 547-548:
"...Howard, for one freezing instant, foresees something awful... but he isn't wearing a jacket, nor has he a bag, so it's difficult to see where he might conceal a firearm; anyway, Howard tells himself, that kind of thing only happens in America, not here, at least not yet..."
I have no idea what so many people see in this book. From those I've talked with in my book group, none of them have finished and none of them intend to.
theano_'s review
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
kurenzhi's review
5.0
This is an excellently realized, sprawling book with far more good comedy than this subject matter deserves. I do aspire to one day find another boarding school novel that isn't narratively propelled by sexual assault (OLD SCHOOL is the only one I'm aware of, and even that has whiffs), but it's hard to lay that at the feet of a book this good. Worth reading.
jerrica's review against another edition
5.0
A joy to read. Enthusiastic prose, wonderful characters and characterization, effortless juggling of several plots.
Also hilarious. I had to stop reading several times because I was laughing so hard.
"...Tonight this toy robot will be our Columbus." From a schoolbag [Ruprecht] produces a plastic red-and-grey android about ten inches in height.
"Optimus Prime," Geoff whispers approvingly. "Leader of the Autobots." (p.310)
Also hilarious. I had to stop reading several times because I was laughing so hard.
"...Tonight this toy robot will be our Columbus." From a schoolbag [Ruprecht] produces a plastic red-and-grey android about ten inches in height.
"Optimus Prime," Geoff whispers approvingly. "Leader of the Autobots." (p.310)
brieahnj's review against another edition
4.0
This book took me almost 10 years to complete. Not because it was poorly written and not because it was boring but simply because there was so much going on. I read it at a clip up until the second time Skippy dies and then it all just became a little too much. The story was erratic and thready. Which is the point and it takes a very long time, nearly 663 pages to get to the point. Which is that the threads of our lives weave in and out of the threads of the lives of others. I put the book down for several years and just recently picked it back up a little more than 70% through. In the aftermath of it all, slowly seeing how the lives of the students, the teachers the world work out loss and soldier on, I found a new interest. It's not often that we deal with the before AND the after. Paul Murray's novel is well written, with each sentence serving an unforeseen endpoint. It is not a quick read. It is a book you sit with as confused and confounded as the teenagers who make up most of the story and the bewildered teacher just trying to live his life until the end when you discover that it all means something and it all means nothing at all.
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
As I read this novel by Paul Murray I had one question that needed answering: where was the damn editor! Had Skippy Dies been cut of the extras that make up the bulky 650 or so pages and turned leaner, it would have been a massively better book in every regard. It would have funnier, more engaging, crisper and just, as I said, better. But, unfortunately, Murray is allowed to run amok way too often, branching the story outward to characters that should be trimmed or not even see the light of day. It's too bad too, because what works in Skippy Dies is a treasure trove of Irish boarding school angst, hormones exploding, funny dialogue, boy pines after girl and nerdy kids trying to survive their teenage years whilst existing in this isolated school setting--it could have been an incredible book. Instead, it's just one with flashes of greatness weighed down by too much ambition. Sometimes, for a writer, having too much ambition and the desire to create more complicated stories hinder the overall result of the novel and sadly, such is the case with Skippy Dies. What could have been a masterpiece of the boarding school genre turns into something that is equal parts frustrating as it is great.