Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Book: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Finished: April 2009
Pages: 282
Challenges:
** Spring Reading Thing
** A-Z Challenge
** Book Awards
** 20 in 2009
** Read and Review
** New Authors

First Line: "We were coming down our road."

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. 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

I am not sure how I feel about this book. I ploughed through it even though I wasn't really in the mood for it once I had started it. I think my general feeling after reading it is sadness. What a tough life kids back then had in Ireland--scrappy is a term that comes to mind. Then, to witness the failure of his parent's marriage sealed the deal of sadness for me.
This was a well written book, and does show us life through the lens of a 10 year old boy. Roddy Doyle, the author won the 1993 Man Booker Prize-deservedly so.