The Barrytown Trilogy: The Commitments / The Snapper / The Van

The Barrytown Trilogy #1-3

by Roddy Doyle

Together in one volume, this book contains Roddy Doyle's trilogy about the Rabbitte family of Barrytown, north Dublin. "The Commitments" was a major film of 1991, "The Snapper" is currently being filmed and "The Van" was shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize.

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Ireland, Humor, Novels, Comedy, Literature

633 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 1993

About the author

Roddy Doyle (Irish: Ruaidhrí Ó Dúill) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He won the Booker Prize in 1993.

Doyle grew up in Kilbarrack, Dublin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from University College, Dublin. He spent several years as an English and geography teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1993.

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Commitments by Roddy Doyle is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read according to one critic, albeit it is just 3777th on The Greatest Books of All Time site – you find thousands of reviews on magnum opera from both and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...


9 out of 10

“This is one of the fantastic, hilarious and short marvels that you can finish in just a few hours, wishing at the same time that there would be more, included for perfect reasons on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list” – this is how ecstatic I was some years ago, when I had the chance to read this for the first time https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...

Alas, on this second take, I was not so elated, even if I discovered that quite a few books will gain when somebody else reads them, audiobooks that is, in this particular case, the actor is also a talented singer, and he helps readers get a better feeling about what the songs sound like, as opposed to just imagining them…
Then there is the marvelous Bell Jar, as read by outstanding Maggie Gyllenhaal – I am sorry to see that her recent motion picture, The Bride, has tanked at the box office, and was not well received by critics - https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... this is a marvelous production

Jimmy Rabbitte seems to be the main character, although there are others that I have liked, such as Joey ‘The Lips’ Fagan, since he is older, it must be a sort of identification, I see myself in this talented musician, and I especially enjoyed the fact that this very young woman is attracted to him, that gives one hope, right?
They want to get together a band – The Commitments would be the name of the group, hence the novel – and they audition, so Joey The Lips comes and everyone is shocked by his age, experience and his having been on stage with Jimmy Hendrix, The Beatles, James Brwon and so many other stars of the time, and our age

This Is Spinal Tap https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... comes to mind, though there are so many films on the lives of singers, bands – another one would indeed be The Band, directed by Martin Scorsese – and we recognize some of the same dynamics, fights, clashes
Dean, I think that was the name of the singer, is obnoxious, just like many (most, or is it all) rock stars, celebrities and he creates tension within The Commitments, at one point, a fight is started when he fails to present as they had agreed to, he acts, talks as if this is his creation, and it is not, he is gifted, but maybe not irreplaceable

The Intellectuals by Paul Johnson shows us that if one is extremely talented in some way, then regression to the mean, or some other rule of compensation makes the Outlier likely to have serious flaws…to end with, let me just mention that I was enchanted by another Roddy Doyle novel, The Van https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...

[Eh?Eh! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of Irish slang and written to capture some of the accent. This trilogy centers around the Rabbitte family. Each book has a different tone, which was interesting to me since the bulk of the story is conveyed in oddly formatted dialogue. Why is that interesting at all? I struggle to write beyond mere summarizations so I get overexcited when I think I recognize the craft in writing.

The first is this chuckling wind-up, not really about the family but following the eldest son who forms a soul band out of the whitest of whities that falls apart due to personalities. Spoiler alert. Crass and funny.

The second - my favorite - focuses on the dad as he deals with his eldest daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy and seemingly just a glancing sweep of the daughter. But the way the father is drawn and colored in! Very sweet. The pregnancy itself is treated a bit briefly, more a prop for the development of the father character. Ignoring the inadequate treatment of that whole situation, this one is crass and hilarious.

The third takes place a few years later and the times have gone downhill. Again, the father is the focus. There are still the humorous bits but it's the struggle to maintain self-respect in this particular culture and the slow death of a friendship. It actually became hard to read. Crass and depressing.

[Sarah Beaudoin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Barrytown Trilogy is a collection of three novels - The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van - which all follow members of the Rabbitte family in their lives in a small town outside of Dublin.

I picked this book up for two reasons. I previously only knew Roddy Doyle through his short stories that are sometimes in the New Yorker, and he had been on my list of authors to look into for some time. Once I started looking at his novels though, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was the mastermind behind The Commitments, a movie I love. Thus, with a bit of hesitation, since I didn't want the novel to be a let down after the movie, nor did I want the novel to make me disappointed in the movie, I picked up the Barrytown Trilogy with the intent of initially just reading The Commitments.

Instead, I could not put this book down. The movie of The Commitments completely captures the witty dialogue of the novel, and I was just as smitten with the characters in the book as I was in the movie. Doyle's informal writing style perfectly captures the grittiness of the people of this small Irish town, and their attempt to become an Irish R&B/Soul band, modeled after Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, and others, is endearing, entertaining, and just plain fun.

I enjoyed The Commitments so much that I continued on to read The Snapper and The Van immediately. The focus of these two is on the Rabbitte family as a whole, whereas The Commitments only featured Jimmy Jr. The Snapper looks at the events surrounding 20 year old Sharon's pregnancy and the resulting effect on her family. Family patriarch Jimmy Sr. is the real hero of these novels - Doyle gives him a tough exterior but it is clear almost immediately that Jimmy Sr. is a gentle, loveable man. His relationships with his children, his wife, and his best mate Bimbo make for some of the most heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny dialogue that I have ever read.

The Snapper ends with the birth of Sharon's daughter Gina, and The Van picks up with the Rabbitte family just a couple of years later. At this point things have changed drastically - Jimmy Sr. is on the dole, eldest son Jimmy Jr. has moved in with his girlfriend, and second son Leslie has disappeared after getting in trouble with the law. The tone of The Van is more somber than the other two novels, but the concern Jimmy Sr. has for his family, along with the warmth of his interactions, was a bright light in an otherwise subdued narrative.

Overall, I would highly recommend any of these novels, either individually or as a trilogy.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm lopsided in my praise of this series because as a Dublin man with a gurrier of a Da I felt like I was reading excerpts from my own life. Jimmy Sr is a vulnerable character who hides his emotion with humour and at times anger. He is at times sweet, especially to his daughters but he can also be needlessly obtuse to the detriment of his own welfare. He's human. He's a North Dubliner who calls his penis his gooter and his bum his hole. I've met him in real life, in fact, I've lived with him and I'm probably going to turn into him (right down to my desire to own a chipper).

The first book of the series is The Commitments and while the prose his hilarious I actually found it to be a tad disappointing. It's a short story with a lot of page space afforded to the act of verbalising the songs the band is singing. It interrupted the flow of the story and became tiring after a while. We did, however, get introduced to great characters like Jimmy Jr, Outspan and Mickah. Their constant bickering with one another is indicative of what's to come in the later stories with the people who are closest to each other being the ones who give each other the most grief.

The Snapper and The Van are the next two in the series and Jimmy Sr is introduced as we follow his family (including his son Jimmy Jr from The Commitments) as they live in a council estate in Northside Dublin in 1987 & 1990 respectively. The setting, fictional Barrytown, is perfect as it reminded me of stories I heard growing up, one's like my Ma and Da owning the only phone in their estate in the late 80's so they'd have a queue outside their gaff every Sunday. Jimmy's life is work, his family and a few pints down the local with the lads. He has the archetypal Dublin bowises as friends, the lad who can get you anything from the back of a truck, the grumpy auldfella and the best mate who he shares more with than his wife. They slag each other endlessly, each trying to outdo the other and at times ganging up on one of the group of there's a bigger laugh to be had. Roddy Doyle is at his best here. The brown these fella's talk is gas. Some of it is insightful, most of it is tripe but all of it is funnier than anything else I've read in a book before.

Jimmy Sr has trouble telling his wife how he feels. He has anxiety that his son Darren, who he is hugely proud of, will begin to resent him or end up like the black sheep Les who runs away and is barely mentioned in the series. When he is laid off he becomes depressed because he feels like his role in the family is gone. When Jimmy Jr hands him a fiver he is both delighted and appalled, he wants to hug him and bury him. The dichotomy of his character is tantamount to the success of everyone else in the story because you feel like their moods live off of his. If he is a prick then his daughter Sharon will treat him like a prick. This fleshes out his character, it gives him depth and resonance because when he does something cringe-worthy you actually cringe and find yourself saying "Ah for fuck sake Jimmy". When he is nice and thoughtful, you as the reader feel like you've been treated to the Choc-Ice yourself (Or one of those Tina Turner drinks, wha' are they? Pepsi).

As a whole, the series will go down as one of the greatest pieces of Irish fiction ever written and this is from a country that brought the world books such as Gullivers Travels and The Dubliners. Roddy Doyle has created a beautiful piece of art and he did is writing about our Da's and Ma's and brothers and sister. He did it in Dublin vernacular with Dublin colloquialisms. I'm proud to be a Dub for reading this and all I want after reading it is a heap of Guinness and "a large and a battered Dunphy".

[Nicole Pesce · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the first story (The Commitments) about three Dubliners trying to start a band (in the 80s) and already the dialog and premise are totally slaying me (as in, it's hilarious) -- thankfully, I was just in Ireland recently, so I can more-or-less make out the jargon.
--
I ripped through the first two novels ("The Commitments" and "The Snapper") in just a couple of days, but it's taken a couple of weeks to wrap the third & final chapter of the madcap (and infectious) Rabbitte family because of life, the universe, everything ... but now that I have, I can't wait to go back and read through them again. I laughed out loud through all three books, welled up a number of times, and recognized my own Irish family -- sometimes painfully -- on every page. Such a great read, and I'm looking forward to checking out more of Roddy Doyle.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always like to read an author's earliest books -- you usually see a lot of growth over a short space. Here especially.

I've never been to Dublin, nor Ireland, but after reading this, I feel as if I had. The dialogue is brilliant, and hilarious -- again, not having been, I don't know if people there actually talk like this, but if they don't, they should. Also, for the occasionally rough language, Doyle really spreads the love around, without it getting schmaltzy -- the locale, the characters -- it makes for warm reading. What's more, as the books go forward, the characterizations run deeper and deeper. The Jimmy Jr of the Snapper and the Van isn't much less of a cipher than that of the Commitments. But the Jimmy Sr who comes into his own in the Snapper then takes over the Van is full-fledged, a warm and rounded character to the very end.

My only complaint is that in many respects things are too good -- the Rabbittes are too likeable. They may bicker and fight, but ultimately they're good-hearted. Whenever Doyle has to paint in a villain, the baby's father in the Snapper, or Bimbo in the Van, he makes them look a little ridiculous, even pathetic. No, things don't work out for the Rabbittes -- at least in the short run -- but no real harm is ever done. I recommend the books, and I'll definitely go in for more of the short stories, but overall, I prefer books that don't need to hug it out in the end.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My standard "book-review" is here: http://justinsbooks.wordpress.com/201... , but a few more personal notes on Barrytown:

-These stories are often hysterical, and I've caught myself copying the rhythm and slang of the dialog in my day-to-day speak; mostly muttering "Jaysis" under my breath
- The blurb for The Van made it seem like it was about a couple of buddies following the Irish World Cup team, but it really isn't. That's not a bad thing, mind you; but it's more about a crisis of identity and purpose in a father/husband/friend than about some football. Just to be clear.
-The Commitments was really hysterical and while it reminded me a ton of playing in a band in high school, and even watching my brother lip-synch to The Blues Brothers on stage in 8th grade, more than anything it made me want to tune up the bass, dust off the sax, and play a few gigs. Brilliant story.

Can't recommend it enough, even if you're not Irish. But if you are, do yourself a favor: Find a good honest pub, get yourself a nice pint, order some chips and a bit of cod maybe, and dive in. You won't regret it.

[jessica yeung · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is quintessential irish charm at its best. roddy doyle is a classic and national treasure.

4.5 stars

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Review coming]!

[Dale Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

An entertaining and at times hilarious picture of a budding Barrytown band trying to develop the Dublin Soul Scene (The Commitments); and of the average Barrytown family trying to make a go of it in their own way (The Snapper and The Van). Roddy Doyle, as usual, is excellent at putting the reader in the scene. Anyone can easily see themselves being a part of Barrytown, or an audience member going to see the Commitments.

Each character is recognizable and endearing in their own right, even in questionable decision making. We see that particularly in The Van when Bimbo is increasingly stuck between keeping his best friend, and prospering through his wife's vision of the chip van. And that is exactly where we see the strongest of writing: when the reader becomes just as conflicted and torn as the character himself.

[Soho_Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve long loved the film version of “The Commitments”, largely due to a love of the soundtrack, which features classic soul tracks very well performed, set around a band full of banter and arguments. I’ve also long loved the works of Roddy Doyle, as he writes with a gritty reality that has not only won awards, but also wins hearts with the way he sees the everyday, but shows it to you in such a way that it becomes something special. What I hadn’t realised was that the former was the first of the trilogy of novels, all set in the fictional suburb of Barrytown, Dublin, and all written around the Rabbitte family.

Like with the film, Roddy Doyle’s version of “The Commitments” starts with Jimmy Rabbitte putting together a soul band. They’re a disparate group, from trumpet player Joey “The Lips” Fagan, who has decades of experience in playing with the greats, through to Derek, who will be a bass guitarist as soon as he’s saved enough money to buy one. Somehow, Jimmy manages to make a band out of them and thanks to a combination of a decent vocalist, plenty of practice and hard work and a couple of crowd-pleasing lyrics that appeal to the locals, they make it to the verge of success.

You can immediately see why this book should make for such a great screenplay, as much of the story is told in dialogue and song. Virtually everything here is written the way it would sound and, despite being on the printed page, this almost feels like an audiobook, as the dialogue is written in the accent and dialogue it was spoken in and the soul classics are written in sounds and lyrics. But the book doesn’t stand still for a moment and whilst the band are later introduced as “the hardest working band in Dublin”, the same could be said for the narrative and as the band burned brightly, but for the shortest of times and the book does the same.

Perhaps the one downside to the novel is that because of this, you don’t get to know much about the characters other than their instruments. Jimmy stands out a little as the controlling factor, as well as the link between the later novels, but in many ways, a lot of the band blend into each other and it’s mostly only their instruments that differentiate them from each other. The sounds of the music are equally often similar and it’s only when the lyrics come in that it’s clear what song they are actually playing.

But “The Commitments” is not really a book that you read, it’s more one that you view, as it’s written in such a way that you feel like you’re in the corner of various rooms watching it. The reader is a fly on the wall and the story is described as much as told and even then there’s room for a couple of descriptive gems from Doyle that have all the beauty of the song lyrics. I was vaguely disappointed to discover that a couple of the scenes and songs from the film weren’t actually in here, but I can rewatch the film for those and the story that is in these pages is thoroughly enjoyable as it stands.

There is quite the change of pace for “The Snapper”, as it comes out of the musical world and into the family home, as Jimmy’s sister Sharon has just told her parents that she is pregnant, which has not been entirely well received. She is young and unmarried at a time and in a part of Ireland where this is either frowned upon or gossiped about and usually both at once. Her family are largely supportive, even when she refuses to tell them who the father is, with the baby having been conceived under non-consensual circumstances, but when rumours start to swirl about his identity, holes are torn in some of Sharon’s relationships, both with her family as well as with some of her closest friends.

What “The Snapper” has in common with “The Commitments”, apart from the setting, is that it’s a book that has a very audio feel to it. Nearly the entire story is conversations between any number of people and whilst there is the occasional action piece, many of these happen off the page and are described by one person to another as much as written down. This is a novel that sometimes has the emotions of something like “EastEnders”, but there are moments of massive humour and joy and some of the group dynamics and ultimately this is a novel full of so much conversation, heart and family dynamics that you could easily see it as a television series.

That said, this writing style does make Doyle’s writing hard to follow at times, as he writes in the vernacular they would use and this can take some getting used to as well as some translation. For example, it didn’t occur to me until very late in the novel that the title “The Snapper” was a reference to the baby. Doyle also rarely tells you who is speaking, so if a conversation gets more involved that something between two people who ended up in the same room the format he uses can occasionally be difficult to follow and I had to go back around a couple of times in the middle of a conversation to figure out who said what.

“The Snapper” had a darker tone than “The Commitments” and I suspect this is the reason I enjoyed it a little bit less. I also know a lot more about classic soul tunes than I do about dealing with pregnancy, either personally or from a close perspective, so I didn’t feel quite as involved with this one from that regard, either. But despite being a touch darker and occasionally tough to follow, there’s no question that what Doyle has given us here is a slice of life, raw and uncut, straight onto the page, with all the drama of a soap opera. That may be another reason I couldn’t get quite as involved in it, as I’m not a big fan of soap operas, but to get the same feeling from this as I do from those can again only be testament to how good Doyle is at what he does.

The trilogy comes to an end with “The Van” and if “The Snapper” took a darker tone emotionally from “The Commitments”, that goes even further here. Since the previous novel, the snapper of the title is growing up and Jimmy has time to get to know his grand-daughter thanks to being unemployed. As much as he enjoys her company, the lack of money means he can’t go down the pub with his mates as often as he used to and hanging around the house is making him depressed, especially as he can’t provide for his family. But when his best friend Bimbo gets made redundant and puts a chunk of his payout into buying a chip van, the two of them have a purpose working together and with Jimmy’s daughter Sharon helping out, life is getting better for Jimmy, at least to start with.

“The Van” is a book that takes you through the whole range of human emotions, as Jimmy goes through the wringer, both on his own account, but also supporting his friends and family. To start with, it feels like it’s going to be a slow and bleak book as Jimmy deals with his feelings of depression and being less of a man as he can’t provide for his family or afford to maintain his friendships. But once he and Bimbo start working together, the shared aims and camaraderie give them both a sense of purpose and a joy that being out of work had stolen from them. With the money it brings in, he is able to regain some of the self-respect and purpose he had lost.

Although there isn’t a huge amount of character-building here, we already know the characters fairly well from the previous novels and whilst this may be a downside if you’ve read this one first, by and large it’s all very familiar from the start. Some of the emotions may be unfamiliar and deeper than in either of the other novels, but the trilogy has become deeper and more involved as it has progressed and this the natural next step from where it had been. This does mean it can be a tough read at times, but the pace of the novel moves along quite nicely, particularly when Jimmy and Bimbo start becoming involved with the van and their lives and relationships take an upturn, perfectly indicating how life seems easier when you have a purpose and a reason.

Three books into the trilogy, the conversational style is easier to follow, but it’s made easier this time around by there being more narrative than conversation in the story. There are fewer group conversations to get people mixed up with each other as well, as was particularly awkward in the previous novel, so this one reads a little easier, even as it becomes harder going emotionally. As tough as it is at times, this is by far the best written book in the trilogy, with the realism coming off the page in every moment and you can believe everything and, having lived through the trilogy with them all, this is a tough, but perfect way to end.

Thie is a trilogy of novels that has grown both emotionally and in the writing style as it has gone on and it’s been getting better as it’s become tougher going. Where “The Commitments” felt like a film, with a banging soundtrack, “The Snapper” felt like a soap opera and not one of the happier ones. But “The Van” feels like you’re watching someone’s life happening in front of you and it’s at this point where Roddy Doyle’s later Booker Prize win became inevitable, even as his first nomination was earned, as whilst the first two novels were books you could watch, this became one you lived and it’s incredible to think that this were his first three novels, as they’re unmissable, especially as the whole trilogy.

[Emmet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read The Snapper and The Van before, but the price for The Commitments was better as part of the trilogy so I started reading all three again.

The Snapper and The Commitments were excellently funny novels that really captured Dublin of the era. They also were just challenging enough to make the reader have to think about how the characters ended up where they were. Especially The Snapper which took on Sharon's encounter with the father of the sanpper as rape, which was and still is today it seems, seen by many as her own fault for being too drunk to say no.

However, The Van was more challenging for many reasons. First of all, it's pretty to the point of showing just how depressing being unemployed can be, to the point of bleakness. For me this made some of the comedy feel... off. That said, most of the comedy is hilarious and I did have numerous chuckles while reading.

My second problem with The Van was Jimmy Sr.'s leering at the young women almost everywhere he went. Even though I understand the point Doyle is making about Jimmy's slide into depression as he stops making an effort, it still feels really perverse to read about a 40something year old man with an erection at the shop counter. I'm not sure if I missed a nuance here and this was some dig at society, but either way it just was not to my taste.

Overall, this trilogy is a great read. Each story is unique and interesting and somehow sticks to the parameters of a hero story. Each time our flawed hero (Jimmy jr, Sharon, Jimmy sr) faces a problem and is thrown into extreme situations but always comes out on top.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three books about 3 different members of a blue-collar Irish family. The Commitments is about the eldest son and his fascination with music. A successful band, The Commitments, is too successful for its own good. Jimmy is the manager, who goes on to become a DJ. The Snapper is about the eldest daughter and her pregnancy. The snapper is a term for baby. With this pregnancy we begin to hear more about the father, Jimmy Sr, as he decides with a grandchild on the way he must become a more respectable, helpful role-modeld. The final and longest book of the trilogy is The Van. Almost solely about Jimmy Sr...he continues to try to be a productive, good role-model. After losing their jobs, he and his best friend Bimbo go into the food truck business. This is an earthy, down to earth honest story. It is supposed to be humorous, but I think you must be Irish and perhaps a man to get it. I learned a lot of new slang terms. Surprisingly, not everyone in the British Isles calls a toilet the loo. So I also learned much about working class Irish families, the desire to improve ones-self, and friendship. The story of Jimmy Sr reminded me of the protagonist in Death of a Salesman. The style and composition are very different from what I was used to reading, especially the dialogue, of which perhaps over 70 percent of the book is. The language is a challenge, as it is the patois of Barrytown. Overall, however, it was a very good read.

[Evan]

- THE COMMITMENTS -
About a boy, who decides to form a soul group with his mates to bring the people's music to the people. Because he means that the irish are the niggers of Europe.
Personally I found it really charming, though a bit slow. A few remarkable and lovable characters in there, but I felt like I was reading a 150 pages long short story. 2 stars for this title.



- THE SNAPPER -
The snapper shows a different side of the Rabbitte family, seeing as 90 % of the commitments was just them singing soul in Joey's mother's garage.
Sharon gets pregnant, and the book is mainly about her relationship to her dad, and what the rest of the family thinks when they get to know who the father is. I'd give this title 5 stars.



- THE VAN -
It's clear through his writing, that Roddy knows that it's like to lose your job - and we see it very well through Jimmy Sr's hopelessness, shame and knowledge about daytime tv. At least, that's until Bimbo loses his job, too, and the duo buys a burger van.
I spent a bit longer reading this - it's a lot longer than The Commitments and The Snapper, but it's good. My problem is, though, that even though they're both terrible at making food, I get so fucking hungry while reading it. Just this week I've had two kebabs.
4 stars.

[Donna McCaul Thibodeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a reread for me, as I read all these novels years ago. I think I enjoyed them more when I was younger. I also saw the three films. The Commitments was a rarity - the film was much better than the book. It really fleshed out the characters and Doyle's spare prose. The Snapper was better. The relationship between Sharon and her father was well written. I didn't really care for the way the pregnancy came about, however. The Van was the longest and went into a lot of detail as to the relationship between the redundant friends, Jimmy Sr. and Bimbo. I enjoyed it but some of the decisions that Jimmy Sr. made were questionable to me. I don't live in Barrytown so perhaps that is how things go.

All in all, similar to fish and chips. Enjoyable but you wouldn't want a steady diet of it. Righ'?

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

We read the second story, The Snapper, for my book club, and then watched the movie to compare the two. The book really didn't grab me, like I thought it would. I did enjoy getting to know the Rabbitte family, along with Jimmy's goofy friends. Still, when I was reading it, I definitely had a "I can take it or leave it" feeling.

The movie was a decent adaptation. But, as with most movies based on books, the book was better. :-)

[Cláudia Parra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great reading to me because it shows Dublin and its people as they are, their culture, language, problems and difficulties as well. If you have already been in Dublin, the reading is a way to back there and remember everything you saw and felt. The first part "The Commitments", in my opninion, is the poorer history, The Snapper and The Van are "deeper" , The Van wins. It is not a "high literary value" book, anyway it remembers me Ireland and I love it.

[Tom Madigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Commitments gets a solid 5/5 ... the other two are worth reading but hit lower peaks, less often. I haven't seen the movie but don't know how it could be any better -- funnier, quicker, sweeter, or even more musical -- than this.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fair play te ya, Mr. Doyle. Ya big bollix.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dublin w(r)it in three great books.

[Torin · Rating 5 out of 5]

SOMETIMES I FEEL SO NICE
GOOD GOD
I JUMP BACK
I WANNA KISS MYSELF
I GOT
SO-OU-OUL
AN’ I’M SUPERBAD

[Art Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

All three stories are a quick read. The strength in the trilogy is getting a look at the family from three very different angles. The killer is that the Rabbitte family gets less likable though the three angles.

The Commitments was a fun read, though sometimes the dialogue was hard to follow. Very light and good characters, with a powderkeg of personalities threatening the band's existence. I remember the movie a little and reading the story made me put it on my queue to see again.

The Snapper was a movie I saw when it came out and remember very vaguely. The premise is a little disturbing but it was still my favorite of the three stories. At this point the family was fun and really thrived as a whole, with parents who really identified with their kids. Yes it's a rough blue collar area of Dublin but they stuck together.

The Van was a little tougher, and the Rabbittes were sometimes actually sadistic particularly with the dog. Jimmy Sr. was not a sympathetic character, constantly acting selfishly both with Bimbo and the family. The bar scene at the end put him in a particularly bad light. It did however capture the midlife crisis mindset very well, especially in a working-class world. I'm that age now and I can identify.

In summary an enjoyable read that really put you in the atmosphere of the rougher edges of Dublin early-90s life.

[meteomueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eigentlich drei Bücher, die ich individuell mit 4, 3, 3 Sternen bewertet hätte.
The Commitments gefiel mir wegen des ungewöhnlichen Stils. Es wirkte eher wie ein Drehbuch, sehr viele Dialoge, sehr viel "beschriebene Songs", also es wird mitgeschrieben, was zu hören ist. War zum Ende des Buches aber auch gut mit dem Experiment. Ich war beim Lesen neugierig, was die Helden als nächstes anstellen würden, fand aber nicht gut, dass nur deren Handlung beschrieben wurde, nicht, wie sie darauf gekommen sind.
The Snapper fand ich am schlechtesten gealtert und viel zu sehr ein Drehbuch. Ich mochte den Zusammenhalt in der Familie, fand aber alle Helden eher unsympathisch.
The Van wirkte am ehesten wie ein Buch, wenngleich ebenfalls schlecht gealtert. Viele Szenen waren gut beschrieben. Den Haupthelden fand ich so unsympathisch, ich habe das Buch zu Ende gelesen, weil ich keine losen Enden mag. Wetterbeschreibungen: Waren gut

[Louise Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I READ THE THREE BOOKS WITH A LOT OF TIME BETWEEN EACH ONE AS I FIND THE LANGUAGE A BIT OF A STRUGGLE ALTHOUGH ENJOYABLE AND FUNNY IT LIKE EATING TO MUCH OF A GOOD THING U NEED A BREAK BETWEEN COURSE RODDDY DOYLE SHOWS COMEDY THROUGH HIS CHARACTERS BUT TOOK ME AWHILE TO GET USED TO BOTH THEIR SAMENESS AND DIFFERENCES A BIT TO MUCH OF THE SAME BUT I MUST ADMIT I LIKED THE VAN THE BEST AS CLD HAVE STRONG VISIONS OF THE SCENES AND OF THE TIME LOVED THE FOOTBALL STORIES AND CLD FEEL THE EXCITEMENT OF THE WORLD CUP AND THE BIAS TOWARDS THE VARIOUS TEAMS I ENJOY DOYLE AND HIS HUMOUR AND WILL GO BACK TO HIS STORIES AT A LATER DATE MUST LOOK OUT FOR THE TV VERSIONS OF THIS !!!!

[Mihai Stoenciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty fun, but I must admit I was sort of disappointed exactly by the book I had most expectations from - The Commitments. Probably because I had seen the movie first. The books are fun ("the van" not so much) and easy to read, but it seemed to me the author relies too much on dialogue and relating objectively some facts, rather than giving insights about the characters. Of course, you find out about the characters from dialogue and facts, but still, it seemed too little to me. I wished they were more fleshed out. All in all, pleasant books, if a bit too tedious and blunt.

[Michael Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love The Commitments movie, so I had to read the book to see how it compared. The dialogue-emphasized writing style is liking reading a script, I can picture how all the scenes in the movie were translated from the book. Now I'll have to watch film versions of The Snapper and The Van; I enjoyed both books, although Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.'s story in The Van was a little more glum than Sharon's in The Snapper.

[syrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eleven (!) years after picking up the book I finally got around to reading it, as research for my next trip. The first stories weren't new to me, having watched "The Commitments" and "The Snapper" before, so "The Van" actually ended up being my favorite story. It might have started out slow, but in the end it provided me with a good insight into a certain irish society. A very interesting read.

[John M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doyle brings the Rabbitte family to life and then plunks you down at the dinner table with them! Never have I felt more that I knew the characters like close friends or, dare I say it, family! The Rabbittes embody the lower middle class, not just of Dublin, or Ireland, but the world.

[Andy Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some cleverness, majorly entertainment with a warm humanist centre. Doyle, of course, is the man for dialogue: all experimental form in The Commitments; in The Snapper dialed back for descriptive and The Van, a super fusion very grand finale of humility and timing.

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, the three stories were a good mix of slice of life, humor, and drama. IMO, The Commitments was the weakest of the three. Great genuine dialogue between the characters. My favorite scenes were when Bimbo and Jimmy Sr worked the chipper van.

Rating: 3.5 / 5