Irish Readers discussion

I'm about a 3rd of a way through and, so far, I *really* don't get the hype; all the rewards and the rave reviews.

Two reviews I saw last night made me splutter my tea out last night; one saying it was as good as Freedom, and the other saying it will be a masterpiece like Ulysses or some such. What. The. Fug?

I don't get it. If we're giving out awards for funny irish books with posh boys, Ross O'Carroll Kelly should be well ahead of the queue. He's much funnier.

I mean, it's OK for a lighthearted read - but the hype and awards. Does not compute.

Maybe the audiobook has a lot to do with it. Narrator isn't great. He's good at doing the silly voices. But makes the whole book sound very silly. Even parts that aren't supposed to be silly.

Hoping it gets better.

How is it now? How far have you got?

That's odd - I remember replying to this but looks like it never went through.

I finished it a week or so ago. It got a bit better; some parts are better than others but I found it hard to take the serious stuff seriously when the narrator always sounded so jovial. Though I think some of it definitely falls into total caricature, the stereotypical Italian character for example, which I think would read as cartoonish by anyone. So I don't think the audio version is 100% to blame.

Again, I found it disappointing because it's a mid-weight book and some people were comparing it to books that are really in a different league altogether, which I found mind boggling, and off-putting.

Thanks, someone gave it to me to read and I read four pages and the voice put me off. Probably just me.