Roddy Doyle can be tough for those unfamiliar with his style. This felt very much like being a fly-on-the-wall eavesdropping on a couple of old friends at the bar, and deciding to follow them for the rest of the night. Rating not as high as some of his other books, and there were long stretches I could have done without, but it had the right mix of sweet and funny for the most part.

Two middle-aged Irishmen go into a pub and into another pub and . . .
Davy, who has lived in England for virtually his entire adult life, has returned to Dublin to visit his elderly father and contacted Joe, a friend from his youth. The two revisit old haunts and discuss their lives. During their pub crawl, Joe reveals he has left his wife Trish for Jessica, a woman with whom he was infatuated almost 40 years earlier. It is obvious that Davy also has something significant happening in his life as he keeps checking his cellphone for messages, but it is only at the end that he tells Joe what that is.

The narrative is virtually all dialogue; think of Waiting for Godot or Night Boat to Tangier - also penned by Irish writers. There is no doubt that Doyle has an ear for dialogue because the conversation of two inebriated Irishmen is spot-on. It could be said that the dialogue flows like the beer they keep ordering and drinking. They swear a lot and often use Irish slang; for example, I learned that the jacks means “toilet” and yoke means “thing”. Davy and Joe alternate between serious discussions and hilarious banter and, the more they drink, the more their conversation becomes circular and incoherent.

Actually, reading the book often feels like being the sober non-drinker listening to the conversation of people becoming more and more intoxicated. At times it becomes tiresome. Causing some confusion is the lack of conventional punctuation. Quotation marks are not used; only em dashes are used, and they indicate both dialogue and interrupted dialogue. Perhaps it’s only because I read a galley, but both men often speak in the same line. Dialogue tags are not always used, so I often had to re-check who was saying what.

The topic which occupies most of their time is Joe’s decision to leave his wife, whom he claims he loves, for a woman he knew briefly when he was a young man. He grasps for analogies to explain his decision both to Davy and to himself. In his explanations, he contradicts himself so it is not always clear what parts of his story are true and which have been embellished for effect. Certainly, when Joe speaks of his first meetings with Jessica, Davy’s memories differ. For instance, Joe claims that Davy was also smitten with Jessica, but Davy says he liked another girl named Alice: “And I remember, Alice didn’t like [Jessica]. I remember, it had helped me to like Alice, to reach for her hand.”

As the title clearly indicates, the theme of the novel is love and its many forms we experience in our lives. There’s obviously lust which seemed to be Joe and Davy’s focus when they were young men. Via flashbacks, we witness their love for the women who became their wives; those relationships start with romance and passion but over time have shifted to companionship. The two men discuss their love for their children, and Davy ponders his love for his father. The book emphasizes the difficulty in expressing feelings: “There is a reason why men don’t talk about their feelings. It’s not just that it’s difficult, or embarrassing. It’s almost impossible. The words aren’t really there.”

Of course, it’s the love demonstrated in their friendship that takes centre stage. The two men have not been very close for almost four decades, and throughout the evening, Davy finds himself feeling differently about Joe: at times, he is contemptuous of Joe’s choices and so deliberately provokes him. More than once, he thinks that he will never bother to meet with him again. He alternates between being interested and being bored. Joe often seems to resent Davy, but in the end is unquestionably supportive.

Naturally, because this is a Roddy Doyle novel, there is humour. The first meeting between Davy and Faye is hilarious because Faye is very outspoken. Because the two friends are nearing their sixties, they discuss aging. Joe offers “Advice for the agein’ man. Never waste an erection, never trust a fart, never pass a jacks.”

This book will not be for everyone, certainly not for anyone who wants a novel with plot. Despite my occasional frustration with the meandering dialogue with its unconventional formatting, I found myself intrigued with their meditations on love. I wanted to know how their evening would end, and I’m glad I persevered because the ending is perfect, both emotionally and thematically.

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.

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