REVIEW: Love by Roddy Doyle

Love was my first experience with a Roddy Doyle novel and it was nothing like I expected. Dialogue-driven and distinctly Irish, this novel was a welcomed and enjoyable change of pace from what I normally read.

Roddy Doyle

Love is a contemporary, in-depth look at the heart, exploring the many ways that love exists through the friendship between two men. Over the course of an evening, Joe and Davy reconnect over pints as they reminisce about their youth and how their lives have changed over the years. As Joe settles into the story of how he left his wife for Jessica, someone they both know from their early days of crawling through the pubs of Dublin, Davy becomes lost in his own memories of the past. Spanning friendship, family and romance, as well as the love of place in Ireland, this novel beautifully illuminates how love sits in our personal histories, how love and loss are tied together and the uniqueness of each loving experience.

One of my favourite things about Love is its structure and the way it switches seamlessly between Joe’s story, Davy’s memories and the bustling Dublin pub scene in the background. Additionally, as the characters move from pub to pub and push themselves through pints they once drank like water, they gradually descend into a drunkenness that comes out through their increasing rowdiness, talking in circles and losing coherency.

Roddy Doyle is good at crafting this kind of dialogue that drives the story with humour and heart – the back and forth between Joe and Davy feels exactly how it would be to step into a conversation with two old friends, filled with the banter and familiarity that only a 40+ year relationship could have. The intimacy between them is fascinating and Doyle coaxes it from seemingly insignificant moments, like when they debate having another pint or forget the name of an acquaintance. Although they frequently clash, Joe and Davy share a brotherly love that bounces between affection and frustration and Doyle captures it with subtle affection.

Overall, Love is a heartfelt look at human nature and at the turbulent and rare relationships one can share with other people. Doyle has written a genuine story of friendship that I know will resonate widely. It’s a true achievement.

—Love by Roddy Doyle (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.

Love

by Roddy Doyle

One summer's evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant.

Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he has to tell Davy, and Davy, a grief he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. Neither Davy nor Joe know what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them. Their first buoyant forays into adulthood, the pubs, the parties, broken hearts...

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Ashleigh Berry