Paula Spencer (2006)

Overall I found this an excellent read, if just a step below the hands-down perfection of the first in the series. I enjoyed the blend of humour and soul-seeking and didn't even mind the endless hopping forward in time, which was a little disorientating at first.

This is a gentler read than The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. Tension is maintained throughout but the threat, the level of danger, is not as immediate, hence the narrative doesn't get you by the throat quite the same way. The reasons for this are probably numerous, amongst them the absence of the obvious physical threat of Charlo. The third-person narrator also distanced me from the action. I missed the immediacy of Paula's first-person narrative. It seemed a slightly odd choice to replace that with a semi-omniscient third-person narrator while retaining Paula's overall "voice".

Not sure how I'd have felt about this if I hadn't read the books in chronological order. I think it would have been confusing and I may not have developed the same emotional attachment for Paula and her family. Even thought it is just over 6 months since I first read The Woman Who Walked Into Doors I felt the need to go back and reread it before starting in on this one as the characters had receded into the background noise of what I fondly call my mind.

I'm looking forward to going back and reading the "famous" Roddy Doyle novels now. ( )

almost as good as the first: "Paula Spencer," published about a decade later than its prequel, "The Woman Who Walked Into Doors," is a quieter, but just as moving, story. The reader, who was introduced to Paula as a working class Irishwoman struggling with alcoholism and an abusive husband, now finds her recovering from alcoholism but still coping with family problems, after her husband passed away. She has a job cleaning houses, which has its perks, she winds up seeing the White Stripes in concert. The book's scenes center around her attempts to reconcile with her four children, two of whom are addicts, and relationship with her sisters, who are dealing with trials of their own.

This book is less dramatic (no murders or first person descriptions of abuse) but equally black humored and engaging. Recommended.

A follow-up to "The Woman Who Walked Into Walls," Roddy Doyle continues the story of Paula Spencer, formerly the battered wife from the prior title and now a recovering alcoholic, widow, mother of three, and woman trying to capture a semblance of an ordinary life. It's a tough read, no doubt, and that's mostly due to the deftness Doyle has when portraying the turbulent internal struggles of a self-doubting and hesitant personality on the verge of recovery--and it's a very Irish story because of that, acting as a modern update for the classic Russian novelists. ( )

Those who have read The Woman Who Walked Into Doors will love to read what happened to Paula after that story ended. Struggling with alcohol recovery and trying to piece together her family again, she and her story are gritty and real, and they really reached out and took control of my emotions. What a roller coaster ride. It feels true, it feels painful, it feels uplifting in an odd way. I feel fortunate to have read it, and urge that you do the same. ( )

I didn't know what to make of this book. It was sad, sometimes a bit boring, I didn't like the style, but it was also fascinating. I read The woman who walked into doors, didn't really like that either, though I'm quite a Roddy Doyle fan. All in all, a bit of a disappointment. ( )