The Snapper

I've read this book several times and always, always find myself laughing out loud. It's about a working-class Irish family (the Rabbittes, also the focus of Doyle's The Commitments and The Van) and an unmarried daughter's pregnancy. The family--dysfunctional, loving, close-knit, and a big mess--curse like sailors and drink quite seriously; their dynamics, and Sharon's experience of her pregnancy, are treated with an interesting combination of emotional nuance and (sometimes slapstick) hilarity. Perhaps my favorite fictional account of a pregnancy.

One of my favorite books of all time, The Snapper tells the story of an unwanted pregnancy that comes about through what can only be called rape. But in my view the book is really more about the hypocrisy of people who judge the actions and lives of others. It's a story about family and community relationships, and Doyle's gift for razor sharp dialogue and adept portrayal of working class Irish culture makes this both laughter and thought provoking. The second in The Barrytown Trilogy, The Snapper is a marvelous way to get to know writer Roddy Doyle and his wonderfully sensitive human style.

Vivid characters are the main selling point of this funny little novel. I loved both Sharon and her often-befuddled dad, Jimmy Sr., and I loved the subtext of love and tenderness in their relationship. It was great to read an account of an unplanned pregnancy--indeed, a pregnancy that was the result of a drunken encounter in a parking lot--where the protagonist's primary response wasn't victimhood (though she could have legimately claimed it) but an almost-cheery squaring of the shoulders and "getting on with it."

I can safely say most everyone knows about Doyle's first novel, The Commitments. It was made into a pretty good movie and had a phenomenal soundtrack. I am willing to bet more people know the music than the book or the movie combined. The Snapper is like an episode of Seinfeld where a whole lot of nothing happens to an ordinary group of people. The plot centers around the fact Jimmy Rabbitte's sister is pregnant. If you remember Jimmy Rabbitte, Jr., he was the guy who started the band, the Commitments. He wanted to be a manager of someone famous in the worst way. Remember how, in The Commitments he was always practicing his interview? In The Snapper his dreams have changed slightly. Still looking for fame, he now wants to be a disc show more jockey. But enough about Jimmy Jr. This time he isn't the lead character. He is firmly in the background while his sister, Sharon Rabbitte, takes center stage as a twenty year old unwed mother-to-be. Like The Commitments, the dialogue carries the story. Family members and friends all try to guess the baby daddy. I felt bad for Sharon's highly emotional and confused father. One day embarrassed about who knocked up his daughter, the next reading everything he can about what she is going through. The Snapper gives a spot-on account of the good, bad, and ugly elements of pregnancy. show less

The Snapper by Roddy Doyle

This slim tome is the second novel in Roddy Doyle's Barrytown trilogy. It was preceded by [The Commitments] and followed by [The Van]. All three books focus on life in the working class section of Dublin known as Barrytown. Members of the Rabbitte family are principal characters in all three books.

[The Snapper] tells the tale of Sharon Rabbitte, a single 20-year-old living with her parents and five siblings. Even more, it tells how Sharon's "situation" upends her father's life. The book opens:

--You're wha'? said Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.

He said it loudly.

--You heard me, said Sharon.

Jimmy Jr was upstairs in the boys' room doing his D.J. practice. Darren was in the front room watching Police Acadeny II on the video. Les show more was out. Tracy and Linda, the twins, were in the front room annoying Darren. Veronica, Mrs Rabbitte, was sitting opposite Jimmy Sr at the kitchen table.

Sharon was pregnant and she'd just told her father that she thought she was. She'd told her mother earlier, before dinner.

--Oh –my Jaysis, said Jimmy Sr.

He looked at Veronica. She looked tired. He looked at Sharon again.

--That's shockin', he said.

More shocking is Sharon's refusal to divulge the identity of the father. She does want to stay at home, she does want to have and keep the baby, but she won't won't WON'T say who father is. Life proceeds. The siblings want to know. Sharon's girl friends want to know. Jimmy Sr's pals want to know. Everybody is v-e-r-y curious. And Sharon is mum.

Doyle's stories usually play out in conversations. Jimmy Sr retires after dinner each day to a nearby pub to share a pint wi' th' lads and verbally spar with them. He spars verbally with his children, with his wife, with neighbors. At first, he asserts that if Sharon doesn't care who the father is, why should he? But he can't hold that stance, which infuriates the young mother-to-be. When the father's identity comes out, Sharon denies he's the one, demanding that the family accept her assertion that the father is an unknown Spanish sailor. Jimmy Sr wrangles with Sharon almost to the moment of delivery.

And in the meantime, he dices with Jimmy Jr who is loudly practicing to be a DJ, Darren who wants a new bicycle, Les who is looking for a job, with Veronica who is being driven to distraction trying to costume the twins for their shifting desires to be cheerleaders, then ballroom dancers, then…

It's all good. An easy read (but for some Irish slang that's obscure), and to me a lot of laughs. show less

Roddy Doyle is so damn good it's scary. This is the 2nd book in the Barrytown Trilogy: The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van. I find that I have foolishly read it first, so must go get The Commitments immediately.
A working class (just barely) Irish family is thrown into confusion when the unmarried, twenty-year-old daughter gets pregnant, and doesn't name a young man to marry. There's some pathos and ick, but mostly love and comedy. Published in 1990, it makes a 2009-era American's hair stand on end with the complete lack of fuss about prenatal vitamins and organic foods, not to mention Baby Einstein.

Unmarried, twenty, and living at home, Sharon Rabbitte is pregnant. That's no mystery to her large Irish family. The father is. Written almost entirely in crackling dialogue, The Snapper tells how her family reacts while trying to navigate their own lives. A lively story with voices that dance with the musicality of Irish banter.