J.G.'s Review - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

This is one of those time-traveling books that take the reader of his or her own life and plop them smack in the middle of another person's experience. Normally I wouldn't opt into being a mischievous 10-year-old Irish Catholic boy, but Doyle's masterful use of language and syntax make that experience rich and enjoyable.

The cover for this book captures Paddy Clarke perfectly: he's a little wild, a little dirty, but still an innocent at heart. His adventures with this friends devolve into a real worry about an adult problem, his parents' disintegrating marriage. Although Paddy senses trouble, he neither understands what is happening nor has any power to stop it. As readers, we feel Paddy's confusion and at the same time, we know that, ready or not, Paddy is going to have to start growing up.

Things that would normally bother me (lack of punctuation marks, lack of a solid chronology, shifting subject matter, not much of a plot) simply didn't make it onto the radar this time. Doyle's writing provides what feels like an authentic experience and I simply sat back and enjoyed the ride.

For more about this book, check out my review at Hotchpot Cafe.

Laura's Review - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Roddy Doyle
282 pages

The narrator and title character of this story, 10-year-old Patrick Clarke, is a fairly typical Irish boy. He runs with a pack of boys, playing football and finding ample opportunities for mischief. He tolerates his younger brother Francis (nicknamed Sinbad), and barely pays attention to his younger sisters. Adults -- teachers, friends' parents, and his own parents -- are mysterious creatures. He understands little about the adult world, and cares little about it as well. That is, until the small cracks in his family structure widen into fissures, and then chasms. As the oldest child, Patrick assumes responsibility for maintaining a cohesive family environment, and believes he can influence and redirect the growing emotional tension between his parents.

For the first two-thirds of this book, Roddy Doyle places the reader right in the middle of Patrick and his friends, experiencing their hijinks, and seeing the world through their eyes. I found myself reliving my own childhood, when my friends & I explored the woods behind my house, and speculated (quite erroneously) about the actions of our neighbors. And then, Patrick becomes aware that his mother and father are not getting along. He doesn't understand why, and tries desperately to correct the situation. Because the story is told entirely from Patrick's point of view, many questions go unanswered and the reader is left similarly powerless. Doyle's technique was quite effective; I desperately wanted to take Patrick aside, explain what was happening in his life, and give him a big hug. This was a touching, poignant story. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha - Jackie's Review

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha won the Booker Prize in 1993. It is the first Roddy Doyle book I have read, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

It follows Paddy Clarke, as he grows up in 1960’s Dublin, witnessing the break down of his parent’s marriage

He has a real talent for being able to describe the thoughts and feelings of a ten year old boy:

I prefer magnifying glasses to matches. We spent afternoons burning little piles of cut grass. I loved watching the grass change colour. I loved it when the flame began to race through the grass. You had more control with a magnifying glass. It was easier but it took more skill.

I found some scenes touching, and I managed to read the whole book fairly quickly, but the plot meandered about a bit too much for me, so I didn’t get drawn into it fully. His childhood had very little in common with mine, so this may be another reason I was not as enthralled with this book as others seem to be. I was only born in 1978, so have no nostalgia for the 60s, and I was never a little boy, who had fights and played jokes on my teachers!

It was OK, but I think I’d only recommend it to older people, who would be able to fully appreciate the nostalgia this book has to offer.

Originally reviewed here.

1993 - Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha

It took me much longer than it should have to finish this slight, inconsequential novel. It won the Booker in 1993, but it's a bit of a mystery why that was so. I would have given the prize to Remembering Babylon by David Malouf, a much better and more significant book in every way.


Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha is written in the voice of Paddy, nine years old in the 1960s, watching The Man From UNCLE on TV and observing his parents' marriage break up. It's impressionistic, with (paraphrasing Jung here, about childhood memories) 'little islands of memories floating round in the vagueness of ocean'. These scraps of memory are not quite in sequence though there is a sense of dawning awareness that grows as the novel moves to its conclusion.


There's no plot as such, which is ok, but I'm not sure what its theme is either. In fact I'm not at all sure what Doyle is on about, except to depict the chaotic order of life in small boy gangs and the violence they impose on each other. Paddy is awfully cruel to his little brother, setting his lips alight with lighter fuel and delivering 'dead legs' and 'Chinese burns' as a matter of routine. The gang sets traps to delineate territory in their growing housing estate, and the 'Corporation' children set one of wire, causing one boy to almost lose his foot. All this is presented as the norm. It's rather disquieting.


The opening lines are an allusion to Portrait of a Young Man by James Joyce, but if there are other allusions as well, I failed to find them. If any such invisible allusions are what made it worthy of the Booker, then the judges have made a wrong assumption that readers will recognise it. Much too subtle for me, and I've read Portrait twice.


My overwhelming impression is one of distaste for the depiction of a savage little way of life.


I finished reading this book and journalled it on 6.8.03.
Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

Paddy Clarke ah ah ah - Roddy Doyle

Hi, I've read my second book for the project finally!
here is my review.
thank you!