PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA (1993)

Ten-year-old Paddy's games, enthusiasms and quarrels give the first pages their irresistible energy. Doyle stays with the child's way of seeing as adult conflict becomes harder to ignore or understand. That continuity makes the comedy and the pain feel part of one consciousness. It is set in 1968, in the fictional Dublin suburb of Barrytown. Family breakdown and domestic aggression give the book a deepening sadness; its young narrator does not make it a children's novel.