Written by Roddy Doyle
“I said she was Nigerian, kind of. I didn’t mean she was kind of Nigerian. I meant she’s kind of my girlfriend. She’s lovely and, I have to admit, I kind of like the attention. No one really noticed me until I started going with her, kind of. Now they all look, and you can see it in their faces; they’re thinking ‘There’s a white fella with a black girl’, or something along those lines. I’m the white fella. It’s better than nothing.”
Doyle is known for being unrivaled at capturing the various voices of Irish culture, be it a modern day woman escaping an abusive relationship, an idealized childhood full of playground slang, or monumental historical events, framed through the eyes of ordinary individuals. From The Commitments to Paddy Clarke Ha-Ha-Ha to A Star Called Henry, this is an author who has a proven track record as the grand master of his literary stomping ground. He can reduce you to tears, or make you burst out laughing. Either way, on the great stage of Irish history & culture, he is unmatched.
But The Deportees is a complete departure from his previous writing…and it’s a bloody triumph in every respect. Numerous stories about the modern-day reality of Ireland…once poor and homogenous, now an economic tiger and an immigrant magnet. Different creeds, colours, and speech rub against centuries of unchanging Irishness…and the results are some of the best short stories that I have ever read. There’s even a mini-sequel to The Commitments! You’d think it would deserve a novel of its own, but it’s absolutely perfect as a short story. Lengthening it would simply degrade it…and certainly make it less funny.
The key to the book lies in capturing the voices of so many varied characters. Doyle can do the average Irish man or woman in his sleep…but a young Polish au pair? An African refugee, caught in a blackmail scheme? A new elementary school student, unsure of the ways of his new peers? They’re all here, as vivid and as realistic as any Irish character in any other Doyle story. They are enhanced by the remarkable variety of plots and styles, including dips into folklore & tea-time Hammer horror, gritty back street crime, juvenile soap opera, and kitchen-sink drama. No matter what the setting, no matter what type of character, Roddy Doyle’s pen does serious justice to each one, on every single page. You’d never believe that a single author managed to deliver such variety…but here it is, in black and white.
There were many mixed reviews of The Deportees, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine why. It’s a joyous, charming, funny, and poignant mix — time will simply fly by when you read it. Definitely the kind of book to pick up if you’re in need of some serious cheering up. It’s as much a triumph of decent humanity as it is a triumph of short fiction. Not many of that combination to choose from on the bookshelves these days… ;-)
