- Paperback: 323 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape; 1st edition (25 Mar 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224090100
- ISBN-13: 978-0224090100
- Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 3 x 23.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 620,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Dead Republic
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
(chosen as a 2010 highlight)
--The Guardian
"As alive as any he has given us." --Independent on Sunday
"Doyle remains a master stylist, writing sentences that hit you like a slap in the face." --Irish Times
"Increasingly schematic and unconvincing results." --The Independent
`Henry Smart Gives us a handy summary of the story so far' --The Spectator
'Doyle's vibrant turn of phrase is striking'
--The Daily mail --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
--The Guardian
"As alive as any he has given us." --Independent on Sunday
"Doyle remains a master stylist, writing sentences that hit you like a slap in the face." --Irish Times
"Increasingly schematic and unconvincing results." --The Independent
`Henry Smart Gives us a handy summary of the story so far' --The Spectator
'Doyle's vibrant turn of phrase is striking'
--The Daily mail --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
A major literary event - a magnificent, epic novel that explores the history of modern Ireland - the sequel to the bestselling A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the third volume of Doyle's trilogy about Henry Smart, the IRA fighter whose experiences in the first two volumes of the trilogy describes his early years as a political rebel experiencing the violence of the Irish independence struggle and his subsequent flight to America and his encounters with jazz legends. The third volume takes us from the 1940s to much more recent times as Henry Smart returns to Ireland and finds himself once more caught up in the republican conflict.
The first section of the book deals with his experience working with John Ford on the development of The Quiet Man, whilst you have to admire the detail of Doyle's historial research, I did feel that this element of Henry's life lacked the energy and pace of the previous novels. The writer seemed to be more interesting in the process of moviemaking and the Hollywood treatment given to Henry's story and it took a while for his character to take hold of the narrative and to give it momentum.
As the novel develop, Henry finds work as a school caretaker and a gardener, is somewhat implausibly reunited with the love of his life and becomes a figurehead for the republican movement as a result of mistaken idenitiy. The novel contains pace and tempo in its latter stages but never really reaches the brilliance of the first two books in the trilogy.
The first section of the book deals with his experience working with John Ford on the development of The Quiet Man, whilst you have to admire the detail of Doyle's historial research, I did feel that this element of Henry's life lacked the energy and pace of the previous novels. The writer seemed to be more interesting in the process of moviemaking and the Hollywood treatment given to Henry's story and it took a while for his character to take hold of the narrative and to give it momentum.
As the novel develop, Henry finds work as a school caretaker and a gardener, is somewhat implausibly reunited with the love of his life and becomes a figurehead for the republican movement as a result of mistaken idenitiy. The novel contains pace and tempo in its latter stages but never really reaches the brilliance of the first two books in the trilogy.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
"I knew where I was going and I knew what I was going to do. I was going to kill John Ford."
12 May 2010
Format:Hardcover
(3.5 stars) Thirty-five years after Henry Smart became one of the heroes of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, Henry is in Hollywood, where he is an "IRA consultant" to director John Ford, who plans to make a film about Henry's life. The making of this film and its aftermath become a major focus of this final novel in the "The Last Round-Up" trilogy which author Roddy Doyle had intended to reflect Ireland's history from its independence to the present day. A STAR CALLED HENRY, the first of the series, establishes Henry's background as a poverty-stricken child and the reasons for his willingness to put his life on the line in the General Post Office takeover in 1916, when he was only fourteen, and follows him through the War for Independence from 1919 - 1922. The second book of the trilogy, OH, PLAY THAT THING, takes Henry, on the lam from mobsters in Ireland in 1922, to Chicago and eventually Hollywood.
At the outset of this third novel, Henry comes into contact with director John Ford, who begins talks with Henry about a film he plans to make about Henry's life--"The Quiet Man." Ford wants to celebrate Ireland's beauty (and sell more tickets) by removing all references to the War for Independence and the IRA. "No one gets shot in the back. No one gets shot at all," Ford declares, though this is not the Ireland that Henry has seen up close and personal as an IRA assassin. When Henry abandons the project, Ford goes on to make "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara--a sentimental romance celebrating the Ireland that Ford and many other Irish-Americans want to remember. In Part II, Henry, now fifty, has returned to Ireland, where he works as a caretaker at a school for underprivileged boys and lives a quiet life, until he is eventually "called" again by the IRA. For Henry, "[Ireland] was [now] worse than it had been when [he] was young...The country was already dead."
Though the dialogue is, as always, bright and lively, the novel and the trilogy itself are structurally confused, the emotional triumph of the Easter Rising from the first novel lost in a Hollywoodized version of reality in the second novel and in much of the third. Doyle does attempt to bring the novel back to its revolutionary roots by reconnecting Henry Smart with the Provos and the disastrous bombings of Dublin by the Ulster Defense Force in 1974, then bringing it further up to date with the elections held in 1980, as imprisoned republicans, like Bobby Sands, imprisoned in Long Kesh, go on a hunger strike. This concluding section is the most vibrant part of the novel.
Those who are unfamiliar with the preceding two novels will have a difficult time understanding who the characters are, and as the action cuts back and forth in time without warning, even someone familiar with the trilogy will sometimes be hard pressed to figure out what is happening. Henry's return to Ireland does not result in much greater enlightenment regarding the purpose of the trilogy and the reasons for its many changes of direction. The lives of the Irish revolutionaries become lost in the scenery, as Henry Smart and his legacy go out, not with a bang but a whimper. Mary Whipple
A Star Called Henry: The Last Roundup, 1
Oh, Play That Thing (Last Roundup)
The Woman Who Walked into Doors
Paula Spencer
The Barrytown Trilogy: "The Commitments", "The Snapper" and "The Van"
At the outset of this third novel, Henry comes into contact with director John Ford, who begins talks with Henry about a film he plans to make about Henry's life--"The Quiet Man." Ford wants to celebrate Ireland's beauty (and sell more tickets) by removing all references to the War for Independence and the IRA. "No one gets shot in the back. No one gets shot at all," Ford declares, though this is not the Ireland that Henry has seen up close and personal as an IRA assassin. When Henry abandons the project, Ford goes on to make "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara--a sentimental romance celebrating the Ireland that Ford and many other Irish-Americans want to remember. In Part II, Henry, now fifty, has returned to Ireland, where he works as a caretaker at a school for underprivileged boys and lives a quiet life, until he is eventually "called" again by the IRA. For Henry, "[Ireland] was [now] worse than it had been when [he] was young...The country was already dead."
Though the dialogue is, as always, bright and lively, the novel and the trilogy itself are structurally confused, the emotional triumph of the Easter Rising from the first novel lost in a Hollywoodized version of reality in the second novel and in much of the third. Doyle does attempt to bring the novel back to its revolutionary roots by reconnecting Henry Smart with the Provos and the disastrous bombings of Dublin by the Ulster Defense Force in 1974, then bringing it further up to date with the elections held in 1980, as imprisoned republicans, like Bobby Sands, imprisoned in Long Kesh, go on a hunger strike. This concluding section is the most vibrant part of the novel.
Those who are unfamiliar with the preceding two novels will have a difficult time understanding who the characters are, and as the action cuts back and forth in time without warning, even someone familiar with the trilogy will sometimes be hard pressed to figure out what is happening. Henry's return to Ireland does not result in much greater enlightenment regarding the purpose of the trilogy and the reasons for its many changes of direction. The lives of the Irish revolutionaries become lost in the scenery, as Henry Smart and his legacy go out, not with a bang but a whimper. Mary Whipple
A Star Called Henry: The Last Roundup, 1
Oh, Play That Thing (Last Roundup)
The Woman Who Walked into Doors
Paula Spencer
The Barrytown Trilogy: "The Commitments", "The Snapper" and "The Van"
Format:Paperback
All good things must come to an end, so they say, and this book rounds off the trilogy with our hero, Henry Smart being rescued from a dry and lonely death in Monument Valley by Henry Fonda who was there filming with John Houston. From there he is courted by Houston who promises to make a film of Henry`s life, but ends up making "The Quiet Man" instead. Smart returns to Ireland for the making of the film and stays on, bitterly disappointed, through the poor quiet times and through the troubles right up to the present day. During this period he is used and abused by all and sundry while being re-united with his wife and with his daughter, but for Henry, nothing is ever as straight forward as it should be. Henry faces his hardest battle against the coming of old age, but Doyle makes you believe that, despite the aches and pains, Henry will go on as long as the water keeps flowing. I enjoyed the first book, "A Star called Henry" best, but once you`ve read that one you`ve got to find out what happens next.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
good prompt service
A good prompt service, arrived on time and the price was reasonable. have used this service before - always reliable.
Published 8 months ago by rob jenkins
So expensive for Kindle!
Why can you buy this book for just over a fiver, yet have to pay double for a kindle version?!
Love Roddy Doyle's books, but the kindle pricing is far too expensive.
Love Roddy Doyle's books, but the kindle pricing is far too expensive.
Published 14 months ago by M
Brilliant
A great story, I read this without reading the previous two in the trilogy and am now going to go and read the other two.
Would recommend to anyone!
Would recommend to anyone!
Published 23 months ago by Amy
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