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The Commitments
  
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The Commitments (Paperback)

by Roddy Doyle (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Minerva (1 Sep 1990)
  • ISBN-10: 0749391847
  • ISBN-13: 978-0749391843
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,070,822 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Synopsis

The Commitments are a band with a mission: bringing soul to Dublin. Led by Jimmy Rabitte, a young man with ambition, coached by Joey "The Lips" Fagan, an old man with a trumpet, protected by Mickah Wallace, owner of the most feared forehead in Barrytown.

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Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1.0 out of 5 stars The Commitments - a boring book, 3 Feb 2005
By Daniel (Germany) - See all my reviews
The novel "The Commtiments" written by Roddy Doyle was published in 1987 and it's about forming a soulband in Dublin/Ireland. After they found enough members they start to learn playing their instruments. Their first gig in a Center in Dublin is a success with mistakes, but the audience is content. Then a few other gigs follow, but the band begins to become different and that causes a lot of problems. In the end everything has changed.
The Commitments is written for people who love the music. Mostly for fans of soul and similar musicstyles. Because of the important part, which the music plays, all kind of people can be interested in reading the book. Young people will have as much "fun" as older people.
But it is also a book for people, who want to read books with a biographical background.
In my opinion the book is not that good, because I'm not into soulmusic and the colloquial language, which is used, is very difficult to understand. I also have the feeling, that the book is too long. The small content could be written in less than 165 pages. So as a result of this the book sometimes becomes boring.
I think that you know the end already at the beginning and so it's not very exciting.
All in all you can say that the plot is boring and the novel is too long.
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4.0 out of 5 stars "The Commitments", 3 Feb 2005
With his novel "The Commitments" which was published in 1987 the author Roddy Doyle tells the story of twelve individual characters who work together to establish a soul group in Dublin.
Influenced by James Brown, Eddie Floyed and other famous soulstars the protagonist Jimmy Rabbitte organizes the "world's hardest working band" and finds the suitable members for his band "The Commitments" to bring the soul to Dublin.
"Say it once, say it loud, I'm black an' I'm proud." This statement is the motto of the band. Led by Jimmy, the manager, and coached by Joey "The Lips" Fagan, a man with experience, the band members develop in the course of the book from awkward beginners to successful taents.
Of all time roddy Doyle succeeded not only in describing the musical but also the personal development of the band in an entertaining way with lively dialogues and discussions between the band members. The novel convinces with Irish spirit, a lot of humour and information about the anger of the working class and their living thoughts so that he can identify with the characters. Because of this he has the possibilitiy to haunt the modest beginnigns of the band, the search for suitable bandmembers above hard reharsals till popular gigs.
Although the novel has a lot of advantages it's also important to show the aspects that should be critizised. Roddy Doyle gives an insight in the most popular songs and personalities around the music buisness especially around soul. But only a true soulfan will be able to appreciate the nuances and hear the melody that resonate throughout the text when the band practices there versions of songs from the 60's. Furthermore the speech of the characters is very collquial and they use a typical Irish dialect to communicate to each other. On one hand this aspects make the story more authentic, but on the other hand it needs a little bit time to get used to the text.
In conclusion the novel by Roddy Doye has more advantages than disadvantages. The story is entertaining and realistic because the reader can take part in the happenings around the band.
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