Rating: 
Summary: A 10 Year Old Voice
Review: I chose to give this book four stars because in my opinion, it transported the reader to a 10 year old frame of mind and placed in uncomfortable situations at home, school and with friends, and showed us how a changing young boy would react. I believe the author's use of his parents fighting was an excellent way to show the maturity of Paddy throughout the book. I also liked the distinct differences in his behavior toward his younger brother, and sister. I was not so fond of the friend problems presented throughout the book, at age 10 everyone has fights, and I don't believe that a persons character or anything else is done growing, and I feel the author ended the book not redeeming any of Paddy's friends. That may have been his intention, but I did not feel it was the best way to end a book. Overall I think this is a very good book, and would recommend it to a high school audience at the very youngest. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Doyle Discovers the Child Within
Review: "Paddy Clarke, Ha, Ha, Ha," is a remarkably poignant novel about the transition of age of a boy of 10 years old growing up in Ireland during the 1960's. Roddy Doyle depicts Paddy as both a brave explorer and a sensitive son. Everything seems to be changing around Paddy, he notices qualities in his friends that he had previously been oblivious to, his brother becomes more special to him, and his parents fighting seems to be worse each day. Paddy desperately wants things to return to the way the were before, when he was an innocent child, but no matter how hard he tries he must realize that nothing can ever be the same. Doyle accomplishes all of this while speaking in the mind of a 10-year old,which is all at once inquisitive, funny, brilliant, and sad.
Rating:
Summary: a child's story
Review: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is a great book to really understanding a childs way of coping with different things. Doyle does a wonderful job of writing this book through the heart of a ten year old little boy. His relationships between other characters really help the reader to understand and how to deal with their own relationships. Overall, this was a good book and it was fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: "Whoaaa...ha ha ha!!"
Review: "This novel is a great addition to my library. I would label this book a ten three times over. I deeply enjoyed Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, it reminded and made me reminisce and reflect on some childhood endeavors and mischiefness that I got myself into when I was 10 years old. I can relate and I think that many others that read this novel will relate to the personality of this 10-year old Irish kid. Roddy Doyle properly shown his talents in this book by capturing or relinquishing his old 10 year old personality to play it through Paddy Clarke. This book was just riveting."
Rating:
Summary: quite good
Review: first i found the book very boring. the first 200 pages are basicly about the kids fooling around or something, but the end when things start to happen it gets good. it's quite sad actually.
Rating:
Summary: Recapturing Childhood
Review: Roddy Doyle's _Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha_ realistically and poignantly captures the nature of childhood in a manner probably unlike any novel ever previously written. Unlike Holden Caulfield, who is a frightened and disturbed adolescent severely out of touch with the world around him, Paddy Clarke is very much a typical 10 year old boy growing up within a very normal environment and circumstances. His family--his ma, his da, and his younger brother, Sinbad--are also quite ordinary. That Paddy spends his childhood in Ireland is incidental to the novel. Paddy's experiences and feelings are universal to young boys throughout the world. We enter the world of Paddy and his friends in the classroom and at play. With every situations filtered through Paddy's eyes, we can experience his pain, his joy, his fears, and his triumphs and disappointments from his perspective. Instead of a linear plot development, Paddy tells his story in terms of incidents in his life. His narrative is disjointed, very much the way a young boy would necessarily relate such a personal tale to others. Because of its realness, Paddy's tale is never less than engaging and heartfelt. Recalling my own childhood, I was particularly amazed at how accurately portrayed were Paddy's reactions to the conflicts and attitudes of the adults around him, especially those of his parents. Being a child, Paddy lives in a different world from his parents. A constant outsider, he desperately tries to gauge whether his parents have been arguing, whether his mother has previously been crying, or even if his parents were on the verge of breaking up. Also, like most children, Paddy has an active fantasy life. We share in Paddy's imaginings about death--an animal's, those of individual family members, and even his own. Particularly affecting is the author's depiction of Paddy's dealing with the universal conundrum of love and hate. Paddy learns that one is not necessarily mutually exclusively of the other, and that he can feel both love and hate at the same time, especially for his little brother.
Rating: 
Summary: It must be an Irish thing
Review: I found this book enjoyable, but I can't give it the accolades others do. While the antics of the characters do occasionally stir a childhood memory or two, I was not drawn particularly to any of them. There are some poignant moments in the last third of the novel which really saved the book from being a disappointment. I wasn't overwhelmed by Angela's Ashes, either, so maybe I am missing something culturally. Overall, a pleasant read but little more.
Rating:
Summary: Rediscover your childhood
Review: Paddy Clarke and his friends grow up in an Irish town called Barrytown. Their games and fun and carefree life is pretty much the story. But what is amazing is how beautifully and authentically the child-mind is pictured. The catch is when you are a child you would probably not be able to enjoy or write such a story and when you have grown up you have lost touch with the child-mind. Roddy Doyle is remarkable in overcoming this and he makes it look so simple. Little sentences and sentiments that make you re-live your childhood. The end is sad but the way a child feels sad without knowing much about the adult world is definitely a fresh read.
Rating:
Summary: My Kingdom for a Compound-Complex Sentence!
Review: The novel is moving. Doyle's use of voice is brilliant.But I thought I would lose all vestiges of sanity because of the unending simple and compound sentences that follow one upon the other like ants at a picnic.Yes, I understand that this use of sentence construcion results in the authentic voice of Paddy, but as wonderful as the book may be, I don't think I could survive another reading experience like this. Beautiful and tedious, beautiful and tedious....
Rating:
Summary: Ireland or anywhere... boyhood is the same
Review: No matter where you spent your boyhood, either Barrytown, Ireland or Anywhere, USA, you will be able to feel the memories comming back to you with each turn of the page in this book. The mischief and shenanigans that I think most of us boys got into will be re-told by the hero of this story Paddy Clark. A touching tale of a young boy with, of course, arguing parents, bratty little brothers, and lots of friends that want to get in trouble with him. A great story that I'm sure most adults will enjoy not only for the story but also to relive a little of their own childhood.
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