Rating: 
Summary: Heartwrenching ending
Review: All I can say is that I loved this book. It's kind of a long book about not a lot, just day to day stuff. However, you will find yourself pulled into this boy's thoughts so completley, and his obssesion with his parents' marriage is very touching. The end just left me in tears. This is a great book, and now I'd like to read his other books too.
Rating:
Summary: A great book in the library that is Doyle
Review: If you have not experienced the magic of Roddy Doyle, this may not be the best book to start on (try the Barrytown Trilogy first), but for those who have read him (and even those who have not), I suggest this book highly.We get a great picture of the way boys grew up in Ireland half a century ago. The boys get into wild pranks - in fact, one can imagine a Bill Cosby novel about his own childhood resembling this quite a bit. This book is fantastic, well deserving of the Booker Prize, and should be a part of anyone's library (maybe after some of Doyle's other novels, however).
Rating:
Summary: Simply a wonderful story
Review: I am seldom disappointed with Mr. Doyle's books. It is very clear why this book was an award winner. How Mr. Doyle manages to take on the voice of a 10 year old boy and to remember the feelings, the things that are so intensely important to a 10 year old, the irrational fears, the careless days, the petty rivalries. This book is really a testament to his creativity, originality and his lovely wit. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is in the mood for the type of reading that totally immerses you into the life of the main character and reaches such a wonderful level of emotion and humor that you dwell on the story and on Paddy for weeks to come.
Rating:
Summary: Stretch your memory
Review: Given how many people use a shrink to restore childhood memories, the success of this book remains astounding. It is utterly timeless in conveying all we went through at one level or another in those ancient days. Reading this book is an indication of why many of us have quashed those images - the cost of painful recall is often too great to bear. How much did Doyle pay in order to dredge it all up again and present these recollections for our delighted reading? Whether this account is autobiographical is of no matter - what Doyle expresses gives voice to many wishing to be heard. If some would only listen! Those who discern little plot in this book should reflect on their own lives. Can you trace the steps leading to now from when you were 10 years old? It may seem easy now. Doyle superbly expresses the complexity of a boy's life. Elders view it with simple minds. Paddy must balance life with his family with that of his gang, his teachers, learning about himself against conflicting views of others. Kids don't have it as easy as we like to think. Parents devised the ignorant dictum that 'children should be seen but not heard' with the result that boys like Paddy expend immense amounts of energy forging an identity for themselves. Reviewers here make much of the Irish city setting of this book. Bosh! Urban, rural, Eire, Canada, Germany - all could find in children's lives a compelling topic. The locale is meaningful in the expressions Doyle uses to impart his ideas. There's merit in contending that only an Irish writer could do this tale full justice. Doyle's tale is a cry from the heart, a characteristic many attribute to a Gaelic inheritance. No matter, Paddy's story is truly universal. Every parent should read it carefully. Every bookshelf should contain a copy.
Rating: 
Summary: "childhood lived, not just recalled..."
Review: Roddy Doyle, whose novel, "The Commitments" was made into the famous hit movie in 1991, is one of those writers whose dialogue and observations put you in the protagonist's mind. In Paddy Clarke, that mind is one of a ten year old working class Irish boy. The winner of the Booker Prize, this little novel is sometimes wildly funny, poignant, and sometimes hard and frustrating at the same time. The author puts us into Paddy's head and we are given a better understanding of the thrill of the harmless pranks, the concern of the need to "fit in" with the bigger boys, the frustrations of trying to understand why your parents no longer get along, and the gradual awareness of both self and others. Many of the reviews of this book repeat the theme of a "childhood lived, not just recalled", and this is very accurate. This is not a book about an adult remembering the days, but an adult who has captured the voice of the child as he is experiencing his life every day.
Rating:
Summary: Irish childhood recorded!
Review: In "Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha", Roddy Doyle captures the Irish upbringing effortlessly. Having grown up in Ireland myself, the mischeivious little boys in the playground are images far too familiar for me, and Roddy Doyle manages to transmit the memories of most Irish people into text. This novel is fantastic. Even without an Irish upbringing, the adventure and playfulness of childhood is resurrected for the audience. Roddy Doyle seems effortless in transforming his mindset into that of a 10 year old boys, and this is what makes the book so delightful. Roddy Doyle could even be called the Sue Townsend of the 1990s - though Paddy Clarkes experiences aren't recorded in diary form, the relationship between Paddy and the reader is equally as intimate as it was with Adrian Mole......this book is an adult version of Adrian Mole! To Irish readers, or to readers of Irish decent, this book is a must-have as there are so many incidences to which the Irish reader can relate. However, the story is delightful, and though at times not a particularly easy read, Roddy Dolye keeps his audience captivated throughout and helps us remember just what a big wide world it is out there.......especially to a 10 year old boy!
Rating:
Summary: brilliantly funny, tragically heartbreaking
Review: Roddy Doyle has masterfully tapped the pulse of childhood in this beautiful book. There is something both uniquely Irish and universally human about this work, and I think that is where its brilliance lies. Paddy's patterns of speech, and constant desire to please his parents, are familiar to anyone who has a relationship with a child, and yet Doyle re-opens the child's mind in a completely refreshing way that brings it into an adult's realm. My final word: A laugh-out-loud work that will leave you teary-eyed at its close.
Rating:
Summary: Wow. Simply... wow.
Review: I had, at the age of thirty five years, forgotten quite a lot - if not most - of what it meant to be ten years old. I have no idea how Roddy Doyle managed this incredible book - how he captured the wonder, the pain, the self-importance of being a child - but he did, I'm glad for it. If you can't remember the wonder, the adventure, the all-engrossing pain of being a child, you should pick up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: It has excellent technique and unusual style. A terrific insight into a child's thinking. It tracks a child's growth, probably through his life's first crisis. It illustrates his realizations and the formation of a personality. Roddy, thankfully, avoids sophistry and twists in the plots. Any one who liked "To kill a mocking bird" and "The catcher in the rye" would enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books of all time.
Review: Wonderful story of two youngsters growing up in Ireland and their (mis)adventures. I keep this, Catcher in the Rye and my new favorite, Tangherlini's leo@fergusrules.com, within arms reach.
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