Rating: 
Summary: Committed readers technical bliss.
Review: "paddy clarke ha ha ha" achieved the Booker Prize (1993) for obvious reasons. Technically it is brilliant; the subject matter is conveyed in an appropriate form. The disjointed approach mirrors that of an actual child. This fact make the reading much more interesting, as the story is not in a straight line through time. However, while this may be faultless, the story is definitely for a hard core reader. So don't try to read this book without 'warming up' first with a simpler more easy publication. Something chronological. Nevertheless, if you are ready for the challenge and you are a keen reader this is definitely something you should read. Even if it is just to say that you have read it.
Rating: 
Summary: greatness, no; goodness, yes
Review: After all the hoopla, this book was a bit of a let-down, but only a bit. Doyle does a very convincing job of conveying a child's voice and sensibility, and his lack of sentiment is, in one way, admirable, but at the same time it denies him-- and the reader-- the full range and intensity of real childhood emotion, and so the book book feel both authentic, and at the same time, somewhat bloodless. The laugh-out-loud reaction I heard from friends was one I never got, though I did smile spontaneously from time to time. The real weakness of the book is its narrative strategy and structure. The story is the old one: childhood intact, childhood broken, and as is almost inevitably the case, the intactness feels static and less interesting that the breaking, which only really kick in 200 pages-- over 2/3s of the way-- into the book. Those first 200 pages, while they do limn childhood thinking and experience, feel a bit aimless and wandering, and it isn't till the family begins to break up that the book acquires a purpose and a sense of drive. In spite of that, it's definitely a cut above the average.
Rating: 
Summary: We're only little boys for a litte while
Review: I was unprepared for the strength of this book. After the light-hearted, hilarious yet at most bittersweet previous Doyle works such as The Commitments and The Van, I was assuming that this book would continue in that vein. Instead, what I found was the maturation of an incredibly gifted writer, one who demonstrates his newfound maturity by reverting to that most basic of human creatures, the ten-yeard-old boy; our curiosity was balanced only by our inability to be impressed, and our cruelty was neither a sign of mental illness nor primal instincts geared towards pack advancement, but simply a continuation of our attempts to fill those sponge-like little minds. The final chapter left me breathless. I finished the book, found my wife, handed her the book and said "This is what it was like to have been a little boy."
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: Roddy Doyle weaves a tale of childhood memories and ancedotes that had me laughing out loud - often. While a little tricky to get into initially, one quickly realises that the thread of the story hops around a bit, much as a 10 year old breathlessly relating a tale to you. So much better than Angela's Ashes and more deserving to be made into a movie. Hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutley stunning
Review: The most amazing book I have read for a long time. Terribly funny, but so very sad - and embarrassingly real. Deals with the curiosities and revelations of childhood in a way I didn't think any adult could and leaves you feeling breathless - as if you've just witnessed something really special.
Rating:
Summary: an education in Irish realism
Review: This novel provides a terrific antidote to the tendencey, especially among Americans, to romanticize Ireland and "Irishness" (views of the latter often border on Stage Irishness). The language is straightforward and the sentences direct, which makes the episodic structure of the novel and Paddy's weird, non sequitur thoughts easier to follow. The novel rewards careful reading (and especially re-reading, which is easy to do)--Doyle has a way of making his prose flow deceptively easily before your eyes, but there are powerful currents beneath. The novel is especially delightful because it manages to capture the painful and joyous growth--emotionally and psychologically--towards adulthood of a single boy as well as the current tension in Ireland, caused in part by its newfound economic success, between old ways of defining Irishness according to land, religion, and conflict with England and Ireland's new sense of itself as a technologically and financially "modernized" country with increasingly more similarities than differences with the United States and England.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Irish Childhood Vision
Review: A superb exploration of a childhood character in the Irish setting. Brought through an imaginative focus upon the growing pains of such a wild creative mind. Easy to relate to with such memories of a forgotten childhood.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and memorable
Review: I found this book a slow starter but I am surely glad I kept reading, since it is poignant and funny and thought-provoking. I have found myself often thinking of it and am sure it is an unforgettable event in my reading life.
Rating:
Summary: The Book is not all its cracked up to be
Review: After hearing of this book, Paddy Clarke HA HA HA, I got my hands on a copy, hoping that I would dive into the story of the life and times of an irish youth. Instead, I found myself surrounded by his thoughts, and the complete lack of unity among them. I felt that this book had no direction whatsoever. What was written, and warranted the three stars, was a book of random thoughts that allowed me to feel as if I could relate to the kid. I understood how he felt which was beautiful, however, it was not enough to keep me particularly interested in the book as a whole.
Rating:
Summary: "Angela's Ashes" without the redundancy
Review: I read "Paddy Clarke" soon after reading "Angela's Ashes." While I know that I'm comparing a novel to a memoir, Doyle's first person, "stream-of-consciousness" of a 10-year-old Irish boy was incredibly more powerful and moving for me. Doyle adroitly builds his story from the every-day to the specific. The novel derives its power from the slow dawning of adulthood on this young boy... that very soon, he may have to be the "man of the house." Doyle's ability to write realistically through the eyes of a 10-year-old is a triumph. My favorite book in the past two years.
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