Story for the Sake of Character

Confession: I'm a political junkie. What could have been a great evening of writing has turned into a CNN marathon.

Reading:

• The Snapper, by Roddy Doyle

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse"

Revising:

• "Dolly Hobbles"

As you can see above, I've started a new book now. It is the second book in the Barrytown Trilogy, a series of novels written about the Rabbitte family, poor, working-class Dubliners. As an American, I can't pretend to understand more than 60% of the references in the series, but I was attracted to it years ago thanks to an excerpt in a collection of Irish humor I got one St. Patrick's Day.

The previous novel in the series, The Commitments, as well as The Snapper, share one trait in common--the clever use of dialogue. The text is written in non-standard English, making full use of profanity, slang, and accents rendered into spelling. And that more than anything makes the characterization come completely alive.

You don't have to understand every word or phrase to understand the story, because the power of the characters drives it along. The Commitments had a simple plot--it centered around a young man named Jimmy Jr., and his quest to form and manage a soul band in Dublin. The Snapper has even less of a plot, in a way. In it, Jimmy's sister Sharon is pregnant, and as of now, she has not yet revealed the name of the father to anyone. We see Sharon dealing with her new situation, and her friends, and siblings, and parents.

In one respect, nothing has really happened. Sharon broke the news about fifty pages ago. But I keep reading not to find out what happens next, but to find out more about the people in the story. In that regard, reading The Snapper is a lot like hanging out with your friends. Sometimes the point is not what you do together, but who you do it with.