These are a very cordial 3 stars - I liked this book a lot but the fact of it being a near verbatim memoir meant that it didn't have a great arc or drive or anything that made it a fantastic book. Furthermore, the life of a regular lady and guy over the course of 20th century Ireland is not a subject that appeals to every reader (but it does to me!).I thought it was great, without trying to do too much or encylopedically covering everything or really universalizing anything at all... Roddy Doyle sat down with his parents and let them say what they want and then wrote it down, and it works. Their respective happy, fairly simple childhoods, their early adulthoods (and their awesome first meeting -- Ita thought Roddy was too drunk and wasn't interested at all, but he proved himself the next week), and their marriage, home-buying, the births of their children, tragedies and joys, and family ties that remained important throughout the decades. It's not like they have the perfect love story, or incredibly edifying lives, or were fantastic in any way, but they were smart and nice and had fun, and that's just how it should be, and it was really nice to read about that. Way to be a good kid, Roddy
