The Deportees And Other Stories (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
Fucking in fiction: are you for or against? I only ask because Roddy Doyle's frequent use of the F-word might cause even Gordon Ramsay to turn salmon-pink. Bad language as a shock tactic often falls flat, but sometimes profanity signals credibility. So thumbs up for The Deportees; If you're looking for the real Dublin, forget Bono, Riverdance and Dustin the Turkey, Doyle has the Irish capital to a T. And an F.The Deportees is a compilation of short stories written by Doyle for Dublin's first multicultural daily newspaper. These tales of the uninvited show what happened when a small nation suddenly became a honey pot for the world's dispossessed. It was during the 1990s that Ireland started booming. The Celtic Tiger roared, and from Lagos to Latvia, they responded. Ireland experienced a greater percentage increase in immigration in a single decade than Britain had experienced in half a century. As Doyle himself observes, "I went to bed in one country and woke up in another." The book is about encounters between immigrants and home-grown Dubliners. Humour is never far away, even in the darker stories, and there's a liberal helping of the craic. In "I Understand," a Dublin waiter gives the kitchen help a masterclass in the gentle art of Irish cursing."I have a new one for you, he says - Ready?" "Yes."I take my hands from the water."Me bollix," he says. "Repeat.""My..""No. Me.""Me. Bollix.""Together.""Me bollix.""Excellent," says Kevin, "Top man."Meanwhile, in "75% Irish," a graduate student hits upon a novel test of citizenship. His device records the user’s response to a replay of Robbie Keane's goal against Germany in the World Cup. For a government minister scrambling to defuse the political impact of a demographic time bomb, it’s a gift. Preposterous? Of course. But let's remember the Tory Party chairman, who contended that Britishness could be determined by which cricket team you supported when England played the West Indies. Under those criteria, I'm 100% Antiguan.Pride and prejudice, stereotype and stigma loom large in "Home to Harlem." Declan, a black Irish student, hopes a literature course in New York will resolve his identity crisis. Explaining his quest to an unsympathetic professor, Declan is both eloquent and to the point.He tells her about first reading The Souls of Black Folk, about the question repeated in the first paragraph of the first chapter: "How does it feel to be a problem?" "The problem is, he says, "I'm black and Irish, and that's two fuckin' problems."Back in Dublin, the immigrants have problems aplenty. An African boy is bullied at school, an illegal immigrant is the victim of blackmail; and a Polish childminder is spooked by the unlikeliest of ghosts.The centrepiece of the book resurrects Jimmy Rabbitte, erstwhile godfather of The Commitments. This time, he's putting together a new band, with assorted imports from Romania, New York and Nigeria, plus a couple of Dubliners. After a shaky start, the deportees find their feet and harmony reigns.But just when we’re starting to view things through emerald-tinted glasses, the author brings us back to reality. There's enough menace in Roddy Doyle's stories to show that in Dublin's fair city, the rattle and hum of racism is alive, alive-oh.
Read this for the title story, "The Deportees," which is a five-star gem, hilarious and refreshingly honest and really great in bringing out the frightened optimist in you. Unfortunately this collection includes seven others stories, which aren't nearly as good. The next best would be "Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner," an Irish retake on the classic Poitier film, with great dialoque and more candid moments that will make you smile. "New Boy" shouldn't have been written. It was completely implausible that this was from a foreign kid's perspective. It may represent a real situation for young refugees in elementary school, but please don't pretend you're the refugee, Doyle. That applies to "I Understand" as well, though it's not as painful."57% Irish" seemed a lost effort, with some cute moments, but just that. Nothing thought-provoking or meaningful to take away."Black Hoodie" expands its look into Irish stereotyping by including our assumptions about the disabled as well and considers how much time is wasted by security guards' profiling of minorities and shady looking characters. Nothing profound, but sweet enough and funny. "Pram" stands out as the one story from a female perspective and Doyle does a great job of immersing you in the life of a Polish nanny to an Irish family, but its haunting darkness made it an odd fit in this collection. I felt like I was reading Angela Carter. And "Here to Harlem" examined the outsider perspective of a black Irishman, who never feels he's accepted by other Irish as one of their own because of his skin color. A very interesting subject to explore, but I'm not sure this was the most effective way to do so. It just wasn't plausible that someone with so little background in the Harlem Renaissance or Irish literature could be accepted into Columbia to study these topics. Why didn't Doyle have him be a summer visitor staying at a friend's or relative's home instead? The notion he could just have discussions with a professor about a thesis or dissertation and not need to take classes or teach as well was implausible. But perhaps I'm looking for more accuracy that is expected in stories. Hmm, it's too bad "The Deportees" couldn't have been a stand-alone work. Roddy Doyle seems rather hit or miss. I was in love with this collection in the beginning, but now I'm straying. Keep me committed to you!
What do You think about The Deportees And Other Stories (2007)?
I read a few stories in this collection and am giving up on it. I love Doyle, especially his dialogue, but this book of stories, collected from serialized fiction in a multicultural newspaper, feels overly thematic and not as nuanced as other works by him.The main problem is that it's all rah rah for the immigrants and multiculturalism and the dumb white guys are wrong and the black or eastern European guys are good souls. It can't be that simple, can it? The fact that the first story is called "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" suggests that he's taking a page out of the Poitier film and stacking the deck heavily in favor of the guest.It's possible that my perspective is colored by growing up in multicultural communities in North America and so the change that Ireland experienced during the Celtic Tiger seems passe and less than fascinating to me. Actually, the fact that the stories are set in the boom years is interesting, and contrasts nicely with Gerry Kerrigan's The Rage which is set in the bust afterwards.I picked this up largely to see what happened to Jimmy Rabbitte, manager of The Commitments and, in the 2nd story, of The Deportees. Despite what I felt was a misstep, I'm still looking forward to reading about Jimmy in The Guts.
—Jack Cheng
I have long been interested in knowing how immigrants view my country, the United States. What is the US to them? What do they admire and love? What is despicable and shameful? What makes them feel welcome, or shunned? Being married to an immigrant gives me some insight into these questions. In fact, Erika (my wife) is a double-immigrant; she immigrated to Argentina from Peru, and then to the US. Hearing about her stories of both immigration experiences makes me curious to learn more about what it is like to immigrate. Growing up in the US, I developed a very US-centric view of immigration. Whenever I hear "immigration," my first instinct is to assume the speaker is talking about "to the US." It is very easy to forget about immigration that has NOTHING TO DO with the US! Here, Roddy Doyle explores fictional stories of immigrants to Ireland--from Poland, Nigeria, and more. I can't speak as to the authenticity of the voices in these stories; what do I know less about than Nigerians living in Dublin? What I can say is that I'm interested and I want to hear more. In a weird and sort of shameful way, I'm relieved to see that the people of other countries are often as despicable to immigrants as many Americans are. Obviously, this is not a good thing, but in my twisted logic, at least we Americans are not just fundamentally more messed up than the rest of the world. *Sigh* What a sad way to think.Next up: Jhumpa Lahiri...for more stories of modern immigration.
—Abraham
"Ireland America was never Ireland America to me." It's Langston Hughes rewritten, but the message works an ocean away from Harlem. And that's what drew me into Roddy Doyle's stories. Racism isn't just an American issue, nor is immigration. I'm sure the world will like to think so, but Doyle has painted a clear picture that it's not. But it's those topics that hit home. That made these stories memorable. The book collects nine stories - eight of which are set in Ireland, one in New York - and each deals with the xenophobia\racism of a nation. The title story is a sequel of sorts to Doyle's novel, The Commitments, in which Jimmy Rabbitte decides it's high time for another band. No whites, he wants to write in the ad. In fact, that's part of the interview. Do you like the Corrs? Are you sure you're not white? With a rag tag of immigrants, Jimmy decides that the name of this new band is The Deportees and they will sing folk songs rather than soul. "The Pram," a Polish nanny decides to seek revenge on her troublesome charges, two daughters who seemingly sabotage her romantic life, by telling them a ghastly story. Only the hauntings enter her waking life rather than their nightmares. The story echoes The Turning of the Screw with a slightly different ending.In "Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner," a liberal-thinking father is faced with the fact that one of his daughters might be seeing a black man. How he acts surprises him and his family. Luckily, they're there to make sure he doesn't embarrass himself.A group of teenagers shine some light on racism and stereotypes at local shops and how it hurts the stores financially in "Black Hoodie."The Deportees and Other Stories is an eye opener at the state that we're in. Cross out Ireland and Irish and replace with America and American, and you'll see how this stories echoes across the sea. It makes the reader take a side step and evaluate how low we've come as a people by refuses others the seem benefits and dreams that we hold close to our hearts.
—Guillermo
