Smile: A Novel

The story of Victor Forde, a man in his early 50’s who finds himself divorced and lonely, relocated to a small apartment. Living a solitary life.Victor attempts to become a regular at one of the local pubs – he ingratiates himself with a group of similar aged men. Fitzpatrick is also someone he meets at the pub who is convinced that he & Victor went to school with each other 40 years before, at an abusive Christian Brothers institution. Victor struggles to remember this person., and doesn’t like him very much.Victor’s life is told largely in recollection, and he was pretty much a procrastinator, a loser, who never accomplished anything. He was basically all talk and no action.Without revealing spoilers, I still don’t understand the conclusion of this story at all. It left me deeply confused.

Seldom do I finish a book in just two sittings but this novel’s ability to engage my interest and, quite honestly, my curiosity compelled me to keep reading. The quality of the writing is realistic but at the same time evokes something not quite normal...something oddly provocative . I was eagerly waiting for something to make clear what was actually happening. In it’s final moments it does exactly that. Fascinating.

If you do not know what messer, coochie, snib or jacks mean, get the app Urban Dictionary before you read this book. Without it you will be lost quickly. But, do read this book. It is a beautifully well done study into a person suffering from trauma that led to a DID Disorder. As a Counseling Psychologist who has treated patients such as the lead character, I stand amazed at how the author captured the tragedy of having this condition. Hats off to him.

Victor Forde, in his mid-fifties, has led a rather pathetic life in Dublin. His one success was his relationship with Rachel Carey, a television celebrity in Ireland. But he bungled that and he is now living on his own, frequenting a local pub for the companionship, and looking back on his life -- summing it up, trying to make sense of it.A seminal event: When he was thirteen and an incoming student at The Christian Brothers School, the French teacher, Brother Murphy, remarked in front of the whole class, "Victor Forde, I can never resist your smile." His classmates knew Brother Murphy to be queer; now they had reason to believe the same of Victor. And then there was the Head Brother. When Victor's father was in the hospital, dying, the Head Brother had Victor stay after school to teach him to wrestle, since he soon would have to look after himself. The Head quickly threw Victor to the ground and cupped his genitals with his massive hand. Did either of those incidents lead further? If so, Victor had repressed the memory, but now, forty years later the matter has become clouded. In fact, very little about Victor's life now seems clear to him.In two earlier novels -- "The Woman Who Walked into Doors" and "Paula Spencer" (great novels in my estimation) -- Roddy Doyle highlighted the problem of domestic abuse among the Irish working class. Now in SMILE, he takes on the institutional abuse of working class boys attending parochial schools, especially the endemic pederasty. In both cases, the abuse has long-lasting effects. In the two novels featuring Paula Spencer, she, in the end, is making a recovery of sorts. At the end of SMILE, however, life for Victor Forde has lost all coherence.The novel is written in the first person. The narrative cuts back and forth in time, from the present to the time Victor was a student at the Christian Brothers School, with assorted moments from his life with Rachel in between. (By novel's end, Victor is so disoriented that he wonders how much of his life with Rachel was an imagined construct.) The clipped, somewhat elliptical style, is typical of Roddy Doyle. SMILE is very much deft, accomplished storytelling. For me, however, its ending is too bewildering -- reminiscent of the couple novels I have read by J. M. Coetzee.

I read Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Doyle and loved it. This book is nothing like it. And the big important reviews are not reliable. This is not a psychological thriller. Not even close. It is completely predictable. From the second time Fitzpatrick shows up. Even before that. From page 1. Most of the book is the narrator saying how great his ex-wife was (is) and extended scenes of him and other guys in a bar drinking and talking. Pass on this one. Read Paddy Clarke instead

This is Doyle's most recent contribution and it is really good --- great writing as usual and a very timely topic unerdstood with genuine sensitivity

I read it because I love the author, wasn't bad just not as good as his others

It was this. It was like this. It was good enough to put in a book. Of fiction. A tale told, heard, repeated until believed. A mirrored life seen from both sides. Full of reversals.

Roddy Doyle is Irish literary royalty and his name on the cover of a book is usually a pretty good indication of what to expect, but sadly even when I've finished reading his short novel 'Smile' I'm left wondering what I actually just read; and feeling a bit cheated, to be honest.The issue of the abuse of children and teenagers by the Catholic Church and The Christian Brothers schools in particular is a very important one and one that truly deserves to be written about in fiction as well as autobiographies. My father and his brothers all went to TCB schools and at least one of my uncles was beaten and abused -and that's just the one that the family talk about. So I'm open to knowing more and I'm keen that these stories should be told. Just not so keen they get told in such an obtuse manner that the readers are left wondering what they just read.A good fictional book on the topic (though often based in good hard evidence of actual abuse) can go to places that the misery-autobiographies (you know the ones with the big eyed child cowering on the cover) seldom dare to tread but somehow Roddy Doyle goes so far wide of the mark that most readers - at least based on reviews I've seen -are left scratching their heads and thinking 'WTF?' when they get to the bizarre and other-worldly ending.I found it hard to take that 90% of the book just seemed to be denying the abuse and hiding it behind an enthusiastic and overly-energetic sex life with the character's ex-wife. And then when the 'twist' finally comes, it's on a par with 'Bobby Ewing in the shower'.I found it deeply irritating and disappointing. Many have said they get to the end and want to go straight back and read it again but I feel the two hours or so this has already had of my reading life is more than enough.

I have to be honest and say I didn't enjoy this novel. I usually am thrilled with any book orfilm by Roddy Doyle, but I found this hard going. The characters were not full of life as isis usually the case in Doyle's work. I did manage to finish his book. But I know he can do somuch better.FromCraig Minto.

Not as great as expected. I didn't really find many of the characters believable. It jumped about too much within chapters.

Characters not engaging enough. At the end I just thought, oh right, okay that kind of makes sense, but what was the point?

I love Roddy Doyle and was completely invested in this book, however I didn’t understand the ending. The twist made no sense, I couldn’t understand it, very disappointing.