"Mr Doyle has made his own gritty world of modern Dublin, violent and generous-hearted, mean-spirited and fed by dreams. In The Woman Who Walked into Doors he has created a jewel of a book. Indeed, it is the triumph of this novel that Mr Doyle- entirely without condescension- shows the inner life of this battered housecleaner to be the same stuff as that of the heroes of the great novels of Europe."
New York Times Book Review.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Spotted this on somebody's wishlist....

A nice to surprise to come home to, especially after a lovely day in London with a BC friend I made when we met at the Uncon in Edinburgh last year.

Thanks very much! This book will, hopefully, gather lots of journal entries as it travels for my The Reading Group Spiral.

Reading now. Not looking forward to it at all now as someone told me it's about domestic violence. I write that because often when I don't look forward to something it ends up great. (Usually parties, but you never know it might work for books too.)

***

Finished. Not entirely that this is an accurate description; it's rather over the top in my opinion- "shows the inner life of this battered housecleaner to be the same stuff as that of the heroes of the great novels of Europe."

She gets up and carries on for the sake of the children and can't bring herself to leave and the final realisation of what is also occuring motivates her to take action. The only thing is that as with other Doyle books he leaves you with a sting in the tail. You end up wondering about the other side of the story and what you haven't been told. Take note of the last chapter and also of the hints we have of Carmel's story. I don't want to say anymore because I don't want to spoil it.

If you are offended/upset by swearing and graphic depictions of violence do not read this. It's well worth it if you aren't; the writing is raw, gritty and painfully honest. You wonder how it is that RD is so good at writing from the woman's perspective. It's got to be a talent.

I can't see how you can read this and not end up feeling grateful for your own circumstances.

Welcome to the fourth book in my 'The Reading Group' Spiral and featured books, in the order in which they appear in the novel.

These are:
Heartburn- Nora Ephron
I Capture the Castle- Dodie Smith
Atonement- Ian McEwan
The Woman who Walked into Doors- Roddy Doyle
Guppies for Tea- Marika Cobbold
My Antonia -Willa Cather
The Memory Box- Margaret Forster
Eden Close- Anita Shreve
An Instance of the Fingerpost- Iain Pears
Rebecca- Daphne du Maurier
The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho
Girl with a Pearl Earring- Tracy Chevalier


This is the mailing order for The Woman who Walked into Doors:
abigailann-UK (UK)
mafarrimond-UK (EU)
Back to Cinderess to post to -
FrancesinSA-South Africa (INTL)
denny08-USA (USA)
tostle -USA (USA)

Sending to the next reader. I'm interested to see what everyone feels about this book. It's totally different to the first three in the spiral.

Thanks for sending this on to me Cinderess. I'm going through a very busy period in my life at the moment, but I'll try to read it as soon as I can

Wow! Its hard to believe that this story is a work of fiction, let alone by a male author writing as a woman. So believable was the tone and 'voice' of the text that this was emotionally harder to read than many real life stories I have read. I almost went as far as putting the book away because of the feelings it was creating. But I'm glad I persisted- this book is fantastically written and is a must read, if just for the experience.

Will try to get down to the post office today, if not I will post on during the next week

Popped in the post this afternoon.

The book has arrived. I am looking forward to reading this.

Rather sad book. A very realist storyline about a battered wife - somewhat surprisingly writted by a male writer. Some witty and touching moments which lightened the mood making this a very compelling read.

Book arrived today. Thank you mafarrimond, for sending me another book. :-)

It is horrifying that women get abused like this and others choose to ignore it.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I thought it was disjointed because of the way the story jumped quickly from one period of Paula’s life to another.
Although I realize that it was done for emphasis, I was irritated that entire paragraphs were repeated over and over. The dialogue is written without quotation marks and marked with a dash. It is a style that is easy to read and worked in keeping the story moving.

I felt that Doyle did a good job of writing as a woman but at one point I felt the voice of a man coming through when Paula and her sisters are discussing how all men are the same – basically bastards. Paula says: “You can say that about anybody, not just men.”

I did not enjoy this book but it did affect me and I think I’ll remember it for a long time.

posting today to denny08.

Got this one today. It is next on my TBR's.

I read this and just realized I never posted that it was ready to send to tostle! I agree with everyone else's comments about this being an emotional read.

I received this book. Thanks for sending it!