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The Guts

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The Guts

By: Roddy Doyle
Narrated by: Laurence Kinlan
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About this listen

Jimmy Rabbitte is back.

The man who invented the Commitments back in the eighties is now forty-seven, with a loving wife, four kids ... and bowel cancer. He isn’t dying, he thinks, but he might be.

Jimmy still loves his music, and he still loves to hustle – his new thing is finding old bands and then finding the people who loved them enough to pay money for their resurrected singles and albums. On his path through Dublin he meets two of the Commitments – Outspan, whose own illness is probably terminal, and Imelda Quirk, still as gorgeous as ever. He is reunited with his long-lost brother and learns to play the trumpet…

This warm, funny novel is about friendship and family, about facing death and opting for life. It climaxes in one of the great passages in Roddy Doyle’s fiction: four middle-aged men at Ireland’s hottest rock festival watching Jimmy’s son Marvin’s band Moanin’ at Midnight pretending to be Bulgarian and playing a song called ‘I’m Going to Hell’ that apparently hasn’t been heard since 1932…

Why? You’ll have to read The Guts to find out.

 Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction

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Critic reviews

A visceral tragicomedy – as raw and as funny as anything [Doyle’s] written. (Olivia Cole)
Remarkable, relevant and, surprisingly for a book that’s ostensibly about cancer, joyful. (Kevin Maher)
Life-affirming and trimphant
A fond, comic treat.
This is Doyle back in Barrytown and on top form, especially at the festival which closes a glorious book. (Harry Ritchie)
The Guts has life, and heart, and jokes. (Theo Tait)
The novel is probably the most contemplative that Doyle has written — as a meditation on the importance of family, it is at times almost unbearably moving. (Edmund Gordon)
Bright, jokey, wry and robust. (Patricia Craig)
Unchanged is Doyle’s miraculous ability to serve up dialogue that fizzes with great, often quite rude jokes – but never at the expense of the emotions lying behind them.
As one does with old friends, you leap right back into the conversation as if you’ve never been apart... It’s got a bittersweet humour all its own. (Deborah Dundas)
All stars
Most relevant
Great Audiobook...few niggles regarding the dads voice, the overuse of 'Grand" at times, and the theme of infidelity could have been explored more..maybe if the dad had of found out and offered an opinion... but overall best audiobook I've listened to yet possibly.

Great Audiobook...Dublin in yer ear!

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This is a really funny tale on what is still something of a taboo subject. Although a little slow at times the banter is hilarious and brought to life by the excellent narration.

Brilliant!

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You find yourself laughing a parts maybe you shouldn't be. I hope there is follow up book.

A good laugh at Cancer.

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Would you listen to The Guts again? Why?

I am certainly going to listen to this wonderful book again, Doyle's capture of the Irish speak is masterful, he could tell you any story, but if it had the Roddy Doyle spin, it is unmissable. This continuation on from the Commitments, see's the Rabbite family a few years down the line. If you liked any of Roddy Doyle's book's, you'll love this. Utterly fantastic

What did you like best about this story?

It continues on from the Commitments

Which character – as performed by Laurence Kinlan – was your favourite?

Jimmy Rabbite senior still makes me roar with laughter

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no, but I could easily do

Any additional comments?

See comments in the first paragraph

another Classic from Roddy Doyle

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not a bad story but never really takes off, instead it plods along with the odd laugh.

plods along

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