The Woman Who Walked Into Doors Roddy Doyle
1997
Weight: 5.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating
My first instinct when I started reading this book was that it did not sound like a woman's voice to me. I quickly got over that. I soon believed every word of it, and I could not put it down. It was tragic and heartbreaking and violent, but there were scenes that just felt so real. The cruel moment when he asks her where she got a black eye, and she has to frantically think of what the correct answer is. The answer that will ensure she is not beat again. The zinger that her abusive husband didn't realize toast was made from bread. The way she believed that another woman had hit herself hard with a door, despite the fact that she desperately wanted someone else to see through her lies at the hospital. The description of a beautiful wedding day followed up by her all alone, waiting on her drunken husband in bed. He finally comes home late and falls asleep, snoring. She throws away her bouquet in the trash the next day despite the fact that she had wanted to throw it. His name. Charlo. It is all in the little details.
Doyle writes, " If he's been a bit different he would have been great at something--he'd have made a different name for himself. A business man or a politician, or even an actor. He'd have been a star. If he's had the education. If he's had other work when all the building around Dublin stopped and there was nothing left for him to do. He would have put his anger to use. He wouldn't have been wasted. He'd have been a leader. I can see him. Managing a football team. Putting the fear of God into them at half-time. Standing up and speaking in the Dail, tearing strips off the Minister of Social Welfare. Jumping out of a moving car--doing his own stunts. Teaching problem kids. They'd have loved him. Vote for Charlo Spencer. Co-Starring Charlo Spencer. Written and directed by Charlo Spencer. Scored by Charlo Spencer. But he wasn't unemployed the first time he hit me. Beaten by Charlo Spencer. That's a fact that I can't mess around with. Robbed by Charlo Spencer. Murdered by Charlo Spencer. Charlo Spencer lost his job and started beating his wife. It's not as simple as that. He started robbing. He shot a woman and killed her" (191-192).
You can see the love an admiration she has for him even as she expresses her disappointment in him and the shock that he turned out the person he did. That name. A waste. He was a waste, and he wasted her. The children. The narrator says the hardest part is that she cannot promise her children anything better.
I think I liked how the author wrote from the perspective of a poor, uneducated, alcoholic, mother and did not slip into the mistake that so many authors make and portray her as stupid or undeserving of peace and love. She absolutely was not stupid. It was fucking sad. It was good.
1997
Weight: 5.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating
My first instinct when I started reading this book was that it did not sound like a woman's voice to me. I quickly got over that. I soon believed every word of it, and I could not put it down. It was tragic and heartbreaking and violent, but there were scenes that just felt so real. The cruel moment when he asks her where she got a black eye, and she has to frantically think of what the correct answer is. The answer that will ensure she is not beat again. The zinger that her abusive husband didn't realize toast was made from bread. The way she believed that another woman had hit herself hard with a door, despite the fact that she desperately wanted someone else to see through her lies at the hospital. The description of a beautiful wedding day followed up by her all alone, waiting on her drunken husband in bed. He finally comes home late and falls asleep, snoring. She throws away her bouquet in the trash the next day despite the fact that she had wanted to throw it. His name. Charlo. It is all in the little details.
Doyle writes, " If he's been a bit different he would have been great at something--he'd have made a different name for himself. A business man or a politician, or even an actor. He'd have been a star. If he's had the education. If he's had other work when all the building around Dublin stopped and there was nothing left for him to do. He would have put his anger to use. He wouldn't have been wasted. He'd have been a leader. I can see him. Managing a football team. Putting the fear of God into them at half-time. Standing up and speaking in the Dail, tearing strips off the Minister of Social Welfare. Jumping out of a moving car--doing his own stunts. Teaching problem kids. They'd have loved him. Vote for Charlo Spencer. Co-Starring Charlo Spencer. Written and directed by Charlo Spencer. Scored by Charlo Spencer. But he wasn't unemployed the first time he hit me. Beaten by Charlo Spencer. That's a fact that I can't mess around with. Robbed by Charlo Spencer. Murdered by Charlo Spencer. Charlo Spencer lost his job and started beating his wife. It's not as simple as that. He started robbing. He shot a woman and killed her" (191-192).
You can see the love an admiration she has for him even as she expresses her disappointment in him and the shock that he turned out the person he did. That name. A waste. He was a waste, and he wasted her. The children. The narrator says the hardest part is that she cannot promise her children anything better.
I think I liked how the author wrote from the perspective of a poor, uneducated, alcoholic, mother and did not slip into the mistake that so many authors make and portray her as stupid or undeserving of peace and love. She absolutely was not stupid. It was fucking sad. It was good.
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