''Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha'' is a novel by Irish writer

Roddy Doyle Roderick Doyle (born 8 May 1958) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been ...

, first published in 1993 by

Secker and Warburg Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press. History Secker & Warburg Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...

. It won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

that year. The story is about a 10-year-old boy living in Barrytown, North

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, and the events that happen within his age group, school and home in around 1968.

Plot synopsis

''Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha'' recounts (approximately) one year in the life of a Dublin ten-year-old, Patrick "Paddy" Clarke, especially his relationships with Sinbad (Francis), his younger brother, his parents and his schoolmates and teachers. It begins with him being a mischievous boy roaming around local Barrytown and ends with his father departing from the family, forcing the boy to take up adult responsibilities in his single-parent home.

Structure and language

The novel, chronicling Paddy's internal journey towards maturity, is a ''

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...

'', as it centres upon the main character's development. Paddy's growing up is painfully bitter. While the beginning of the book is filled with playful antics, the growing antagonism between his parents and the breaking up of their marriage are evident as the novel moves on. Paddy does not choose his "journey of enlightenment and maturity"; rather, he is robbed of it when his parents become estranged from one another. The novel is not divided into chapters, but into numerous

vignette Vignette may refer to: * Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy * Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters * Vignette (literature), short, i ...

s that do not follow any chronological order. Despite the absence of a clear-cut plot (introduction, complication,

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

dénouement A story structure, narrative structure, or dramatic structure (also known as a dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of narrative structures worldwide, which have be ...

) the reader is still able to sense the passage of time both in Paddy's own life and in the changes that come to Barrytown. Doyle's language employs a

register Register or registration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), ...

that gives the reader the vivid impression of listening to a ten-year-old Irish boy from the 1960s.

Critical reaction

''The Independent'' praised it as "one of the truest and funniest presentations of juvenile experience in any recent literature". When it won the Booker Prize, the book was mocked by some people as an "easy", "populist" choice.Guardian book club: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
The Guardian, 14 Aug 2009

References

External links

BBC GCSE Bitesize pages on novel
{{Authority control 1993 Irish novels Booker Prize–winning works Novels by Roddy Doyle Secker & Warburg books Novels set in the 1960s