Paula Spencer, Roddy Doyle
Paula Spencer, Roddy Doyle
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

Paula Spencer

Author: Roddy Doyle

Narrator: Ger Ryan

Unabridged: 6 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/20/2018

Synopsis

Paula Spencer begins on the eve of Paula's forty-eighth birthday. She hasn't had a drink for four months and five days. Having outlived an abusive husband and father, Paula and her four children are now struggling to live their adult lives, with two of the kids balancing their own addictions. Paula rebuilds her life slowly. As she goes about her daily routine working as a cleaning woman, and cooking for her two children at home, she re-establishes connections with her two sisters, her mother, and grandchildren, expanding her world. Doyle has movingly depicted a woman, both strong and fragile, who is fighting back and finally equipped to be a mother to her children.

About Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle is the author of ten acclaimed novels, several collections of stories, and several works for children and young adults. In 2009 he received the Irish PEN Award for Literature. The Commitments was made into a motion picture in 1991, and Paddy Clarke Ha-Ha-Ha won the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s highest literary award. The Van was a finalist for the Booker Prize. He lives in Dublin where he was born in 1958.

About Ger Ryan

Ger Ryan is an Irish film and television actress whose credits include Queer as Folk (UK version), The War of the Buttons (the 1995 Irish version), The Van, Moll Flanders, Driftwood, A Love Divided, and Intermission. She also played Paula Spencer in Roddy Doyle’s acclaimed series Family for the BBC.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Baba on March 16, 2023

This 10(!) years in coming sequel to A Woman Who Walks into Doors, catches up with the life and times of recovering alcoholic, 48 year old mother of four, Paula Spencer and she strives to have some form of life. This was an OK read, but it feels very very very much like I should have read the first......more

Goodreads review by Colin on June 10, 2008

Having just finished Paula Spencer, it's only natural to compare it back to The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. While I think the earlier book is superior in terms of its artistry--perhaps simply because the second book is more of the same--I enjoyed reading this one more. The tension in the first book......more

Goodreads review by Ian on September 28, 2007

I am a huge fan of Roddy Doyle and ‘The Woman Who Walked into Doors’ so I couldn’t wait to get hold of its sequel ‘Paula Spencer’. To say I was disappointed would be a huge understatement. First off Roddy had abandoned the first person telling of the story which made Paula Spencer ‘s initial book so......more

Goodreads review by John on September 18, 2019

This is a follow up to The Woman Who Walked into Doors. It's the continuing story of Paula Spencer and it's a tough one. She is a recovering alcoholic and every minute of every day is a struggle. This is the kind of book where the author simply opens a window into a character's life and shows you aro......more

Goodreads review by Donna on November 06, 2014

This one was also a quick read. I would say it's like revisiting a friend that you haven't seen in a good while and finding out that they aren't quite as interesting as you remembered. Perhaps it's the fact that there is no shock value, unlike The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. Still worth a read.......more

Quotes

“It is a tale of intimate personal struggle, and it is told superbly…Paula Spencer is neither gloomy nor glib. It is not patronizing or falsely melodramatic. Instead it brims with compassion and acuity as Mr. Doyle shines a light on a supposedly ordinary life, tenderly illuminating its extraordinary contours.” Wall Street Journal

“Doyle’s depiction of a seething home life is penetrating, and Paula, as she patches a self together from remnants, emerges as an inspiring heroine without a hint of smarminess.” New Yorker

“Reading Paula Spencer is pure, undiluted pleasure…Such fun and so beautifully crafted.” Washington Post

“Paula’s inner life lacks subtler shades, and her outer life is full of tiring work, abstinence from liquor, and family. These aren’t elements that automatically make for a have-to-read novel, but in this wholly and vividly imagined case, they do. Publishers Weekly

“Doyle is masterful at setting up the battles as Paula takes each day at a time. His dialogue, thick with Dublinese, expertly evokes the working-class Irish milieu. Although the third-person narration will make some readers miss Paula’s voice, this is Paula’s story—and it’s grand.” Booklist

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