July2013
Rabbitte Guts 2:
Rabbitte Guts:
2.
Jimmy Rabbitte knew his music. He knew his stuff alright.
They were two sentences from the first page of the first book Jimmy Rabbitte had been in, The Commitments.
But, actually, he hadn’t a clue about music.
He did – he used to – back when Doyle wrote The Commitments. But not now, in this new book Doyle’s after writing, The Guts. This thing, ‘feat.’, for example. Like, Pink (feat. Lily Allen). What the fuck was that about? Selfishness – that was what Jimmy thought. Ego. Back in the days when music was roundy, it was ‘and’. It was Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood. They shared the glory. It was Roy Orbison and k.d. lang. It wasn’t Roy (feat. k.d.). It wasn’t Laurel (feat. Hardy), or the Lone Ranger (feat. Tonto). And the ‘feat.’ people; the guests singers or whatever – Jimmy … Read More »
Rabbitte Guts:
Rabbitte Guts:
1.
One minute Jimmy Rabbitte was 21. He was the manager of a band called The Commitments,
although they’d just broken up. He’d got over that shock and was just about ready to start a new
band. He’d learnt from the Commitments experience: never let a bollix be your singer, even if he
can sing; and never let your elderly trumpet player ride all, some or even one of the group’s backing
vocalists. Armed with this wisdom, he’d been gearing himself up, listening to new sounds, all set to
knock U2 off their fuckin’ perch.
The next minute he was 48 and he had bowel cancer.
How the fuck did that happen?
The author, Jimmy’s creator, Doyle, heard the word ‘recession’ on the radio one morning a few years
back, and decided to bring Jimmy back. Or, so he’s telling anyone who’ll listen.
Now, if Jimmy was doing one of … Read More »
Roddy reads from The Guts and other work
Roddy reads from The Guts and other work.
August 1
Hodges Figgis, Dublin.
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August 8
Chorleywood Bookshop, London
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August 10
Edinburgh International Book Festival
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September 7
Mountains to the Sea Festival, Dublin
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The Guts 2013
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 … Read More »
