I was surprised by this book. I mean, maybe I should not have been. It is published by Penguin and Roddy Doyle is an Irish writer, who has managed to get some of his books made into films. For me he was unknown. I bought Roddy Doyle’s Charlie Savage purely because of the title. It is the same name as that of the protagonist of Pacific Viking by Barnaby Allen. Pacific Viking is an epic historical fiction book about a real Charlie Savage, who lived and died over 200 years ago in Fiji. These two Charlies and their lives could not really be more unlike. Mind you they both loved their families.
Roddy Doyle’s Charlie is an older Irish man with a largish family. He is battling ageing. He is a grandfather, but to my surprise he was not yet seventy. There is no plot as such in Charlie Savage. The stories are very short and there are more than fifty chapters. They also sounded kind of like anecdotes to me. This was easy to understand, when I found out that this was a compilation of a series Doyle did for Irish Independent. Yet we get to know Charlie Savage well. Charlie, who is unashamedly a man. But he is a man who loves women. This is clear. I mean, really loves. Loves his women for what they are. This is a book about family, love and friendship. It is uplifting despite a kind of certain sad undertone. It is funny at times, even to the point of laughter but mostly it is funny through dry sarcasm.
I listened to this as an audible. Roddy Doyle read the stories himself. I think that hearing an author read his own words is special. I recommend Charlie Savage either as a book or as an audible. I think in time, I will wish to read or listen to another book by Doyle. Now I am looking forward to reading an ebook version of a South American classic Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. Anaya is another writer that is still new to me…
STARS: 5/5
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