n The ('mnmiinmus. sotil men .loey the Lips and .limmy
Rabbittc tear ja// apart. destroying another band member
for their love of the form and despising it for its middle- class ways. And yet now. here we have attthor Roddy Doyle trumpeting ja// by having the btilk of his new novel set in a (‘lticztgti club of the 1930s where Louis :\l'litstt‘ottg was making a big name for himself. and handing Satchmo both a hefty role in the story and a slot on the book jacket. It‘s even called ()li. Play“ That Thing. the name of a I‘D} collection by Armstrong and King ()liver. .limmy Rahbitte would not he a happy bunny.
‘When I started to work as a full time writer I began to fill my room with music because it seemed like an opportunity to listen to sttiff that l otherwise didn‘t know about.‘ recalls l)oyle of the moment when he left the teaching profession behind for good. ‘So I started with classical and that got me so far and then I moved on to Philip (ilass and Steve Reiclt and then ja//. began to encroach. particularly l)uke Iillington. (iradually I began to realise that. like with all genre and styles and endeavours really. there's wonderful sttiff and there's dreadful sttiff.~ Doyle was ever on the hunt to discover the wonderful world of jaw, and. while in America in 1997. came across the review of a new Louis Armstrong biography. "The first paragraph was about the story of when he was leaving New Orleans and how a bouncer called Black Benny said to him. "Louis. if you want to make it in this world. get yourself a white man who will ptit his hand on your shoulder and say ‘dis here‘s my nigger?”
At that point. Doyle was starting to dream tip the character of Henry Smart. who would become the central figure of a hook which would develop into a trilogy entitled The Last Roundup. liven at that early stage. Doyle somehow knew on reading about Armstrong (‘the elderly smiling guy I used to watch on the Andy Williams show in the (i()s’) that Smart would become the white man who would help Louis get ahead. Btit not before llenry' would embark upon a journey that would take him through the early years of a turbulent 2()th century of Irish history iii the magnificent A Star ('u/lml Henry; at the end of which he would be chased from his homeland by the Republicans whom he had killed for and into the arms of America iii the 20s and 30s. l5or Smart. arriving on lillis Island. this was to be a big new beginning of Prohibition. sandwich board enterprise. backstreet dentistry. some very free love and. after a close shave with a mobster or two. another chance to flee his past. Smart. as ever. falls on his feet in the land of the free. ends tip a jazz cat with nine lives in a vibrant (‘hicago with Louis Armstrong as its prince. and a city over which Al Capone is preparing to lord it.
If you want to find an overriding theme for the novel (and the series to date) it could well be that no matter how hard you try and how far you run. you will always feel the past's breath on your neck. For Henry. this isn't jtist about putting continents between his crimes and misdemeanours btit about going so far as to diltitiiig his lrishness to enable him to feel more American. ‘It‘s quite an absurdity in some ways bttt it does inform a lot of people's lives.‘ notes Doyle of I'lCltl’}“.s transmogritication. ‘Being Irish can be a bit of a burden at
RODDY DOYLE, one of those rare creatures — a writer who inspires devotion from fans and admiration from critics — has put jazz at the heart of his latest novel. Brian Donaldson checks out where that crazy beat is taking us.
times. especially when someone else defines what being Irish is. which means you are on the outside looking in; if I have my passport why won‘t they let me in'.’ So it's about the impossibility of escaping the past. When he gets to America. he‘s looking ahead as though his life is now just beginning and he can ignore the past btit it will always jtist creep tip on you. llenry ‘s story is really jtist a far more dramatic version of w hat happens to everybody all the time.‘
With another segment to go to fulfil the trilogical imperative. this epic historical journey all seems a very long way away from the often bleak (and usually funny) contemporary l)ublin landscape which I)oyle had practically claimed for his own with the Hurry/own ‘I'ri’lugy‘ of The (‘rmuniliiit'liIs/I'ltt' HUI/[TIC Snapper. the Booker-winning l’ut/t/y' ('lurkt' Ha Ha Ha atid the domestic violence drama The ll'omuii ll'lin llii/kw/ lulu l)uorv. The last one is the book he's most proud of. ‘l’m/u’y' ('lurlw was the book where I went from
being one type of writer into more than jtist one ty pe of writer
and The llimum ll'liu Hit/kw! lulu l)umiv was the most difficult to write btit it really tatight me that I could do anything I wanted. Not that I‘d always do it successfully. bill I knew I had it in me to at least try.‘
Despite having mainly written about a specific type of
people (white working class l)ubliners with a stoic attitude and a bristling wit). Doyle‘s appeal spans the generation gaps. national borders and class divides. llc’s as likely to be read by your two-books—a-year granny as he is by a literary award
judge. JK Rowling claims him as her favourite liy'ing author
and he’s appeared at enough book events with Dave liggcrs to suggest that Doyle can claim to be part of a very different sector of contemporary literati.
There‘s no reason why that massive fanbase he‘s established won't stay with him (he remains the biggest selling author to have won the Booker). even though he appears to have moved on to a series of books which maintain the fundamental seriousness of his early works. albeit without the comical safety net. While l)oy‘le will eventually complete TIM [,(ISI Roundup. he is more likely to get started sooner on another modern Irish tale to reflect the massive social changes that have been afoot in his nation over the last decade.
"l'lit' \im was about an unemployed plasterer. There's no such thing any" more. Trying to get one of the fuckers to finish a job is impossible. In the 80s when I wrote the first three books. this country was jtist a failure and now that’s not the case at all: there may still be some poveity btit this is actually one of the wealthiest countries iii the world. And there‘s such a change in the appearance of people in the cities and of those walking towards you: now. there‘s a couple of streets in Dublin called Little Africa. The notion that to be Irish means to be white and ('atholic isn't there any more. And when l was writing The Commitments l was constantly trying to explain to people why l didn‘t go to Mass and now I don't have to explain at all. Those would be the kinds of things that would interest me to write aboqu
Oh, Play That Thing is published by Jonathan Cape on Mon 13 Sep.
‘THE MOTION THAT TO BE IRISH MEANS TO BE WHITE AND CATHOLIC ISN'T THERE ANY MORE'
Roddy Doyle
(
opposite) has set
his new novel in Depression-era America.
"2 3.1:, THE LIST 17