The book is his ramblings about what he sees around him, the way he behaves, and the way others around him do. At times, you feel ‘I’m happy I’m not neighbors with him’.
Literal translations of his thoughts, gibberish, heartlessness, care, fear, dare, adventures, and childish analysis fill the pages of this book. And his friends are as grown up as he is and as child-like as he is; their thoughts and actions only complement his.
We have heard it like a million times that a child’s upbringing, what he sees and does at home, what he sees his parents doing and talking about has a strong influence on and manifests his/her personality and attitude.
And still
there is shouting and abusing in their presence, hidden in the shrouds of
normal behavior. A smack heard in the kitchen – did something fall, oh! It was
the table. They aren’t fighting! They are! No, they’re just talking; grown-ups
do that all the time.
We don’t need
mentally strong children now, do we? Not altered in this way. We don’t need
them to say ‘I understand’ and really understand the forced brutalities of
life. We’d rather let them worry about that unsharpened pencil than the sobs of
a parent. We need to let them be what they are – children.
Easier said
than done! Grownups have their lives too and let’s be practical, incidents
happen; you make mistakes, you realize your mistakes, sometimes you let go,
sometimes it’s awfully difficult. But never let it escape you that you’re being
watched. By innocent eyes. And what you’re doing is taking away that innocence
little by little; a permanent uncontrollable damage that probably will be
presented to a shrink to analyze and comment on, later in life.Parents who think that their behavior doesn’t affect children - read this book please.
Grownups, who
think they can hide their emotions, keep things secret, fight and abuse when
no-one is looking, think again! – read the book please.
The book
reminded me of ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night time’ by Mark Haddon.
Roddy Doyle
is Paddy Clarke. Paddy Clarke is Roddy Doyle. And I enjoyed their story.
I only wish I
had penned down all my experiences as a child; then I would’ve shown Paddy
Clarke what an obstreperous child I was, more than him; probably given him the Chinese
torture and a dead leg!
Obstreperous Obstreperous
Obstreperous obstreperous obstreperous
My rating: 7/10
