Customer Reviews

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors

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The only reason that I read this book is because of J.K. Rowling. I read an article in Oprah magazine about J.K. Rowling and she stated that this was one of her all time favorite books. In fact, she said that Roddy Doyle was her favorite author. Had to read it. And it is good.

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors is the story of an abused dejected woman named Paula Spencer. Known as the most accident-prone patient at the emergency room, Paula recounts her life story from childhood to adulthood.

Paula was taken aback by Charlo. She said : I swooned the first time I saw Charlo. I actually did. I didn't faint or fall on the floor but my legs went rubbery on me and I giggled. I suddenly knew that I had lungs because they were empty and collapsing.

Her first dance with Charlo made her his. He had her all wrapped up and then some.

Throughout her marriage to Charlo, she lost herself and kept to herself. Each time she visited the hospital she told them she had fallen. No questions were asked. No further questions.

It is a heart wrenching story told in a woman's voice by the author -a man. What a superb job he does of delivering all emotions and thoughts that a despondent woman would have.

The journey of her life with Charlo, how she bounced back, how she coped, and how she now deals is vividly displayed. You won't want to put the book down. It was a great and easy read.

Roddy Doyle won the Booker Prize for Paddy Clarke ha ha ha. I
plan on reading that next. Check it out!

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958 and saw his first novel, "The Commitments" published in 1987. It was later adapted for the big screen, a version that saw Star Trek's Colm Meaney and a very young Andrea Corr among the cast. Doyle went on to win the Booker Prize in 1993 with "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha". This is his sixth novel and was first published in 1996.

"The Woman Who Walked Into Doors" is set in Dublin and is told by Paula Spencer, a woman in her late thirties. Both Paula's parents are dead, while only two of her siblings `appear' in the book - her sisters, Carmel and Denise. She did have another sister, Wendy, who died in a motorbike accident, while her brothers - Roger, Edward and George - are only ever mentioned in passing. Paula's relationship with her father had once been good, though it seemed to have deteriorated as time went on. (Carmel, on the other hand, hated their father and subscribes to the view that all men are b@$t@rds). Paula, meanwhile, hasn't Roger in years, and isn't particularly bothered about it - theirs was another difficult relationship.

However, it's Paula's relationship with her husband, Charlo, that's central to the book. They have been separated for over a year as the book opens - though they are still technically, married. They couple had four children together, three of whom still live with Paula. (She hasn't seen her eldest son, John-Paul, in quite some time: she last heard of him squatting in some flats and suspects he's on heroin). She works as a cleaner, just about earns enough to make ends meet and is an alcoholic. As if all that isn't enough, the book opens with the arrival of a policeman at her front door to inform her of Charlo's death. Paula spends the book looking back over her life in general and her time with Charlo in particular.

While it isn't always a very cheerful book, Paula's story isn't one that will leave you feeling depressed. She proves to be a character you want the best for and, not only does she manage to raise a smile from time to time, she also manages to leave you with a bit of hope. Absolutely recommended.

Renders the agonies of abused wifehood and alcoholism and the difficulty of change with a clarity that is almost tactile. Her voice is so honest and rings so true.

What I've always liked about Doyle's flare for writing is his creative and fearless ability to describe life the way it is. This penchant for realism cuts to the very soul of humanity: our need to avoid being swallowed up by our own despair. His readers encounter in many of his characters a capacity to make the most of their wretched existence by adopting an attitude of off-setting life's drudgery with acts of humor, love,and kindness. This does not mean that the bad times go away with the wave of a magic wan. After reading a Doyle story, the reader should have empathy with the protagonist for finding a silver lining in an otherwise bleak situation. Nothing is pretty about the world that Doyle grew up in the housing estates of Dublin post-WW II, but there is a lot to get excited about as people like a battered mother named Paula set about to transform their lives. The obstacles are many, the struggles are daunting, and the results, at best, mixed. First, she has to come to grips with her alcoholism, brought on by being trapped in a loveless and abusive marriage. Next, in her impoverished state she needs to care for her children who are slowly getting away on her. And lastly, she has to face the prospect that her life will not get better quickly by simply wishing it so. This novel traces her life through various critical stages where we see glimpses of her troubled social upbringing, her wild sexual tendencies, her futile search for a loving relationship, her abiding sense of self-worth and her determination to do all in her power to make a life for her children. Holding these various themes together is a powerful use of the vernacular of the street. Paula unapologetically expresses in the roughest of language her rawest emotions. Her hurt,pain,indignity, passion,and fear come through in the most graphic of terms, which why this book is hard to read in one sitting. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how difficult it is for many people like Paula to lift themselves out of the gutter without the opportunities to make it happen.

This is a book that reminds me of a joke,

"We don't get Channel 4 round our way, we get our misery direct."

Only our direct misery cannot have the wit and humour that this book has. Paula is full of strength, courage and wit in spite of everything. She is an every woman for the times that we live in. Charlo, although he could be any of a million men, is her downfall, her drug, and the man who drags her down and keeps her in her circle of despair. But like all drugs he is hard to give up, not until he dies, which comes in the first chapters so I'm not giving anything away there, is she free, but it's all too late. She is married to Charlo for nearly two decades; it is a time of alcohol, violence and crime. Despair seeps from ever page mixed up with nostalgia and thick black humour to ease the pain of the reader. The characters are so alive that this book hurts to read at times, Doyle's characterisations are near perfect.
Paula is a flawed character reflecting the life that she has led. Roddy Doyle makes it obvious from the start that there was never any escaping for Paula, from birth, from school, from adolescence she was always on the same path. You can leave the oppressive slum, but the oppressive, esteem robbing slum will never leave you. Paula is told what she is from birth and has no option but to believe it.
An excellently written book that pulls no punches and doesn't try to spare Paula her fate, but it's so sad that I prefer to pretend that it isn't happening, see, there's a lot of Paula in us all.

I had to skip over 20 or 30 pages of this book. Perhaps this is a testament to the power of Roddy Doyle's writing, but the violent dissolution of Charlo and Paula Spencer's marriage into a morass of alcoholism and abuse was too brutal for me to read. I did pick it back up toward the end, and read the last 25 pages or so, and while I found the ending strangely rewarding, I couldn't help but feel that it would have been doubly so if I had been able to stomach the entire book. In that way, the book became a little inaccessable for me.

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors is an amazing book, terribly honest too. Couldn't finish it the first time I read it, after the Barrytown Trilogy I decided to reread it and got to appreciate it. Paula is living and charming, it's hard to imagine such delicate feelings of a woman is written by a man. Roddy Doyle wrote about this woman and her terrible married life with the utmost accuracy, he's probably one of the best novelists around.

In 'The Woman Who Walked into Doors', Doyle tells the story of a battered wife. He explores the depths of Paula's mind, thoughts, feelings and memories. We see the effect of a cruel male-dominated working-class society on a young, ambitious but vulnerable girl. Through the novel Paula is cast as a victim of male abuse. A victim of her father, her younger brother, her husband and even strangers in the street ('...Jesus, if you went wrong once you were a slut. -Slut. My little brother. -Slut. My Father. -Slut. Everyone. They were all in on it.') Doyle successfully attempts to convince his readers of the realism of Paula's situation. Doyle manipulates narrative structure and language to create a real sense of intimacy with his protagonist Paula. He creates a mass of confusion, misunderstanding and sorrow. He deliberatly skips around Paula'a memories in order to mirror her confusion and desperation. He calls out for help for the repressed section of society that is chosen to be ignored by the rest. Paula is so deeply in love with Charlo that she is blinded to the truth, he is a monster. She is forced to realise and accept the situation. The end of the novel shows Paula, as she overcomes a violent marriage, a violent childhood, a repressed potential and an addiction to alcohol for the love of her children.

In 1994, while my husband and I were living in England, I happened to watch a multi-part television program written by Roddy Doyle about Charlo and Paula Spencer and their family. I don't recall the title, but the program obviously was the inspiration for this book. The TV production was riveting, so I was excited to find this book, partly to see if it would follow a similar storyline, which it does (although in much more depth). As I read the book, I couldn't help but picture the faces of the actors who portrayed Paula, Charlo and Nicola. I believe the TV show was a BBC production, so it might be possible to find it on video somewhere. It would definitely be a valuable companion to the book.

Paula is 39, an Irish widow with children, who sits at the table and recounts her life story. And what an ugly story it is. After an upbringing in a not very supportive family and an unsuccessful education, she meets and marries Charlo when she is still really a child. In the beginning Charlo is very charming, but you feel danger lurking in the background all the time. And then the beatings start, which rise in frequency and severity, but every time she finds a reason to forgive the man she still loves and (in her opinion) depends on. Until she sees him looking at their oldest daughter with this special, violent look...

It is book that made me want to cry for Paula when you could almost feel her bones breaking, cry out to Paula to DO something. When she finally takes her life into her own hands, a great feeling a relief washed over me. So a big compliment for Roddy Doyle.