{"id":26886,"date":"2019-11-25T14:19:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T18:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=26886"},"modified":"2019-11-25T14:19:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T18:19:33","slug":"roddy-doyle-the-curfew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2019\/11\/25\/roddy-doyle-the-curfew\/","title":{"rendered":"Roddy Doyle: “The Curfew”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“The Curfew”<\/strong><\/span>
\nby Roddy Doyle<\/span>
\nfrom the December 2, 2019 issue of\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”#003366″]R[\/fusion_dropcap]oddy Doyle won the Man Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. I remains one of the few winners from that time period that I have not read. I have read some of Doyle’s stories and my kids have read one or two of his children’s books. Alas, as I’m ignorant I’m also not particularly excited to read “The Curfew.” His stories that I’ve read have all tended to be very of the moment, meaning he uses news articles and current events to write timely pieces of fiction. That’s not usually what I want, though. This one appears to be similar. Here is the opening paragraph:<\/p>\n

He was walking back up the street from the seafront when he looked up and saw the woman coming at him. He\u2019d been watching the leaves. Ex-Hurricane Ophelia was heading toward Dublin and the leaves were blowing the wrong way. They were passing him, dashing by him, rolling up the hill. The curfew would be starting in half an hour. He\u2019d been giving out about it earlier, before his wife left for work. Do they think there\u2019s a civil war<\/em>?\u00a0It\u2019s only a bit of weather<\/em>. But, actually, he liked the drama of it. Even now, walking home\u2014striding, he was striding, a man on a mission\u2014he felt involved, ready, ahead of the coming catastrophe. It was doing him good. He was carrying drugs in a paper bag, but he felt like a man who didn\u2019t need them. He\u2019d already folded the garden chairs and put them away, he\u2019d tucked the wheelie bins well in under the hedge. He\u2019d put candles around the house, just in case. He\u2019d done other stuff, too. He was all set.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s not bad by any means, but it’s not what I’m looking for right now. Perhaps I’m being cranky, so please don’t take my reticence as any indication on Doyle’s work. In fact, I’d love it if you’d let me know I’m missing something fantastic.<\/p>\n

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