The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Roddy Doyle

'The Woman Who Walked Into Doors' is not a read for the faint hearted, or for those who are easily offended: swearing litters every single page, and the descriptions of her life growing up could offend the sensitive reader.
Look past the abundant swearing, though, and you will see a beautifully crafted story. It takes a while to get to grips with - the fragmented dialogue, the repetition, the non-lineararity (is that a word?), the accents spelled out on the page. But it doesn't take too long before you forget all that and you immerse yourself in the world described.

Set in Dublin, Paula Spencer is the main character of the story. A Guard has just turned up at her door and told her that her husband is dead; he got shot by the Police. What follows is her reaction to the news. A trip down memory lane, if you like. We learn about her very hard upbringing, life for a child in poverty, her school. We learn so much about the character that when things get really bad for her, then we want to step into the pages of the book, rescue her from the husband she loves so much.
But there is nothing we can do but read on as the story reaches chapter 25, and finally the reason for the title becomes clear after she tells us just how bad the relationship with Charlo was. How he beat her up. How, on one occasion, he 'tested' her by asking how she had got the black eye that he was responsible for.

There is nothing nice about this book. If you're wanting happy happy rainbows and puppies from the things you read, then this is not the book for you. This is hard, gritty realism, the shit and the good thrown together in a mishmash of broken memories. If you want a beautifully crafted book, well written and with a brilliant story, I would recommend this for your bookshelf.