The Commitments door Roddy Doyle

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Boek
Auteur
Roddy Doyle
Genre
Jeugdboek
Taal
Engels
Vak
Eerste uitgave
1987
Pagina's
172
Oorspronkelijke taal
Engels

Boekcover The Commitments
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The Commitments door Roddy Doyle
Shadow
The Commitments
Roddy Doyle

First published in Great Britain, 1988
I used “Barrytown Trilogy”; First published in Great Britain, 1992
Print I used published in Great Britain, 1993

Stijn, 3E
28 December 2007

Roddy Doyle was born on May 8, 1958, in Dublin, Ireland. He wrote several books, which were, except for one, all novels. This exception is called “Rory & Ita”, which is a biography. He also wrote a trilogy, which is called “The Barrytown Trilogy”, with in it, the books “The Commitments”, “The Snapper”, and “The Van”. Before he started writing he used to teach English and geography. Some of his books have been turned into films after he wrote them, The Commitments is one of them, which I read and see the film.

Introduction

The book is mostly about a band, and how everything around a band works. The writer showed people in the book, who were very poor and live together with many other poor people. I think this is how his life used to look like as well, because the characters in this book also live in Dublin, where Roddy Doyle lived too. I think the book was mostly just to entertain the reader, because there were for example not many symbols in it. On the other hand, I think his intention wasn’t just to tell about a soul band, but also about how people everyday get along with each other and how things in the end just can’t work out (like when the band falls apart). I think he also wanted us to know how things work in the poor families in Dublin, to show how people in other countries differ from us, but also have similarities.

Thesis statement

I think an important thing about this book is the way it’s written. It really shows you how people get along with each other exactly how it works in normal life. This is also done in the way it’s written; words are written down exactly how they’re pronounced by the characters. For example; when someone says the word “of”, it’s written down like this; “o’ ”. This form of writing isn’t used in many books , so it’s special, which I like.

Setting

The story probably takes place during the 80’s, because that’s when it was written.
I also found this argument: “The story takes place somewhere after 1982. You know that because Joey says to Jimmy that he’s going to tour again with Joe Tex. After that you read: Jimmy was in the kitchen filling the kettle when he remembered something, something he’d read a while back. Joe Tex died in 1982. So I think somewhere near the 90’. Roddy Doyle wrote this story also near 1987.” (def. Scholieren.com)
The story is set in Dublin, Ireland, where Roddy Doyle is born himself, you can also find this in the “Irish dialect” the characters speak, like I told in the thesis statement.

Characterization

The main characters in this book all play in the band, “The Commitments”:

• Jimmy Rabbitte – Manager of the band, he put the band together in the beginning. Knows a lot about music and bands, which helps him a lot in his job as manager.
• Joey “the Lips” Fagan – Plays the sax, he’s an old man, very calm and patient, also because he has such strong feelings for god. All the girls, “the Commitmentettes”, seem to like him, because he’s old and wise. Makes Jimmy Rabbitte believe he used to play with many great artists, such as James Brown and Jimi Hendrix.
• Deco Cuffe – Main singer. He has a great voice, but he acts like an idiot. Every one in the band hates him.
• Billy Mooney – Drums, a very wild type. During the first concert he knocks over his drum kit. In the end he steps out of the band because he hates Deco that bad.
• Outspan Foster – Guitar, very good at it, but he starts to listen more to jazz than to soul because he thinks soul is too easy for him. This makes Jimmy very pissed of.
• Derek Scully – Bass
• Dean Fay – Sax
• James Clifford – Piano
• Mickah – Plays with the band only in the end. First he has the role of bouncer at the concerts of The Commitments, but in the end when the band is reformed, Mickah sings.
• The Commitmentettes - Imelda Quirk, Natalie Murphy and Bernie McLoughlin, background singers, all make out with Joey Fagan, which (also) causes the band to fall apart.

Plot summary

1. Introduction – Outspan and Derek have a band together with a guy called Ray. They ask Jimmy Rabbitte for help because he knows a lot about music. Jimmy makes them kick Ray out of the band and puts an advertisement in the paper for anyone who plays an instrument to form a soul band, and so forms a band. They start practicing and Joey helps everybody because no one can really play their instrument.
2. Build-up – The story starts getting more tension when the band is doing better and better. They also get their first gig. A bit of a problem is that almost every single band member falls in love with Imelda, who doesn’t seem to like any one of them. When Joey is noticed kissing Nathalie the members are starting to argue more, and especially Deco is being disliked more and more.
At one point Billy suddenly quits because of Deco.
3. Climax – The Commitments start having more and more gigs. Suddenly at a gig the head of a record label shows up and tells Jimmy he wants to record a song with them. But when he and Jimmy return from their conversation, suddenly the band has fallen apart.
4. Denouement – Now the band has fallen apart, Joey moves to America to tour with Joe Tex, he says, just before Jimmy remembers that Joe Tex died in 1982. In the end, Jimmy forms a new band called “The Brassers” with Mickah, Outspan, Derek and the girls.

Themes

• Cursing – I think cursing was an important theme in this book because it was done in almost every spoken sentence. This really showed the kind of people in the book.
• Christianity – Joey Fagan is a Christian and you can really find this in the way he talks and in the way he acts. He’s very calm and calls everyone “brother”.
• Membership – Every one in the band had it’s own task and they had to accept and change a lot in order to stay together and form a real band.
• Money – Every one in the book was really poor and they lived in the countryside in very small apartments.
• Music – Of course the music is very important because the whole story is about the music and how the people escaped from their daily sadness by playing music.

Conclusion

I really liked this book. I liked the fact that the people were represented in the way they really were, which you can tell from the way they speak. After I read the book, I saw it’s film. The film was good, but the book was much better. The film had too many gigs. The book followed the story much better, while in the film you didn’t hear much more but the band playing. Maybe I liked the book because I play the drums myself, and the story isn’t that interesting to people who don’t know much about music, but I enjoyed reading it.

REACTIES

M.

M.

Er staat is het beokverslag:
Outspan Foster
Maar dat is fout, deze gebeurtenis hoort bij Dean ...

16 jaar geleden

D.

D.

Volgens mij speelt Joey the lips trompet en Dean Fay sax

12 jaar geleden

R.

R.

Je hebt gelijk Joey speelt de trompet. Niet de sax!

10 jaar geleden

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