Love

A Novel

By: Roddy Doyle

Narrated by: Morgan C. Jones

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Two old friends reconnect in Dublin for a dramatic, revealing evening of drinking and storytelling in this winning new novel from the author of the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

One summer's evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant. Drinking pals back in their youth, now married and with grown up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he needs to tell Davy, and Davy has a sorrow he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. Joe has left his wife and family for another woman, Jessica.

Davy knows her too, or should—she was the girl of their dreams four decades earlier, the girl with the cello in George's pub. As Joe's story unfolds across Dublin—pint after pint, pub after pub—so too do the memories of what eventually drove Davy from Ireland: his first encounter with Faye, the lively woman who would become his wife; his father's somber disapproval; the pained spaces left behind when a parent dies.

As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, Love offers a delightfully comic yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives.

©2020 Roddy Doyle (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“[Love] isn’t so much about what happens, or happened once upon a time, as it is about the mystically inaccurate nature of language . . . Doyle puts feeling first in this novel by putting it last, in the final pages . . . in the end, you see that the sacred world of the two friends was lurking in all that preceded this final scene, and concealing itself so successfully that they themselves did not realize how much they cared for each other.”—The New York Times Book Review

“This story, with its beer-inspired and home-brewed philosophy, its funny and painful moments, is about love . . . and the remembrance of love between friends, lovers, and family . . . Doyle’s narrative style is fast-paced and deceptively easy to read . . . [dialogue] goes down as smoothly as gulps of beer. . . [a] brilliant two-character story.”—The Boston Globe

"Doyle is justly renowned for his whip-smart dialogue, which combines salty humor and the loving use of local vernacular . . . there is beauty and compassion in [his] sculpted, spare writing . . . Love is a reminder that its author is one to treasure.”—The Economist

Poignant

Very human and quiet story with lovely narration by Morgan C Jones. Probably not for everybody, but it struck a chord with me.

Disappointed

While many aspects of love were explored in interesting ways, the book would’ve been much shorter without the very very choppy dialogue that seemed to go nowhere, and if the word f*** were eliminated the book would’ve been about 2/3rds as long

Moving & believable

I'm a roddy doyle fan and this book showcases his ear for the way real people talk. During a drunken evening big scary topics are discussed, skirted around and reiterated in a totally believable way. As the two men grow drunk, old rivalries surface along with ancient ties.

It's a quick read despite being long than many of his previous books. Less flat out comedy and more of the slow sadness of ageing. Overall it's rather beautiful.

If you've loved his work before, definitely get this one. If you're new to his work, be aware that this is a little darker and a little sadder than the many body of his work.

Moving and realistic

Men are not known for showing emotions but in this pub crawling saga Joe and Dave struggle with words and their truth comes out. For one night they become real friends again after years of separation. Unsentimental and very real about buried emotions

Disappointed

I was really hoping to love this but instead I just felt frustrated by it. A lot of dialogue with little point in my view. Just did not have a compelling enough story to hold my interest nor did I find a connection with either of the two main characters.

Not worth reading

It is very slow moving. I kept attempting to listen to this book but never could make a connection. There was nothing to grasp. I wasted my credit with this book!

Disappointed

I’ve read several books by Roddy Doyle and thoroughly enjoyed them all so I was really looking forward to his latest. I was sorely disappointed.
I found Love to be uninteresting, meandering, disjointed, repetitive and tedious.

The performance was little better. It was impossible to distinguish between the two speaking characters. I would not recommend.

Dreadful. Painful to listen.

Save yourself. Don’t download. It is unbearable. Just go to a bar, find two drunk old farts and listen to them struggle to repeat the same sentence over and over for 8 hours. Shite.