Skippy Dies

By: Paul Murray

Narrated by: Nicola Barber, Fred Berman, Clodagh Bowyer, Terry Donnelly, Sean Gormley, Khristine Hvam, John Keating, Lawrence Lowry, Graeme Malcolm, Paul Nugent

Length: 23 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

This touching and uproarious novel by author Paul Murray made everyone’s best fiction of 2010 lists, including The Washington Post, Financial Times, Village Voice, and others. Why Skippy dies and what happens next is the mystery that links the boys of Dublin’s Seabrook College (Ruprecht Van Doren, the overweight genius obsessed with string theory; Carl, the teenager drug dealer and borderline psychotic; Philip Kilfether, the basketball-playing midget) to their parents and teachers in ways that no one could have imagined.

This unique production of Murray’s heartfelt exploration of the pain, joy, and beauty of adolescence features an all-star narrating cast of 16 Audible favorites: John Keating, Graeme Malcom, Khristine Hvam, Nicola Barber, Fred Berman, Clodagh Bowyer, Terry Donnelly, Sean Gormley, Lawrence Lowry, Paul Nugent, Tim Smallwood, Fiona Walsh, Fiana Toibin, Declan Sammon, Heather O'Neill, and Ed Malone.

©2010 Paul Murray (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Hilarious, haunting, and heartbreaking, it is inarguably among the most memorable novels of the year to date." ( Booklist)

"Dazzling... If killing your protagonist with more than 600 pages to go sounds audacious, it's nothing compared with the literary feats Murray pulls off in this hilarious, moving and wise book." ( Washington Post Book World)

"Extravagantly entertaining." ( The New York Times Book Review)

I was skeptical...

as I often am when a book is universally hailed as groundbreaking, or a must-read. I humbly admit that this book earned every accolade it received. The story itself unfolds with multiple story arcs that slowly and artfully come together. The overarching story is so touching because it speaks to that vulnerable, completely alone and insecure person in all of us...whether we think we have outgrown those aspects of our lives or not. I was moved more by this book than by nearly any other I have read (listened to?).
As for the audio presentation. Performed by a cast, every voice was distinct and easily discernible and carried the story with momentum. I cannot recommend this audio purchase highly enough!!!

Realistic

I was most struck by how realistic this whole story felt. The descent into drug use and abuse. The compounding of one tragic factor on top of another. The stories of the people who should have known that there was a problem but missed it, wrapped-up in their own lives.
It is a lesson to be learned, a wake-up call.

A novel filled with different themes, too many

This book took forever for me to get through. I almost didn't finish but I'm glad that I did. I agree with other reviews that state that this novel is very reminiscent of Dead Poet's Society. The author painted a very grim picture of boarding schools as this novel works under the premise that the majority of teenage boys and girls do drugs of all kinds, have sex, and hate most adults. There were parts of this novel that I enjoyed and others that were too weird to really make sense within the novel's context. Instead of a movie, this novel would do well as a TV show where it could be broken up into segments. Some of the segments would be laugh out loud funny and some would be too horrible too imagine, perhaps not unlike Parenthood.

Get the abridged version

Get the abridged version unless you like hours of character development. Part three makes the whole story come together in an enthralling way but the lead up was a struggle for me to get through. Plot is spread a little too thin to keep my interest but I was glad I endured the end. Some perverse content may be a turn off for the morally staunch.

Sense of humor required!

Although I can understand why this book may be disturbing to some people, I think that it is its point, isn't it? If you are willing to read (or listen) to Skippy Dies as a comedy, you will laugh at absurdity but you will also be forced to confront ugly truth. Isn't that humor at its best? Paul Murray's neatly planned and resolved plot and his vernacular dialogue are nothing less than Shakespearean. I loved the many voices narrating the book; I loved the book.

This book was mesmerizing!

I am so glad this book was so long as it gave me the opportunity to enjoy it longer. I must start by also saying that this book is not for everyone due to its themes and Paul Murray's writing style (which I absolutely love). This book is very funny, poignant, beautiful, haunting and surprising. Murray is a true genius at bringing his characters to life and getting you to feel emotionally involved in their outcome. This is a messy book so don't expect everything to wrap up in a neat package.

I must also comment on the 3 wishes song (no spoilers). I loved that song and it keeps going around in my head. I thought it was a real pop song (maybe Murray missed his calling).

Elegant symphony of the cosmos and angst

Would you consider the audio edition of Skippy Dies to be better than the print version?

They are both great. I can't imagine the narrator doing a better job, though.

What did you like best about this story?

The emotional impact.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not sure who's who, but everyone did a great job.

Who was the most memorable character of Skippy Dies and why?

Skippy due to the tragedy of his circumstances and the ability to connect to his character.

Any additional comments?

Christmas Canon (after Pachelbel’s Canon)
-Trans-Siberian Orchestra

"Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living."
-Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813 - 1855)

"Maybe instead of strings it’s stories things are made of, an infinite number of tiny vibrating stories; once upon a time they all were part of one big giant superstory, except it got broken up into a jillion different pieces, that’s why no story on its own makes any sense, and so what you have to do in a life is try and weave it back together,…"
-Skippy Dies

Angst, that amorphous feeling of dread, has its balance in tragicomedy and metaphysical hope. Teenage angst, most of all, is defining in its shattering of illusion, its realization that the world is only grey, and that there is no real answer. In this thoroughly entertaining and achingly poignant book, Paul Murray managed to weave an elegant allegorical fabric of the cosmos in which the mathematical system of classical music is the perfect mode of communication. Yet this quantum world is heartbreakingly chaotic in the macro world of students in a prep school, its faculty members and the employees of a donut shop. It’s a multiverse where particles connects and vibrates in a symphonic movement of banality and hope. Highlighted are the painful lives of the troubled Daniel "Skippy" Juster, the wishful Ruprecht Van Doren, and the regretful Howard.

The story takes place in Seabrook, a Dublin private school composed of hormonal teenage boys, in particular a group of 14-year-old friends. This world of privileged children and haunted faculty members is full of vivid characterization and dark humor, with the sex-obsessed Mario proudly touting his three-year-old unused lucky condom, Ruprecht’s foibles in his search for a way to the other universe, and male infatuations with schoolgirl Lori and Geography substitute teacher Aurelia McIntyre. There is also a villain in the form of drug dealer Carl, Skippy’s sociopathic rival for Lori. Underlying this symphonic movement with its variation of voices is the poignant bass of the lost Skippy. Murray masterfully integrates a large number of point of views, from the students to the employees of the donut shop, seamlessly moving from third person to first person, from trite musings to deep insight, and from humorous to tragic. All this with a curious mixture of humor, tragedy and hope.

The personal stories are not only about teenage angst, but also about the Seabrook faculty members. The adult Seabrook staff members are no less lost in their navigation through life. "Howard the Coward" Fallon, the history teacher, drifts through a life of disappointments; Gregory L. Costigan, the economics teacher and acting Principal, is obsessed with the business side of running the school; Father Jerome Green, the scary French teacher atoning for a past sin, is an overachiever of altruistic accomplishments; and Tom Roche, former star athlete and swim coach, has a life that is tragically intertwined with Howard’s disappointments.

The plot starts out with the big bang, the death of Daniel "Skippy" Juster after he scrawled with donut jelly, "TELL LORI", for Ruprecht to tell Lori that he loves her. Death and tragic love sets the tone for a story that accelerates into a revelation of everyone’s imperfect universe. In this ever changing and interacting donut shaped universe, things manifest in time and goes back into the fold. We are swept up in this canon of unrequited loves, loneliness in a crowd, and the tortured decision to tow the line or be true to oneself.

Skippy Dies is a Möbius strip with the teenage Skippy’s story balancing the adult Howard’s story. Both are tainted by a defining shaming moment that would cause them to badly cope with the emotional impact, Skippy through a numbing drug haze, Howard through living his life in safe banality, avoiding confrontation. Both Skippy and Howard endured distracting infatuation with unattainable princesses. Besides risking his fragile ego, Skippy risks a dangerous encounter with Carl, his rival for Lori’s affections. Howard risks the safety of his mundane relationship with his girlfriend and his stale job as a history teacher to follow the giddiness of an adolescent infatuation with Aurelia. For all their bravery in trying to attain their princesses, the failed knights suffer defeat in a world of amorphous grey dragons that can never be lanced and defeated. Whereas Skippy managed to escape to the other universe via death, Howard lives on in this universe facing the repercussions of a life disappointing himself and others. Both tainted knights who care too much in an uncaring world ultimately were destroyed by the amorphous dragon.

Both Skippy and Howard’s cowardice reverberated through others. After Skippy’s self-destruction, Ruprecht’s grief turned into obsession with finding the portal into another universe that has the answers. Lori, Skippy’s love interest, aim to slowly disappear from this universe. In a further demonstration of the entanglement of vibrating strings, Howard’s cowardice reverberated through time affecting Skippy in the form of the tragic ex-superstar Tom. Murray deftly creates a believably surrealistic effect that combines a quantum world with the macro world, as time slows for the drugged Skippy as he muses how the painkillers can help him in his travel to another universe. After Skippy made his successful journey through the black hole of death, Ruprecht’s search for a way to the other universe grew to a desperate intensity that results in a humorous adventure as the boys break into the girl’s school to seek the perfect point of entry to the other universe. What emerges is a hilarious sequence that ends with Rupert and his quartet sending a message to Skippy via the aching hybrid of the hopeful Pachelbel’s Canon and the idealistic BETHani song,

"If I had three wishes I would give away two,
Cos I only need one, cos I only want you."

Split into four movements, Hopeland, Heartland, Ghostland, and Afterland, Skippy Dies is a verbal symphony about the need to make sense of a chaotic world in which there is no clear good or bad, the vortex of change is unceasing, and nobody wins. What could be a Bildungsroman, full of laughable awkward moments of the foibles of self-discovery, ends up giving the impression that there is no answer or panacea to life’s difficulty. It is about self-delusion, the lifting of the veils of delusion, and the self-preserving need to go back into the delusional world. Sadly, it is also about the destruction of those who cannot hang on to the iron armor of illusion.

Classic

Amazing story and performances They need this team to do other books. Highly enjoyable and maybe we need a follow up?

great listen

As a teacher in an all boys Catholic school, I felt very much at home with so many of the Characters, Paul Murray delightfully captures the voice of the young freshmen, the faculty, administrators and the parents. His universe is void of cheap sentimentality. His portrayal of the Church is fair and his sense of the "catholic imagination" is strong! His story reminds me of the richness of a medieval tapestry in its complexity and beauty. I laughed and cried my way to work for over a week. While I lost touch with current events - I am better for spending time in Murray's story!

Disappointing

After reading numerous reviews about this book being being laugh out load funny, I took a chance and got it. I do wish I could have a do-over on this purchase. Though the narration is exellant, this book is dark and depressing. The characters are too stereotypical; the young boys are more conflicted than filled with teen angst, and the adults are spineless. Though there are about five passages where I laughed, the subject of this book is the suicide of a young boy brought on by child abuse and drug use. I do not find any of that funny. I was not happy with my purchase of this book.