The author of this book is named Roddy Doyle.

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He went to St. Fintan’s Christian Brothers School in Sutton, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, and went to University College in Dublin. In 1984, he started working as an English teacher at Greendale Community School. He stayed here for 14 years, and has been a full time writer since 1993. He is married and has two sons. In 1987 he gave out the novel ”The Commitments” (the first of the Barrytown trilogy, ”The Snapper” is the second, ”The Van” the conclusion). It was adapted to moving pictures. In 1993 he won the Booker Prize, the highest literary award in Britain, for his novel “Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha”.

In the Snapper, we meet Sharon Rabbitte. Sharon is 19 years old and lives with her parents and five siblings in Barrytown, a village outside Dublin. Sharon gets pregnant and refuses to tell the name of the father. Her family now have to stand together to avoid being totally destroyed by the stream of chitchat and rumours about Sharon’s state. The child’s father is George Burgess, an adult family man, and the Rabbittes’ neighbour. He is also the father of Sharon’s friend, Yvonne and they live just across the street. When George runs away from his wife and kids, rumours swiftly start to spread and the Rabbittes are forced to support Sharon. All the way through the book we are introduced to Sharon’s experiences, in addition to the relations in the family. Sharon decides to keep the baby, and at the end of the book, she brings forth her daughter Georgina, named after the father.

Sharon seems to be a usual Irish teenager; she enjoys spending time with her friends, drink, and gossip about boys. Her best friend, Jackie O’Keefe, is the only one, other than Sharon’s relatives, that supports her while as well as all of her other friends begin to reject her. One of her closest associates; Yvonne (the daughter of George Burgess) turns away from her when she hears the buzz of Sharon and her father. Although Sharon suffers a lot, she carries on, thanks to the support of her family.

Jimmy Rabbitte Sr

Jimmy is the father of Sharon, Leslie, Jimmy Jr., Linda, Tracy, and Darren, and he is married to Veronica. He spends a lot of time in the bar in the company of his friends, Bimbo, Bertie, and Paddy. The discussions of Sharon develop also in the bar, and leads to a quarrel between him and Burgess.
Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. is also very interested in understanding and helping Sharon.

Although I am extremely aware that the intention of the author under any circumstances not was to give an enjoyable view of Irish language, I would prefer a book with the supreme and excellent factual Irish instead of this rather rude and vulgar slang. The book is therefore not my type of style. Still, I do suppose it presents a good sight into the daily life of a random family in Ireland, and for those who perhaps think that might be appealing, I of course recommend the book!