![]() ![]() There’s John Paul who had run away and become addicted to heroin, now clean and married with children who is tentatively trying to reconnect to his mother. The novel follows Paula in her first year of sobriety as she tries to rebuild her life. ![]() In fact her abuse of alcohol has gravely affected her family and friends. In Paula Spencer, it’s ten years later, and with Charlo long dead, it’s a challenge for Doyle to make Paula a sympathetic character. A lot of the novel follows Paula in her daily life and decisions with series of sentences beginning with “She…” It creates a poetic repetition that emphasizes how vital every moment is in Paula’s recovery. This new novel is in third person, but it works effectively. I read this book over a decade ago so I don’t remember it well beyond the fact that it moved me to tears and that it was written in first person from Paula’s voice. In that earlier novel the title character dealt with sever physical abuse from her husband Charlo. It’s a sequel to an earlier novel called the The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. Paula Spencer(2006) is a recent novel by one of my favorite authors Roddy Doyle. ![]()
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