Monday, October 14, 2013

Life in the Funny Lane by Paul Dunne

Paul Dunneauthor of Life in the Funny Lane



Click on the pic to go to Amazon to purchase your copy

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2013

Life in the Funny Lane


Imagine a doctor who sleeps with his cat on the window sill - or a handyman who has no van and walks everywhere with his tools attached to his bicycle!

These are just two of the many eccentric characters who feature in this hilarious, sarcastic and sometimes irreverent story of a boy growing up in Dublin in the 1950s.

But it’s not all fun and games. There are abundant footnotes about places mentioned in the story, together with other snippets, from mathematics to music, that the author wants to share with you.


My Review


This book absolutely amazed me.

It started off for me as a comical retelling of a boy's rather eccentric father.  The family is Irish; the mother is a devout Catholic and a woman this side of saintly. 

The more I read and laughed at the author's ability to use a simple turn of phrase to make a funny situation hilarious the more I noticed that the veneer of comedy masked the true story.

The story is about a boy and his relationship with his dad.  
The boy hero worshiped his dad and the relationship between the two grew stronger with age.  The story started off in the late 1950's progressing as the boy grew up and regressing again as new characters and situations were introduced.  Given Ireland's history a reader might expect a very strong political slant to the book and even though it is alluded to it is not a main theme at all.

By the end of the book the reader really knows the boy's father.  His strong points, his weaknesses and that not everybody loved him as unconditionally as his wife and children. The boy and how this relationship shaped him and formed him into the man he is to become is a reflection, a shadow of his father and the relationship will haunt the reader. 

A must read for all readers who likes to look at the funny side of life, love and living. 

7 * rating if only I could go that high.

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