The Van

Have you ever felt like someone should feel bad? Had that little devil on your shoulder, and let it whisper in your ear, filling your head with poison, covering up the guilt you'll feel later. I guess the devil metaphor was made to make people feel better... But in 'The Van', you can see how the situation has built up to breaking point. It's quite amazing really, but seeing I've just finished it, I still feel kind of in pain. Like my head is kind of sore. You bond with the characters, and it hurts you to see the characters do stupid things. It's a brilliant book, but very irritating at the same time. 

The book is called 'The Van', but the van doesn't actually come into the story until about halfway, maybe a bit less. The book begins, and you slowly realize that Jimmy Sr has lost his job, probably because of his age (or more, they want someone younger). It shows you how unhappy he is. He describes this feeling in his stomach, this ball of air, hard and cold. He feels lonely, and depressed. The family is poor, and no one is the same as the last book. But finally, nearing the middle of the book, things change for the better. Bimbo (Jimmy Sr's mate) decides to buy a chipper van, because he too has been made redundant. The book is in third person, but it mainly describes Jimmy's line of thought, so it's really from his point of view. And when Bimbo is fired, Jimmy becomes happier because he can now spend time with his best friend. Things pick up, Bimbo buys the van and after some hard work fixing it up, they start to sell fish and chips outside the local pub. It takes off. They make a small fortune on the first night. Though Bimbo was the one that bought the van, they're partners, and Jimmy gets half the profit. But things build up. Looking back on it, it's hard to tell where things start, but eventually things get really bad. And it ends on a bad note. Well, no, not a completely bad note. Things should get better afterwards. But not after they do some pretty stupid things. 


Roddy Doyle is pretty amazing. Just the way he writes it. He captures it beautifully. Well, as beautifully as possible when it's the working class Irish he's writing about. Maybe beautiful is not the right word... but wonderfully. One example of brilliant writing is when he goes on for pages and pages about just how happy everyone is that in an international game of soccer, the Irish bet the Romanians. After describing in depth the scene at the pub, the section ends with:


And then he [Jimmy Sr] went home and Veronica was in the kitchen and she did a fry for him, and he cried again when he was telling her about the pub and the match and meeting Jimmy Jr. And she called him an eejit. It was the best day of his life.

*   *   *

And then they got beaten by the Italians and that was the end of that.

*   *   *

Bimbo put the keys in etc, etc.


The book explores human nature. When I went into the kitchen after reading the book and explained my disappointed expression to my Dad, he said that we wouldn't enjoy the book if all the characters were satisfied. I argued that at least things should turn out well by the end, but I do see his point. Roddy Doyle pushes the ideas that we, as humans, have. What would happen if a human became really spiteful, but let's put it into a situation that people can relate to, or that at least feels realistic. This is what would happen, 'The Van'. But that doesn't make it any less painful to read when one of the characters slip up.


The book is written as well 'The Snapper', and 'The Commitments', but it's more serious and takes a long time developing feelings, mood, characters etc. It's nearly twice the length of the other two books. Though it has this dark, underlining feel through out the book, it can still make you laugh. There are still lovely moments and you forget that the characters have worries. As I mentioned before, it is really Jimmy Sr's take on the story, his ideas that are explored and the book it mostly displayed from his point of view, so you feel what he feels. When he's depressed, the reader emphasizes. When Jimmy laughs, you laugh. When he's angry, you too get angry, but sometimes it can be at him. 


Jimmy Sr is not perfect, but he's is a lovely character. He's a fine dad, not too rough, and a great granddad, very dedicated. After reading 'The Snapper' you begin to really like the character of Jimmy. He does have his faults, like that through out 'The Van' he keeps checking out other women when he has a perfectly lovely wife at home. He also has this recurring habit of wanting justice, his own little kind. He feels sometimes that he has been wronged and that people should apologize or at least realize what they've done to him. For example, in 'The Snapper', he begins to ignore Sharon, his daughter, so she might realize that her being pregnant has affected him too, and he thinks he's turned into the local laughing stock. Sharon quickly realizes this (the fact that he wont talk to her properly anymore) and so she threatens to move out. Jimmy Sr doesn't want to give up, but Sharon is stubborn, and he ends up begging her to stay. His little guilt-tripping acts always back-fire on him. 'The Van' slowly turns into that, Jimmy Sr's want for justice. But by the end, I'd forgotten what he actually wanted from it all, and I think the characters have too.