Evaluation

=Evaluation =

My expectation of The snapper was really high before I started reading. The cover was eye-catching, and on the back of the book it said: //“Not since I first delved into Flann O’Brien have I so consistently laughed out loud while reading a book”//. Wow, what a great first impression! I wanted to find a funny, not too heavy book, and therefore The snapper by the famous Irish author Roddy Doyle seemed to be a natural choice for me.

Sadly, I have to say that the book didn’t meet my expectations. First of all, it was a very difficult book to understand in the beginning. The language in The snapper is a mix of Irish slang and vulgar language, and sometimes it was very tiring having to interpret the sentences all the time. Of course this got easier when I was further in to the book, but I think the reading experience would have been better if the book was in more common English. However, I understand that the authors’ intention is to portray the Irish people’s real lives. Therefore I think he has used their colourful language as an agent to amplify this. As I said, this didn’t appeal to me, but maybe people who read English more often would have enjoyed this book better. The humour in the book wasn’t as catchy as I thought in the beginning either. A lot of the jokes were sort of internal for the Irish people, and vulgarism and kind of perverse statements plays a large part in this book. Unfortunately this isn’t really my type of humour, and therefore I can’t say that I “consistently laughed out loud” through the book.

Anyhow, I can’t say that I didn’t get anything out of reading this book. If I choose to see the book in another genre, not just as a humour book, I feel it gave me a greater understanding of how difficult teenager pregnancy can be. Sharon, who is the pregnant teenager, has so many things to think about and deal with. I wouldn’t have dreamt about being in her situation! I think the author is good at taking the story “down to earth”, and he makes the whole situation seem very trustworthy and real.

Even though The snapper didn’t fulfil the expectations I had before I started reading, I still had a quite good reading experience. I wouldn’t recommend this book to people like me, who almost haven’t read any English books before. However, have you read some English books before, and wants a new challenge; The snapper might be just the book for you! Maybe the humour will suit you better too?

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