The Dead Republic

I’ll sum up this trilogy thus: First book was amazing and the best of the lot. Second book was borderline terrible with a ridiculous storyline. This third book was in between the other two. Average. Not nearly as good as the first but much improved over the second.......more

Many years passed between my reading of the first two books of this trilogy, A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing, and my digging this out of our bargain bins at work. Here's what I remember about Henry Smart: he grew up in extreme poverty in Dublin, joined the IRA at an early age, took part......more

The final installment in Doyle's trilogy is a bit of a mess. For starters, the inclusion of the Ford material at the beginning of the book doesn't allow Doyle's minimalist, speedy prose and plot to pull the reader in at the outset. This means that the first 100 pages or so are a bit of a slog, even t......more

This is an essential piece of literature, a reflection on a pivotal element of the 20th century, one that remains relevant today, and the book itself an excellent reminder on why. The Dead Republic is itself a sequel, actually the third book in a trilogy. Aside from a series of references to Louis Ar......more

Roddy Doyle's trilogy about the fight for Irish independence in the 20th century exploded in 1999 with its incandescent first volume, A Star Called Henry. Full of violence and blarney and harrowing escapes, the novel opens in 1901 with the birth of Henry Smart, who quickly grows into a ferocious kil......more