Rory and Ita

Rory and Ita

Author: Roddy Doyle

This is marvellously written by Rory and Ita’s son Roddy. He captures their individual lives from the time of being children, through their teenage years which they both stated didn’t exist to the extinct we know the term teen to mean.  Finishing school and progressing onto their working lives, how they meet and their married life together. Theirs’ is a story of the trials and tribulations, the highs and lows that would be experienced by a majority of people. Their story is not unlike many others of their generation, however reading about their experiences I realise as a twenty-something living in the twenty-first century that my life could not be more different to theirs’ at the same stage of life they were planning on marrying and settling down. Their whole outlook and experience of life is completely different.

Overall, I found it very enlightening and I realise how privileged I am to have been born into a time of luxury in comparison to decades gone by where the bare necessitates was all there was. This book is an invitation into their private lives’; the reader is stepping into their world and their reality which was based in a certain place in time.

 As children both of their respective homes were simply furnished with essential items. It is a considerable difference to a lot of homes today where they are filled to capacity with every piece of furniture and technology imaginable. Materialism does not equate to happiness and neither does trying to keep up with the Joneses, when did we lose our way? When did materialism begin to mean so much? I found Rory’s honest disclosure of washing his face by licking his fingers and rubbing them to his face very endearing. Yes, hygiene is extremely important but again this harps back to a time when things were simpler and there wasn’t mass hysteria around germs. Looking into my bathroom cabinet I realise I have far too many lotions and potions and maybe, I too, have a germ phobia?

They both touched on the importance of putting their best foot forward, in terms of their personal presentation, in how they present and represent themselves to the outside world. Their financial situation dictated their quality and quantity of clothing they were able to purchase. This was highlighted by both, as Ita could vividly recall the moment when she purchased her first fine coat and the same feeling of pride could also be felt by Rory when he bought his suit. Such items of clothing did not come cheap and they were seen as a substantial buy due to their cost in relation to their wages. It was almost like their rite of passage into adulthood.

The book is so well written, it is as though I was watching them go through their lives. I got to see them as a young couple and later as a family unit. I watched as their family life transformed and grew with each child. They also shared intimate details of still birth and miscarriages and how it affected them individually and collectively. It also demonstrated how their priorities changed as they got older and how this changed the dynamic of their working lives as their children grew up. They gave details of the different people who moved in and out of their lives some were neighbours who moved away and others were family members like Ita’s brother Joe who died at the age of fifty. At the end of the book or their life story to date, it gave a synopsis of what they thought were the highlights of their life, I thought Ita’s was particularly sad as she spoke of her son Shane who died a few days after birth. I am sure there are many parents who have children that died, who hold the same thought of a great sense of loss.

I would have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone, I felt it was a fantastic read and it is like a history book come to life. It is a wonderful present to give to any parent and I feel Rory did that by copper fastening his parents’ story.