The Dead Republic Roddy Doyle

I've done it again. I hate this. I find a book at the library, it's part of a trilogy or series - the end of it usually - and the library doesn't have any of the rest of the books. This is the case with TDR. I checked it out anyway. Now I'm going to have to find the other books in the series.

TDR begins with Henry Smart returning to Ireland after a long hiatus, film crew in tow intent on filming the movie of his life. Turns out the movie they are making is a watered down, romanticized version of his life. It's more a love letter to Ireland than a true telling of his story. You see, Henry Smart was part of the IRA in early days. There was nothing romantic about his years there. He was a good, successful soldier on whom the organization eventually turned. He lost his wife and children while they were on the run, along with his leg. The reader learns all this through flashbacks where Henry remembers how he narrated his story to Tom Ford, the movie producer in love with Ireland, over the course of three years.

On the way to Ireland, Henry finds the updated "fixed" script of the movie of his life and sees what Hollywood has done to his story. Instead of sticking around to consult on the IRA sections of the movie, he takes off and carves out a life for himself in a suburb of Dublin. First, he's a gardener until he becomes the handyman of a boys school and eventually retires. Pretty normal stuff, except of course, Henry isn't normal. He's a famous former IRA member and he hasn't returned unnoticed.

Even as an old man, Henry finds himself entangled again in Irish politics. He is not unhappy to be there. The more involved he gets, the more the mysteries around his early involvement and the actions of the IRA over the last thirty years unfold. The machinations behind the scenes sometimes seem to be a bit much, but overall the story is compelling and Henry is a totally enjoyable narrator.

I'm sure having read this first will affect the my reading of the earlier novels, but I can imagine Henry in his youth based on Henry in old age and I want to read more.