Boekverslag: The commitments
Book report
Author: Roddy Doyle
Title: The Commitments
Publishing house: Minerva
Date of publication: 1988
Edition: the first
Number of pages: 165
1. Content and structure
1. Genre
music novel
2. Point of view
Omniscient narrator
The writer of the book uses an omniscient narrator so that he can give more details. An omniscient narrator will describe the characters better because he knows everything. The writer doesn?t have to follow one person through the story. He can write about more different situations with more different persons.
3. Characters
- There is not really a main character in the story. The story is not about one person but about the whole group. But I think the main character is Jimmy Rabbitte. He is the manager of the group ? The Commitments?. Through the whole story, Jimmy is the man who knows everything about music. He does everything for the group. He chooses a new name for the group, he searches new members,.. He wants to do everything well and he doesn?t want to make any mistakes. Everything has to be perfect. When something goes wrong he becomes very angry.
This is the bad side of Jimmy. But he does a lot for the group and that gives him a nice character.
- It?s difficult to indicate a round or flat character. Doyle doesn?t give a detailed description of any person. The story is about the group, not about a person. He doesn?t pay attention to a character of a person. It is about the character of the band.
4. Relationships
I will discuss the relationship between the members of the band.
In the beginning everybody likes Jimmy Rabbitte. He is the manager of the band. He sometimes becomes very angry and the members don?t like that. After some time they started gossiping about him and there are members who don?t like him anymore.
When the band begins making music the members are all friends. But when the songs don?t sound like they should become enemies. There is also an arguing about a girl and after this they stop with the band. But after some time the most members start a new band and they are friends again.
5. Time
The story is told with references to the past. Whole the story is written in the past tense.
The narrated time is about one year.
6. Space
The story is situated in Ireland, Dublin. It?s in a suburb of Dublin. Most of the novels of Roddy Doyle are situated there.
7. Ending
First you think it will not be a happy end. The Commitments don?t exist anymore. The members quarrel and ultimate by they haven?t even got contact with each other. But after some weeks Jimmy met a girl , Imelda, of the group. They decided to start another band with some members of The Commitments. So the story get a happy end.
8. Theme
Whole the story is about music. ?The Commitments? want to bring real soul to Dublin. They approve that making music is not easy but bringing the music to the people is even more difficult.
It ?s also about friendship, the friendship between the members of the band. In the end most are good friends even after a hard time .
Love is also a theme in the book. There is a lot of arguing between the boys about the female side of The Commitments. They are all in love with the same girl. That?s one of the reasons of the end of The Commitments.
2. Content and reality
9. Does the author criticize our society?
Yes, people haven?t got respect for each other. That?s one of the reasons why The Commitments have problems to bring soul to Dublin. People don?t listen to their music. They don?t have respect for them.
10. Social environment
Working classes
3. Evolution
11. Purpose of the book
Entertainment
12. Could you empathize or sympathize with any character?
Yes, with Jimmy Rabbitte. He finds it very difficult to bring the music to the people and that makes him very mad. He wants to have the music perfect. He doesn?t want to be a bad cover band. He wants to show respect for the makers of the songs and the music self.
13. I thought the book was
Quite good
-It was difficult to read because it was written in an Irish English language . There are leaving out letters in words ( ex. Righ? , tha? , wha? ). But when you are reading you get used. I found it also spiteful that the book is quite short . I want to know more details about the persons and the group.
- How R. Doyle has written the music down on the paper is brilliant. While you are reading it is just like the radio is on. There were also a lot of funny fragments in the book.
14. Why did you choose this book?
I had read another book of Roddy Doyle ( Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha) and I found it quite a good book. When I saw he had written a book about music I decided to read that book.
Author: Roddy Doyle
Title: The Commitments
Publishing house: Minerva
Date of publication: 1988
Edition: the first
Number of pages: 165
1. Content and structure
1. Genre
music novel
2. Point of view
Omniscient narrator
The writer of the book uses an omniscient narrator so that he can give more details. An omniscient narrator will describe the characters better because he knows everything. The writer doesn?t have to follow one person through the story. He can write about more different situations with more different persons.
3. Characters
- There is not really a main character in the story. The story is not about one person but about the whole group. But I think the main character is Jimmy Rabbitte. He is the manager of the group ? The Commitments?. Through the whole story, Jimmy is the man who knows everything about music. He does everything for the group. He chooses a new name for the group, he searches new members,.. He wants to do everything well and he doesn?t want to make any mistakes. Everything has to be perfect. When something goes wrong he becomes very angry.
This is the bad side of Jimmy. But he does a lot for the group and that gives him a nice character.
- It?s difficult to indicate a round or flat character. Doyle doesn?t give a detailed description of any person. The story is about the group, not about a person. He doesn?t pay attention to a character of a person. It is about the character of the band.
4. Relationships
I will discuss the relationship between the members of the band.
In the beginning everybody likes Jimmy Rabbitte. He is the manager of the band. He sometimes becomes very angry and the members don?t like that. After some time they started gossiping about him and there are members who don?t like him anymore.
When the band begins making music the members are all friends. But when the songs don?t sound like they should become enemies. There is also an arguing about a girl and after this they stop with the band. But after some time the most members start a new band and they are friends again.
5. Time
The story is told with references to the past. Whole the story is written in the past tense.
The narrated time is about one year.
6. Space
The story is situated in Ireland, Dublin. It?s in a suburb of Dublin. Most of the novels of Roddy Doyle are situated there.
7. Ending
First you think it will not be a happy end. The Commitments don?t exist anymore. The members quarrel and ultimate by they haven?t even got contact with each other. But after some weeks Jimmy met a girl , Imelda, of the group. They decided to start another band with some members of The Commitments. So the story get a happy end.
8. Theme
Whole the story is about music. ?The Commitments? want to bring real soul to Dublin. They approve that making music is not easy but bringing the music to the people is even more difficult.
It ?s also about friendship, the friendship between the members of the band. In the end most are good friends even after a hard time .
Love is also a theme in the book. There is a lot of arguing between the boys about the female side of The Commitments. They are all in love with the same girl. That?s one of the reasons of the end of The Commitments.
2. Content and reality
9. Does the author criticize our society?
Yes, people haven?t got respect for each other. That?s one of the reasons why The Commitments have problems to bring soul to Dublin. People don?t listen to their music. They don?t have respect for them.
10. Social environment
Working classes
3. Evolution
11. Purpose of the book
Entertainment
12. Could you empathize or sympathize with any character?
Yes, with Jimmy Rabbitte. He finds it very difficult to bring the music to the people and that makes him very mad. He wants to have the music perfect. He doesn?t want to be a bad cover band. He wants to show respect for the makers of the songs and the music self.
13. I thought the book was
Quite good
-It was difficult to read because it was written in an Irish English language . There are leaving out letters in words ( ex. Righ? , tha? , wha? ). But when you are reading you get used. I found it also spiteful that the book is quite short . I want to know more details about the persons and the group.
- How R. Doyle has written the music down on the paper is brilliant. While you are reading it is just like the radio is on. There were also a lot of funny fragments in the book.
14. Why did you choose this book?
I had read another book of Roddy Doyle ( Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha) and I found it quite a good book. When I saw he had written a book about music I decided to read that book.