The Deportees and Other Stories
 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Roddy Doyle |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Marcus Lyon (photo) Stephen Parker (design) |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short stories |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape (UK) Viking (US) Knopf Canada |
Publication date | 2007 |
| Publication place | Ireland |
| Media type | Print & eBook |
| Pages | 242 |
| ISBN | 0-224-08061-X |
The Deportees and Other Stories is the first short story collection[1] by Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle first published by Jonathan Cape in 2007.[2] All the stories were written for Metro Éireann, a multicultural paper aimed at Ireland's immigrant population and explore their experiences. The stories were written in 800 word chapters and published monthly; as Doyle explains in the foreword to the book :-
"The stories have never been carefully planned. I send off a chapter to the Metro Eireann editor Chinedu Onyejelem, and, often, I haven't a clue what's going to happen next, And I don't care too much, until the deadline begin's to tap me on the shoulder. It's a fresh, small terror, once a month. I live a very quiet life; I love that monthly terror."
Stories
- "Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner", a reworking of the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner[3] it concerns a father forced to confront his prejudices when his daughter brings a Nigerian male friend home to dinner
- "The Deportees" - a follow up to The Commitments finds Jimmy Rabbitte, now 36, married with young children forming a new band - this time "no white Irish need apply" and you're out if you like the Corrs. They end up playing Woody Guthrie songs at an Indian 21st birthday party
- "New Boy", a refugee from Rwanda's first day in an Irish school
- "57% Irish", about a doctoral student who devises an 'Irishness' test for immigrants based around responses to disparate Irish imagery including Roy Keane goals and Riverdance
- "Black Hoodie", three teenagers investigate racial profiling in in-store security but get arrested for shop-lifting
- "The Pram", a Polish au pair plots revenge on the family who have treated her so badly
- "Home to Harlem", a quarter black student moves to New York to research how the Harlem Renaissance influenced Irish literature and to search for his black grandfather.
- "I Understand", a Nigerian illegal immigrant is threatened by drug dealers (online text)
Reception
- Tim Martin writing in The Independent was surprised at the collections wide range but remarked that some of the stories appeared understandably rushed. He praised its sincerity and 'good cheer'.[4]
- Ian Sansom in The Guardian wrote "The stories are often very funny and rumbustious...When these stories are good, and they often are, they're absolutely hilarious".[5]
- Erica Wagner in The New York Times said "Doyle wrote them in response to the urban legends he’d started to hear about his country’s newest inhabitants: Muslims slaughtering sheep in their backyards, a Polish woman who turns her flat into a brothel. In reacting to such squalid stories, Doyle sometimes goes too far in the opposite direction, and at first it might seem as if there’s something rose-tinted about the view he wants to take...the optimism can seem forced. Sad to acknowledge, perhaps, that it’s the darker stories that work best."[6]
- Cressida Connelly ends her review in The Spectator with "The Deportees may not be Doyle at his very best, but it’s still a highly enjoyable read"[7]
Publication history
- 2007, UK, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0-224-08061-X, Pub date Sep 2007, Hardback
- 2007, Canada, Knopf, ISBN 0-676-97911-4, Pub date Sep 2007, Hardback
- 2007, UK, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0-224-08062-8, Sep 2007, Paperback
- 2008, US, Viking, ISBN 0-670-01845-7, Pub date Jan 2008, Hardback
- 2008, US, Thorndike, ISBN 1-410-40718-7, Pub date Jun 2008, Hardback
- 2008, UK, Vintage, ISBN 0-09-950705-6, Paperback
- 2009, US, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-311488-3, Paperback
Adaptations
- "Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner" first appeared as a 75-minute play performed at Dublin's Andrews Lane Theatre in 2001 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, it starring Gary Cooke as the father and Maynard Eziashi as the Nigerian.[8]
- "New Boy" was adapted into a short film in 2007 which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film the following year.[9] and won several other awards[10]
- Best Irish Short Film - Foyle Film Festival
- Best Short Film - Irish Film and Television Awards
- Best Short Film - Tribeca Film Festival
- Best Short Film - Vail Film Festival
References
- ^ http://www.theshortreview.com/reviews/RoddyDoyleDeportees.htm White Irish Need Not Apply
- ^ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/roddy-doyle/deportees.htm
- ^ http://www.rte.ie/ten/2002/0301/guesswho.html
- ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-deportees-by-roddy-doyle-464257.html Roddy Doyle's latest stories reflect a new and more multicultural Ireland
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/sep/01/society.roddydoyle Black stripes on the Celtic Tiger
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/books/review/Wagner-t.html White Irish Need Not Apply
- ^ http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/162116/part_2/to-know-him-is-to-love-him-usually.thtml To know him is to love him, usually
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2001/oct/09/theatre.artsfeatures1
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1095191/awards
- ^ http://newboythemovie.com/