IRELAND
National Public Radio

October 18, 2017

By Michael Schaub

Irish novelist Roddy Doyle has always had a lot of literary tools in his belt, but the one he’s most known for is his sense of humor. His first three novels, The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van, were all laugh-out-loud funny, and even his most serious novel, The Woman Who Walked into Doors, which dealt with alcoholism and spousal abuse, had its (darkly) humorous moments.

Fans of Doyle might be expecting more of the same with his latest novel — it’s called Smile, after all, and although its plot involves a broken relationship, Doyle has managed to mine humor out of similar situations before. But there are no laughs in Smile; the few jokes it has aren’t designed to be funny. It’s a shocking book, at times almost unbearable to read, and it’s by far the most serious…