Skippy is a fourteen-year-old boarding school student at Seabrook College, a Catholic school in Dublin, who dies in the first pages after collapsing in a doughnut shop. Paul Murray rewinds to show the weeks before, including Skippy's friendship with his roommate Ruprecht, a genius obsessed with string theory, his crush on a girl from the neighboring school, and the staff, including a history teacher called Howard "the Coward" Fallon. Teachers, drugs, a doughnut-eating contest and a disastrous plan all surface, and the book switches between comedy and grief.
It is a long, funny and sad novel for readers who like campus stories and ensemble casts. If you like Irish writing with sharp comic detail and a serious emotional core, this one delivers.
Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2010
- Language
- EN
