Bibliofemme Reviews
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Not Just For Christmas by Roddy Doyle 
(Published by New Island)
Not Just For Christmas is from New Island's Open Door
series. This series features original or adapted works
from well know Irish authors and is designed to open
the door to reading for those who are less literate
and improve their skills while “enjoying the benefits
of a good story”.
Roddy Doyle is of course a Booker prizewinner (1993)
and the author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Woman Who
Walked into Doors, The Commitments, The Snapper and
The Van. He has also written a number of children’s
books.
In Not Just For Christmas Danny Murphy gets a call
from his brother, Jimmy, who he hasn’t seen in more
than 20 years. The story charts his journey to their
meeting and the subsequent reunion. Full of
reminiscences, recriminations and confidences the
story rings true. It is neither over dramatic or
tortured but an understandable and affecting account
of how bothers who were once “like twins” could put a
distance of two decades between them.
The crux of this book is the fact that the story is
the integral part – this is not Ann and Barry, it is
not patronising or mollycoddling in any way. Maybe
steps have been taken to simplify the language but
this is not to the detriment to the story neither is
it noticeable.
This is basically a short story from Roddy Doyle. One
for any fan of Roddy, of short stories, for someone
who has little time to read (it spans 77 pages in
larger type) or indeed someone who wants to brush up
on their skills without compromising quality.
Patricia Scanlan on the Open Door Series:
“Open Door is a concept I came up with to help and
encourage readers who have literacy problems. I wanted
people to enjoy reading and not see it as a chore or
something daunting. I asked some of my author friends
and colleagues to join with me in writing a series of
novellas with literacy problems in mind. We wanted to
write enjoyable adult novellas that were not difficult
to read. Roddy Doyle, Joe O' Connor, Maeve Binchy,
Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly and Sheila O'Flanagan are
some of the authors involved. We are now on our fourth
series, and they have been translated into seven
languages.”
