15. The Commitments - Roddy Doyle

If you've not heard of the book, then I'm sure you've heard of the film The Commitments. You know - the one with Mustang Sally in it? Well, either way, they're both excellent but I'm here to talk about the book.

The Commitments tells the story of the creation, and ultimate destruction, of a Dublin soul band. We join them as they form and find members, under the expert management of Jimmy. Not all of the members are particularly skilled but we're with them as they listen to music to inspire them and practice hard at their craft. After spending many pages with them during their rehersals in a dingy garage, we're pleased when they get their first gig and then when they go on to gain a bit of notoriety and fans in the area.

The one thing about this story is that not all the characters are that likeable. Their manager often seems to know his music but lacks people skills. Joey "the lips" Fagan is a bit weird and potentially a total liar - I mean, did he really play with James Brown? And the lead singer just comes off as a total arse. There's tension as the girls join the group and everyone seems to be interested in getting with them. There's not really a lot of action aside from a few arguments and tensions running high but it is believeable which is always good.

I was a bit confused when I began this book as it is written like a script. I thought I'd picked up the screenplay of the movie but that is how it's written. It's also really quite short as well so it doesn't take much to get through. It's written from the perspective of their manager Jimmy and there's not an awful lot of descriptions - for example I couldn't tell you what any of the characters look like or any particularly distinguishing features of the locations.

Overall I have to say I enjoyed this book. It's been years since I saw the movie so I wasn't tainted by imagining those characters in my head. As I said it's probably 85% dialogue and not much discription but it works. It's a short but sweet and humourous story of a short lived Dublin soul group and is definitely worth the read.