Roddy Doyle’s brutal 1996 text focuses on interrelated issues of domestic violence, depression and alcohol addiction. Acutely realistic, the text would be useful not only for individuals who are working with victims of domestic violence and alcohol addiction, but also for anyone experiencing these issues.  The ultimate message is, within this bleak narrative, survival.

23 - “The doctor never saw me.  He studied parts of me but he never saw all of me.  He never looked at my eyes.  Drink, he said to himself I could see his nose moving, taking in the smell, deciding.”

170 – “I keep blaming myself.  After all the years and the broken bones and teeth and torture I still keep on blaming myself.  I can’t help it.  What if?  What if?  He wouldn’t have hit me if I hadn’t …; none of the other fists and belts would’ve followed if I hadn’t … He hit me, he hit his children, he hit other people, he killed a woman – and I keep blaming myself”