Oh, Play That Thing - (Last Roundup) by Roddy Doyle (Paperback)

About the Book

Doyle once again gives readers a prodigious, energetic, sexy novel, rich with language and music as Henry Smart makes his way across America to elude the men for whom he committed murder and mayhem in this follow-up to "A Star Called Henry."

Book Synopsis

The sequel to Roddy Doyle's beloved novel A Star Called Henry - an entertaining romp across America in the 1920s

Fleeing the Irish Republican paymasters for whom he committed murder and mayhem, Henry Smart has left his wife and infant daughter in Dublin and is off to start a new life. When he lands in America, it is 1924 and New York City is the center of the universe. Henry turns to hawking cheap hooch on the Lower East Side, only to catch the attention of the mobsters who run the district. In Chicago, Henry finds a newer America alive with wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. But in a city also owned by the mob, Armstrong is a prisoner of his color. He needs a man--a white man--and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.

Review Quotes

"The action is fast, the language authentic and earthy... Henry Smart may not be admirable, but he is unforgettable." --The Boston Globe

"The terse, slang-studded rhythms of Doyle's prose have a striking musicality... A remarkable performance in language. --Chicago Tribune

"Doyle is arguably the finest fiction writer to emerge from Ireland since World War II." --The Denver Post

"Together, [A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing] constitute one of the most remarkable achievements in recent irish and American literature." --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About the Author

Roddy Doyle is an internationally bestselling writer. His first three novels--The Commitments, The Snapper, and the 1991 Booker Prize finalist The Van--are known as The Barrytown Trilogy. He is also the author of the novels Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993 Booker Prize winner), The Woman Who Walked into Doors, and A Star Called Henry, and a non-fiction book about his parents, Rory & Ita. Doyle has also written for the stage and the screen: the plays Brownbread, War, Guess Who's Coming for the Dinner, and The Woman Who Walked Into Doors; the film adaptations of The Commitments (as co-writer), The Snapper, and The Van; When Brendan Met Trudy (an original screenplay); the four-part television series Family for the BBC; and the television play Hell for Leather. Roddy Doyle has also written the children's books The Giggler Treatment, Rover Saves Christmas, and The Meanwhile Adventures and contributed to a variety of publications including The New Yorker magazine and several anthologies. He lives in Dublin.