7.8 /10 1 Votes
Country Ireland Series The Barrytown Trilogy Pages 312 Page count 312 Publisher Harvill Secker | 3.9/5 Goodreads Language English Publication date 1991 Originally published 1991 Preceded by The Snapper Genre Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Similar Roddy Doyle books, Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Van is a 1991 novel by Roddy Doyle and the third novel in The Barrytown Trilogy. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1991).
Contents
Premise
The basis of the story is that Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. has been laid off from his job and has no money. His friend, Brendan "Bimbo" Reeves also gets laid off and gets a redundancy cheque. With this cheque the two friends decide to purchase a 'chipper' or Fish and Chips van. Jimmy and Bimbo's friendship gets strained, because Jimmy starts to believe that Bimbo and his wife Maggie are planning the work behind his back.
It continues the themes found in the other two novels of The Barrytown Trilogy and focuses on the elder Jimmy Rabbitte and his efforts at going into business with friends.
Film adaptation
Stephen Frears turned it into a film in 1996 starring Colm Meaney as Larry (renamed from Jimmy Rabbitte) and Donal O'Kelly as Brendan 'Bimbo' Reeves who he goes into business with.