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Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > A Greyhound of a Girl review
Paperback edition of Roddy Doyle's best-ever children's novel. 12-year-old Mary's beloved grandmother is near the end of her life. Letting go is hard - until Granny's long-dead mammy appears. Her ghost has returned to help her dying daughter say goodbye to the ones she loves.
But first she needs to take them all on a road trip to the past. A Greyhound of a Girl is a perfectly-pitched, funny and tender tale about four generations of an Irish family, and the special bonds between mothers and daughters. It will entrance readers from 9 to adult.
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Review by: sweetpea (Sarah)
Dated: 1st of September, 2012
A lovely story narrated by four generations. The story begins with Mary and then interspersed with the narration of her mother Scarlett, grandmother Emer and great grandmother Tansey - who is a ghost. Emer is dying and this is a very touching story of our pasts and our present and letting go of those we love.
It is a a very simple and very touching story. I didn't particularly warm to Mary but enjoyed the plot and the story of Tansey's demise and the impact that had had on Scarlett. As Tansey is a ghost this clearly is not a story to be taken at face value and is simply a lovely tale based solely on four generations of women (and the greyhounds...).
Set in Ireland it was lovely for the speech to be written as it would be spoken "Ah, sure!" "True for you, girl". At 168 pages it is a very quick read and a lovely book to read from an early age. It really seemed to be a celebration of being a mother and a daughter and what we take from each generation. I immediately wanted to reread it when I finished to think about it at a deeper level.
A lovely read that I would recommend.
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