Doyle, Roddy: A Star Called Henry

Referat
STAR CALLED HENRY Roddy Doyle This novel was written by Roddy Doyle, who was born in 1958, and first published in 1999. It enables the reader to get a clear impression of the lives of families in and around Dublin actually all over Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century. Henry was born in 1902 and grew up in the slums of Dublin as the son of a one-legged brothel-bouncer and a mother who lost several of her children and kind of dislikes this son, because he was given the same name as her other son, who died soon after his birth. As soon as Henry could walk he lived on the streets, robbing, begging, always hungry and cold, and cared for him and his younger brother Victor. At the age of fourteen, when Victor was already dead, Henry, a member of the Irish Citizen Army by then, was one of the rebels who forced their way into and besieged the General Post Office in Dublin. During this time of uprising he met his former teacher, Miss O Shea, again and had his first sexual relationship with her. When he observes her walking outside where the shootings take place the next day, he beliefs he will never see her again. Still one gets the impression this love is more physical than emotional. Several days later, Henry and the other members of the new IRA under Michael Collins make their way to another building through the hail of bullets. Several friends and colleagues of Henry were killed at the attempt to cross the street. page 133 After the rebels had surrendered, they ...