The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
"The Commitments" by Roddy Doyle is a novel that centers around the character James "Jimmy" Rabbitte, Jr., who aspires to create a band that embodies the spirit of "Dublin soul" in the wake of the punk rock movement of the 1980s. The story unfolds as Jimmy places a classified ad in a Dublin alternative newspaper, attracting a diverse group of young musicians from the north side of the city to perform rhythm and blues reminiscent of classic Motown. Doyle captures the authentic essence of working-class Irish urban culture through the unique voices and dialects of his characters, creating a vivid portrayal of their lives.
The novel’s narrative is lively and colorful, characterized by a mix of engaging dialogue and lyrics from well-known rhythm and blues hits. While Jimmy Rabbitte emerges as the central figure, critics note that other characters receive less development, though some of them later feature prominently in Doyle's subsequent works. The band's journey is marked by internal conflicts and egos, particularly with the band’s vocalist, Deco, whose rise to confidence creates tension. The presence of older band member Joey "The Lips" Fagan, with his storied past, adds depth to the narrative, showcasing the complexities of mentorship and personal relationships within the band. Overall, "The Commitments" offers a dynamic exploration of ambition, music, and the challenges faced by its vibrant characters.
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The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1987
Type of work: Novel
The Work
The picaresque character of James “Jimmy” Rabbitte, Jr., manages both the group The Commitments and the novel The Commitments. Rabbitte is the mastermind of the concept of “Dublin soul” after the first wave of punk rock in the 1980’s. He takes out a classified ad in the Hot Press, the alternative newspaper in Dublin, which attracts a truly motley crew of mostly young north-side Dubliners to play honest, straightforward rhythm and blues in the tradition of Motown Records, down to the white shirts and black suits for the men and simple black dinner dresses for the three Commitmentettes.
Doyle exquisitely shows the partially planned, partially haphazard manner in which most local bands form. At the same time, Doyle’s descriptions of the characters’ situations and their disarmingly unique and poetic Irish-English diction and syntax provide insights into what seems to be an exceptionally authentic rendering of working-class Irish urban culture. Critics have both praised and reviled Doyle for his willingness to use not only the colloquialisms and slang of regional dialect but also a good deal of profanity, including repeated usages of what are generally thought to be the crudest swear words. While Doyle generally declines comment on his work, his defenders usually praise his ability to render the local idiom of Dublin’s north side, and the profane diction seems consistent with the young adults who populate his fiction.
Other critics find limitations in this novel’s scant character development beyond that of Jimmy Rabbitte, Jr. However, the novel is only 165 pages long, and much of it contains either epigrammatic dialogue or the lyrics of dozens of 1950’s and 1960’s rhythm and blues hits. Other members of Jimmy’s immediate family, relegated perhaps to supporting status in this novel, essentially have their own novels later in the Barrytown trilogy. The Snapper is primarily Sharon Rabbitte’s novel and concerns her metamorphosing relationship with her family, especially her father, James Rabbitte, Sr.; The Van is primarily about the relationship of James, Sr., with his best friend, Bimbo.
As The Commitments begins to develop a regional following in the neighborhood, drummer Billy Mooney drops out because he cannot stomach that Declan “Deco” Cuffe, the band’s vocalist who never knew his own talent until he had twenty rum and blacks at the Christmas dinner dance and sang to the crowd while he was fully “locked,” has become an egotistical nightmare. The band’s senior citizen member, Joey “The Lips” Fagan, who purportedly played trumpet for James Brown, Otis Redding, and other great rhythm and blues artists in a long career, has returned to Dublin in his declining years to take care of his “Ma” and to mentor the band. His “mentoring” includes intimate escapades with two of the three Commitmentettes, which only exacerbates the internecine battles of ego and art that eventually derail the band just as it seems to be developing a reputation beyond its north-side neighborhood.
Bibliography
McCarthy, Dermot. Roddy Doyle: Raining on the Parade. Dublin: Liffey Press, 2003.
Paschel, Ulrike. No Mean City? The Image of Dublin in the Novels of Dermot Bolger, Roddy Doyle, and Van Mulkerns. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.
Reynolds, Margaret. Roddy Doyle. New York: Vintage, 2004.
Tóibín, Colm, ed. The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction: From Jonathan Swift to Roddy Doyle, Three Hundred Years of Ireland’s Greatest Fiction. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 2001.
White, Caramine. Reading Roddy Doyle. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2001.