A Greyhound of a Girl, by Roddy Doyle
"Scarlett, Mary, Tansey, Emer. Mothers and daughters heading off on a car journey. One of them dead, one of them dying, one of them driving, one of them just beginning"
I was surprised to see that Roddy Doyle had come out with a novel marketed as YA-- I most familiar with his adult fare like The Commitments and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. However, his A Greyhound of a Girl is unusual in that it could be equally appreciated at any age.
The story is written simply and almost whimsically; Mary's grandmother is dying, and Mary is having a difficult time until she meets Tansey, a sweet older woman who seems to know a lot about her grandmother. This being Roddy Doyle, something is going to be strange-- and it is! Tansey is the ghost of Mary's great-grandmother (her grandmother's mother). Mary and her mother Scarlett take this in stride, taking Tansey to the hospital to visit Emer, inviting her in, etc. The four women go on a road trip of sorts as Tansey helps Emer say goodbye to the people she loves.
If it sounds weird and crazy, that's because it is-- but the real strength of this novel lies in the portrayal of the relationships across 4 generations of women.
I was surprised to see that Roddy Doyle had come out with a novel marketed as YA-- I most familiar with his adult fare like The Commitments and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. However, his A Greyhound of a Girl is unusual in that it could be equally appreciated at any age.
The story is written simply and almost whimsically; Mary's grandmother is dying, and Mary is having a difficult time until she meets Tansey, a sweet older woman who seems to know a lot about her grandmother. This being Roddy Doyle, something is going to be strange-- and it is! Tansey is the ghost of Mary's great-grandmother (her grandmother's mother). Mary and her mother Scarlett take this in stride, taking Tansey to the hospital to visit Emer, inviting her in, etc. The four women go on a road trip of sorts as Tansey helps Emer say goodbye to the people she loves.
If it sounds weird and crazy, that's because it is-- but the real strength of this novel lies in the portrayal of the relationships across 4 generations of women.
How could I teach A Greyhound of a Girl?
Some themes that surface in A Greyhound of a Girl include:
- Relationships across the generations
- Loss and legacy
- Loss and grief
- Denial and Acceptance
What resources could I use to teach A Greyhound of a Girl?
I think that the fairly straightforward manner of this novel would lend itself well to being paired with selected shorts from the StoryCorps radio/podcast project. These are a few stories dealing with the theme of loss and legacy.
Texts that could be paired with A Greyhound of a Girl include:
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- Goodbye Mr. Chips
- Elsewhere
- The Bean Trees
- Angela's Ashes
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- Rules of the Road
- The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Verdict
This book is hard to classify-- there's a ghost, but it's not paranormal. There's witty and comedic dialogue, but the novel is centered around death. I think that some students would find it difficult to enjoy this novel. There's a lot of confusing dialogue-- and that's without the extra hurdle of Irish slang. I do think that this would be a wonderful novel to read in a grade 7-8 literature circle unit centered around relationships across the generations.