Like its predecessor, Two More Pints revolves solely around two old chaps, clearly Dublin natives, sitting at the bar once a week discussing a very wide variety of subjects older Irish men may discuss after a couple of pints.
It's like Doyle went into Grogan's, or any of the old-as-the-city-itself pubs, and quietly sat beside two of the afternoon regulars who have an unwritten arrangement to meet there and have just the two pints and chew the cud. Like he wrote down a snippet each time with the pace and punctuation perfectly matching the rhythm of these discourses
And it covers almost every topic that has come up in current affairs between 2012 and 2014. I imagine these guys having their own separate ritual of reading religiously the papers every single morning - maybe the Daily Star, the Herald or the Independent - which leads to this second ritual of sharing their take on everything they've come across in between each time they meet. It's actually quite touching if you bare back all the Doyle-esque huour and roguish wit to think of these two older gents, clearly close without ever explicitly saying it, having each other to review the world as they see it and have another person who will always see it the same way; with plenty of banter and teasing thrown in along the way.
Two More Pints covers every event you could think of, from Kate and Wills expecting Prince George to the death of Rik Mayll, all in their very unique way. The two pints seem to happen once a week and each segment is dated and about two and a half pages long. A snippet of their point of view of everything from abortion to Jimmy Saville.
It seems quite poetic that this book is dedicated to Doyle's father, Rory Doyle, who died in March this year and also who Doyle wrote about in his non-fiction Rory & Ita. As a Dublin native and with the characters of the two older Dublin gents in Two More Pints, it feels like the fondness this book has been written with, and the familiarity with the two old boys, that perhaps Doyle could relate a lot of what he wrote in this to his own father; how he thought and how he acted with his pal.
Despite being unique to itself as a concept, Two More Points is certainly very much in Roddy Doyle's voice and wit; a underlying roguish humour and a few dirty jokes of course thrown in here and there for good measure.
What impressed me, looking back at Doyle's bibliography, is what this man has achieved and the wealth of talent he has to create everything from a Booker Prize winning novel; enormously popular children's books; touching biographies; and still, in 2014, manage to keep his style fresh with a concept book like this.
On a final note, since Christmas is fast approaching, this book would be a great stocking filler for a parent or grandparent to keep the giggles going throughout the holidays.
Two More Pints is available now in bookshops nationwide and is published by Jonathan Cape.
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