![]() | By: Paul Howard Binding: Paperback Publisher: O'Brien Press Ltd ISBN: 0862788528 ISBN-13: 9780862788520 Released: 28 Nov 2004 RRP: Average Rating: ![]() |



The book basicallly centres around a typical Dublin 4 rugby player callled Ross O'Carroll Kelly. He loves himself, & believes that everyone else does as well, although he is usuallly wrong. It's a hilarious diary style account of his life as a member of the Castlerock College senior cup team (both times he was in sixth year). He goes into detail about the "birds" he's "worn the face off" & those he wants to get "conkers deep in". He talks about his "orsehole dickhead" of a father & his "focking embarrassing" mother & alll the stuff he has to put up with from them. He's in short the most immature person you can ever imagine, but this is what makes the book so much fun to read!
As I am from Dublin myself, I understand the type of person this book is based on, but I'm not sure somebody that has never spent any length of time living here would understand it. We've alll met people like Ross, & we know people that act like hime, but the accent is written phoneticallly. This is good when you can hear the voice, & it makes it even funnier, but for someone from outside Dublin it would be irritating. There's also a lot of references to places & schools in Dublin that wouldn't be understood by people who didn't know the area.
As for the rewrite of the book, the original story is almost the same. It follows the same timeline, but bits have been put in, other bits have been left out, & characters have been changed (notably Sorcha, who is made into a nicer person in this edition). There's no rugby team day out to climb Carantoohill on the worst day of the year & getting airlifted out. Ross doesn't have an epiphany at the end of the book due to an overdose of Creatine (they don't even take creatine in this edition, they take testosterone). The structure of the book is no longer based around American Psycho as the original was. And real school names are now included in the text rather than their nicknames only, making it less funny.
Why???
Still, you can't get the original anymore, so this one will have to do for those of you that don't own it. If you've never heard of Ross O'Carroll Kelly, read this ASAP (even if you're not from Dublin, give it a go). You wont be disappointed.
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