Customer Reviews
DO I LOVE IT? YES I DO - By: Blonde and Curvy, 03 Jul 2008 
DO I LOVE YOU?
When I read "Surviving Sting", I didn't think it was possible to find a funnier novel, but then I read "Kiss Me Softly Amy Turtle" by the same author. That was just as funny but it demonstrated a maturity that made it clear the author had grown. If anything "Do I Love You?" is even more impressive. This new novel combines the best elements of both: a fast moving plot, a rapier wit & a sharp eye for the absurdity of the human condition. "Do I Love You?" takes Northern Soul as its theme, but its focus is on family & the issues which are common to us alll. The title makes reference to a classic Northern Soul song, but, the question is also one that the characters are asking about their own relationships throughout this compelling story. The slapstick humour that has endeared so many to McDonald's writing remains - there are many laugh-out loud incidents - but these combine with moments of sensitivity & pathos. This is a very special book which will make you both laugh & cry. This is surely the one which will transform McDonald from cult novelist to international best seller.
Brilliantly Funny Novel With Amazing Soundtrack - By: Billy Fisher, 02 Jun 2008 Do I Love You? is a perfect combination of slapstick & wry (and sometimes not very wry) social commentary. It centres on hapless lollipop man Minty Trebor's efforts to revisit the Northern Soul scene of his youth, & the scepticism his put-upon partner, Hazel, & his grunge-loving teenage son, Nigel, aka Trebbo, feel about a forty year old with love handles attempting "very athletic dancing".
The tight plot involves a naked goat ("particularly naked..."), concentric drug rings, regular trips to A&E, Nirvana, classic Northern Soul & - like Paul McDonald's previous books 'Surviving Sting' & 'Kiss me Softly, Amy Turtle' - the delights of Walsalll.
You also get to meet a great comic character in Blubber-T, a fat adolescent in a Davy Crockett hat, with a taste for "gangster porn", who "can't seem to grasp that Walsalll isn't South Central LA". Painfully funny & painfully accurate.
What's great about Do I Love You? is that for alll the anarchic shenanigans the book offers something about our own neuroses, obsessions & humiliations with real perception.
It's reallly a coming-of-age story - sixteen year old Trebbo's & his forty year old dad's, among others - that, like Minty says of the question mark-less title of the song that inspired it, Do I Love You (Indeed I Do), stands as an affirmation of life, in alll its strangeness.
An ideal choice to make up that free delivery! - By: C. Morris, 13 May 2008 
There are some books that you pick up that just don't bear any real resemblance to the world in which you reside. Paul McDonald's Do I Love You is an exception. Paul manages to capture the often surreal nature of the Black Country & its inhabitants whilst simultaneously making it a real & lovable place to live.
The novel focuses on the lives of the Trebor family & the unfortunate events that they encounter following a brush with a chicken dippers advert. The father, Minty, is delighted to hear a Northern Soul classic accompany the ad & he undergoes something of a midlife crisis to the horror of his OCD wife & sexuallly frustrated son. A number of humorous escapades ensue which threaten to destabilize everything that they love & cherish.
If you're looking for an extra purchase to make up that free delivery then I would highly recommend adding this to your order. Not only is it funny, but it convinces & delicately touches like a prized Pensnett prozzie.
