Oh, Play That Thing

A Novel

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$16.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
40 per carton
On sale Oct 25, 2005 | 978-0-14-303605-0
Sales rights: US,OpnMkt(no EU/CAN)
The sequel to Roddy Doyle’s beloved novel A Star Called Henry – an entertaining romp across America in the 1920s

Fleeing the Irish Republican paymasters for whom he committed murder and mayhem, Henry Smart has left his wife and infant daughter in Dublin and is off to start a new life. When he lands in America, it is 1924 and New York City is the center of the universe. Henry turns to hawking cheap hooch on the Lower East Side, only to catch the attention of the mobsters who run the district. In Chicago, Henry finds a newer America alive with wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. But in a city also owned by the mob, Armstrong is a prisoner of his color. He needs a man--a white man--and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.
"The action is fast, the language authentic and earthy... Henry Smart may not be admirable, but he is unforgettable." —The Boston Globe

"The terse, slang-studded rhythms of Doyle’s prose have a striking musicality... A remarkable performance in language. —Chicago Tribune

"Doyle is arguably the finest fiction writer to emerge from Ireland since World War II." —The Denver Post

"Together, [A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing] constitute one of the most remarkable achievements in recent irish and American literature." —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About

The sequel to Roddy Doyle’s beloved novel A Star Called Henry – an entertaining romp across America in the 1920s

Fleeing the Irish Republican paymasters for whom he committed murder and mayhem, Henry Smart has left his wife and infant daughter in Dublin and is off to start a new life. When he lands in America, it is 1924 and New York City is the center of the universe. Henry turns to hawking cheap hooch on the Lower East Side, only to catch the attention of the mobsters who run the district. In Chicago, Henry finds a newer America alive with wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. But in a city also owned by the mob, Armstrong is a prisoner of his color. He needs a man--a white man--and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.

Praise

"The action is fast, the language authentic and earthy... Henry Smart may not be admirable, but he is unforgettable." —The Boston Globe

"The terse, slang-studded rhythms of Doyle’s prose have a striking musicality... A remarkable performance in language. —Chicago Tribune

"Doyle is arguably the finest fiction writer to emerge from Ireland since World War II." —The Denver Post

"Together, [A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing] constitute one of the most remarkable achievements in recent irish and American literature." —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution