Henry the hero

Henry der Held (English original: A Star Called Henry , published 1999) is a novel by the Irish writer Roddy Doyle that was published in 2000 in a German translation by Renate Orth-Guttmann . It is the first part of the trilogy "The Last Roundup", which describes the life of the main character Henry Smart parallel to the Irish struggle for independence at the beginning of the 20th century. The second part "Oh, Play That Thing" was released in 2004.

action

Henry was born in 1901 into the difficult life of a young family in Dublin . At the age of five he was already living on the street with his younger brother Victor, as he had no intact family at home with his alcoholic mother and his father, a mysterious hit man. Together they get through life, trying to make some money and going to school. Here Henry meets the teacher and his future wife Miss O'Shea. Shortly thereafter, however, Victor dies of an illness. In 1916, at the age of 14, he took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin as a good friend of James Connolly 's. After successfully escaping from the British and re-entering the resistance, Henry becomes a messenger for Collins and builds a terror network around Dublin, where he trains resistance fighters. Furthermore, Henry himself is a hit man and mainly receives orders to kill government men. Only at the end of the book, after a serious gunshot wound, does the hero realize how little his actions have contributed to the independence and prosperity of Ireland. When he has already given up the fight for the terror network, he is arrested by the police. After escaping, he emigrates to America without his daughter and wife.

Narrative peculiarities

Henry is not only the main character, but also the narrator and gives the events highly subjective from his point of view. It is also noticeable that Henry does not always take the truth very seriously. For example, it is unlikely that he lived alone on the streets of Dublin by the age of five. The narrator also seems to embellish other elements in the book.

main characters

There are many people in the book that Henry comes into contact with. However, there are only a few main characters who are important to the hero. These are:

Victor Smart (little brother)
Melody Nash (mother)
Henry Smart (father)
Granny Nash (grandmother)
Piano Annie (short-term girlfriend)
Miss O'Shea (teacher, later wife)
The old Missis O'Shea (relative of Miss O'Shea)
James Connolly (leader of the Easter Rising)
Michael Collins (resistance fighter)
Dolly Oblong (brothel manager, employer of Henry's father)
Climanis (Henry's Jewish friend)
Jack Dalton (friend of Henry in the Resistance)
Alfie Gandon (actually Alfred Gandon; mysterious political backer whom Henry eventually kills)

reception

In the Anglo-Saxon world, the novel was received with great enthusiasm and acclaimed by the critics. In the German-speaking countries, however, it caused mixed reactions. Reviewers with a penchant for Irish literature and history rated it positively, while critics without this specialist knowledge sometimes rejected the novel. Doyle's language in particular is controversial, the content is perceived as too vulgar and unnecessarily brutal, the style is too artificial.

Secondary literature

Schede, Hans-Georg: Roddy Doyle: A Star Called Henry. King's Explanations and Materials (Vol. 479). Hollfeld: Bange Verlag, 3rd edition 2009. ISBN 978-3-8044-1850-9