A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle is a short book that sweetly explores the connections among four generations of women in a family. It jumps among the characters in time and in perspective. It also provided a few brief insights into the changing dynamics of the parent-child relationship as the child grows older. The dialogue was originally charming, but became innocuous, indistinctive, and tedious as the story progressed. Technically A Greyhound of a Girl is a middle grade book, but the pacing lends itself to an older reader; in fact, it may be the type of book that an adult likes rather than a young reader. Although the title captured my interest, the book failed to keep it.
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 25 religious exclamations.
Note: Incidences of British use of “bloody” not tallied.
Violence/Gore: Character imagines a bloody personification; report of death by illness; report of a an animal being put down with the mention of blood.
Sex/Nudity: None
Mature Subject Matter:
Death, Growing-up.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
General, incidental references to adults smoking and drinking.