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.