A real humdinger of a read.
To be honest, when I bought this book, I was expecting an interesting, but ultimately bland recounting of a life in showbiz, a book typical of the genre, processed rather than written. How wrong I was. What I got was a superbly crafted book about his formative years by a genuine writer with a sure and sensitive feel for words and an eye for life. The devil is in the detail and that makes it a devilishly good read. At times it reads almost like a novel. In fact, I temporarily abandoned a couple of other books I had in hand, and kept reading to the end. It is a very honest book, which took no small measure of moral courage to write. I've been trying to think of other Irish autobiographies to compare it with, but to be honest, none come to mind. It really is a unique achievement.