Anyone who came to Roddy Doyle through his first novel, The Commitments (the film adaptation was a hit) will get a charge out of the fact that the Irish Booker winner has brought back protagonist Jimmy Rabbitte in his latest novel, The Guts ($29.95, Knopf). Yes, Jimmy’s older now and stressed by illness, but he’s still deeply into music – now selling old vinyl online – and his son’s a musician. Will Jimmy learn how to play the trumpet? The Guts is a meditation on mid-life from a writer hitting middle age himself.
