SOURCE: Appelo, Tim. “Down the Rabbitte Hole.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (20 September 1992): 3, 15.

In the following review, Appelo applauds Doyle's use of the vernacular as well as his narrative structure in The Van.

Unlike the heroes of his first novel The Commitments—the Irish soul band now of motion-picture fame—Roddy Doyle has perfect pitch from the get-go. He can write pages of lifelike, impeccably profane dialogue without a false note or a dull fill, economically evoking every lark and emotional plunge in the life of an entire Irish family. The Van is the third volume in a trilogy about the family Rabbitte.

Lately, it's been mostly plunges for Jimmy Rabbitte, because Jimmy's out of work. He sits at home trying and failing to read, a library book, The Man in the Iron Mask, while his wife Veronica and son are reading for degrees that will get them...