Rory and Ita

US: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 2002. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Ita Doyle: 'In all my life I have lived in two houses, had two jobs, and on e husband. I'm a very interesting person.' Rory and Ita, Roddy Doyle's firs t non-fiction book, tells - largely in their own words - the story of his p arents' lives from their first memories to the present. Born in 1923 and 19 25 respectively, they met at a New Year's Eve dance in 1947 and married in 1951. They remember every detail of their Dublin childhoods - the people (a unts, cousins, shopkeepers, friends, teachers), the politics (both came fro m Republican families), idyllic times in the Wexford countryside for Ita, R ory's apprenticeship as a printer. Ita's mother died when she was three ('t he only memory I have is of her hands, doing things'); Rory was the oldest of nine children, five of them girls. By the time they put down a deposit o f two hundred pounds for a house in Kilbarrack, Rory was working as a compo sitor at the Irish Independent. By the time the first of their four childre n was born he'd become a teacher, at the School of Printing in Dublin. Kilb arrack began to change ('it wasn't a rural place any more') and Ireland too . Through their eyes we see the intensely Catholic society of their youth b eing transformed into the vibrant, modern Ireland of today. Both Rory and I ta Doyle are marvellous talkers, with excellent memories, so combined with Roddy Doyle's legendary skill in illuminating ordinary experience, it makes for a book of tremendous warmth and humanity.