The Guts
*Starred Review* “Jimmy noticed how much he liked old songs that he’d always thought were shite. Decades of solid opinion were turning to mush.” Happily married, with four great kids and a dream job, Jimmy Rabbitte may have mellowed just a bit since his days managing the Commitments (The Commitments, 1989). However, a diagnosis of bowel cancer makes him reflective, even a little nostalgic. Jimmy finds that his gallows humor doesn’t go over well with his kids, who act out in response to their da’s condition. For Jimmy, everything is “grand,” even when it isn’t. Booker Prize winner Doyle revisits the Rabbitte family of his Barrytown trilogy—now with 25 members attending Christmas—along with its at-times incomprehensible North Dublin dialogue. Doyle expertly evokes the generational confusion over new technologies (especially texting), the sentimentality of children growing up way too fast, and the sobering fear and anxiety of living with a potentially fatal disease—all this without being overly morbid or maudlin and while maintaining his trademark soft touch. Jimmy and the lads do, however, find a little of the “oul” edge when they attend the Electric Picnic festival, even as “they’d been tamed by age. Making sure they didn’t get damp, looking for places to put the litter.” Cameos from The Commitments include the long-lusted-after Imelda and Outspan, “losing the fight” with lung cancer.      High-Demand Backstory: This continuation of the popular Jimmy Rabbitte story has its own built-in promotion. --Ben Segedin