From Publishers Weekly
Doyle stumbles somewhat in this sequel to his excellent 1999 bestseller, A Star Called Henry. Beginning with Irish revolutionary Henry Smart's arrival in New York City in 1924, the story follows Henry's subsequent adventures in advertising, bootlegging, pornography, unlicensed dentistry and keeping ahead of the former associates who'd like to see him eat a lead sandwich. After encroaching too much on a mobster's turf—and getting lucky with another powerful fellow's kept lady—Henry hightails it to Chicago, where he becomes the unofficial manager of a young Louis Armstrong. Though serendipitously reunited with his beloved wife and the daughter he's never met while trying to rob her employer's house, Henry soon heads back to New York to help Louis make it big. While just as brash and lively as Doyle's earlier novels, this one isn't nearly as focused; the dialogue-heavy narrative is interspersed with shifts in setting, time and plot, and characters appear and disappear with little consequence, their spoken parts hasty, repetitive and often perplexing. Worse, Doyle takes Henry Smart's charm for granted; readers unfamiliar with his previous adventures may roll their eyes at his arrogance and incessant sexual encounters. There's just too much material; any of the novel's numerous strands could have been fleshed out into its own book. That said, the novel is still a lot of improbable fun. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
How could the author of so spirited a novel as A Star Called Henry write a sequel as lame as Oh, Play That Thing?All I can figure is that it's one of those cases where a writer's imagination deserts him when he lights out for new territory. The earlier novel was set during the Irish Rebellion, and its headlong, rushing narrative seemed to just pour from Doyle with poetic urgency. In the Jazz-age America of this follow-up, he thrashes around without purpose, inspiration or -- despite a profusion of dumb jokes and set-ups -- wit. He's out of his element, and it shows.In A Star Called Henry -- a most auspicious start to this projected trilogy -- Doyle crafted a marvelously mythic figure in Henry Smart: a child of the Dublin slums who shoots, steals and fornicates his way across early 20th-century Ireland, soaking up all the wild, restless energy of a country undergoing a violent rebirth.The son of a listless mom and a dad who made a name for himself as the violent one-legged bouncer at a local brothel, Henry takes to the streets early. Armed only with the survival instincts he inherited from his father and the wooden leg he used to crack heads, Henry grows up to become a good-looking Lothario and a remorseless killer for the Irish Republican Army.Along with his eventual wife and co-conspirator -- a former schoolteacher he knows only as Miss O'Shea, aka "Our Lady of the Machine Gun" -- Henry travels the countryside by bicycle, picking off "peelers" (cops) and suspected spies, a wily tough who thinks he's the master of his own fate. Actually, he's just a pawn in a larger game, and he becomes a marked man when a power struggle breaks out within the IRA ranks. Henry escapes to America, leaving behind Miss O'Shea and their infant daughter, Saoirse, trusting fate to one day reunite his family.Fate kicks in all right in the new book: Lucky for him, Henry arrives in a country where not only can anything happen, but moronic plot turns grow on trees.Arriving on Ellis Island in 1924, Henry finds work as a sandwich-board walker and bootleg-whiskey runner. With the missis stuck in Ireland, Henry's latest chippie is Fast Olaf's half-sister, who, besides being the near sibling of a low-level mobster, is something of a philosophical hedonist. After Henry runs afoul of the mob and Fast Olaf's half-sister saves his neck, the two run off to upstate New York, where they try to scam the locals by passing her off as a palm-reader and him as a dentist. When Henry finds out that one of his more unfortunate patients has New York mob connections, he's on the run again, this time to Chicago.Henry falls under the spell of the hot new music pouring from all the clubs and meets a young genius with a horn named Louis Armstrong. The two have a lot in common; both are outsiders, ladies' men, perpetually broke and born improvisers. Henry becomes Louis's protector, manager and No. 1 fan, and their friendship feels real, as does Doyle's love (by way of Henry) for the music: "He was puppet and master, god and disciple, a one-man band in perfect step with the other players surrounding him. His lips were bleeding -- I saw drops fall like notes to his patent leather shoes -- but he was the happiest man on earth."Doyle's own improv solos, unfortunately, would shame a first-year writing student. When Henry and Louis, both desperate for cash, decide to break into a house, they step into the one home in all of Chicago where Miss O'Shea is working as a live-in maid. Quicker than you can say "Doesn't Doyle have an editor?" the book slips into freefall. After Henry and Louis are lured to New York with the false promise of work on Broadway, Fast Olaf's half-sister reappears as Sister Flow, a kind of pagan Aimee Semple McPherson who preaches a gospel of instant gratification. Doyle tries to weave two plot threads together by having Sister Flow and Louis record a song together called "Don't Look in the Good Book" -- a huge hit, we're told, though you'd never guess it from Doyle's lyrics.These events and most of what follows are supposed to be comic, zany or energetic, but there's more than a hint of desperation to the proceedings. As Henry regains his family, loses them and wanders across the landscape, you can almost smell the flop-sweat as Doyle struggles to find an exit. Everything feels forced, whether it's Henry and Miss O'Shea's tiresome rebel passion for each other or Henry's sudden rediscovery of his dad's leg, after spending a whole book without it.There's another book to go in the Henry series, and Doyle suggests that his Irish picaro will ride out the rest of the Great Depression in Hollywood. Perhaps by then Doyle will have relearned to play his own thing with more subtlety and craft. Reviewed by Rodney Welch Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Booker Prize-winning Doyle (Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha) has taken a few missteps with his latest offering, the second in a projected trilogy. In previous books, Doyle explored the lives of down-and-out immigrants (like those of parents; see Rory & Ita, **1/2 Mar/Apr 2003). Here, he’s attempted a historical epic of early to mid-twentieth century America. Sure, there’s a lot to celebrate: Doyle’s comedic look at Depression-era immigrants’ chaos, hardships, and excitement, his "combo jazzed-up sassy poetry" style (Chicago Sun-Times). Cameos by musicians, actors, and filmmakers add to the fun. But odd pacing, lack of focus, and the extreme extravagance of both characters and plot create an overly chaotic—if wildly fun—romp through Henry’s America. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
Henry Smart, an ex-hit man who has fled Dublin, discovers that he can find trouble in New York and Chicago as easily as back home. He also finds sexual adventure and lots of good music--even becoming a friend and confidante of Louis Armstrong--in this Depression-era novel. Christian Conn gives Henry a lovely Irish lilt, which may explain why almost every woman that Henry meets is captivated by him. Conn also excels with the rest of the cast--from barmen and gangsters to women and late-night musicians, including Satchmo. Conn's Armstrong impersonation isn't perfect, but it's certainly a plausible voice for the great trumpet player. His pacing and delivery are also excellent and capture the listener's attention throughout. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Times may be tough in 1920s New York, but for ex-IRA assassin Henry Smart, Ellis Island seems like heaven on earth. In this ebullient continuation of the epic that began with the 2000 best-seller A Star Called Henry, Dublin-born Smart leaves behind his loving wife (whom he still calls Miss O'Shea) and infant daughter to start life anew. Donning a pearl gray fedora and a snappy suit, Henry finds a job as a sandwich-board ad man and complements his earnings by selling the bootleg liquor tucked inside the placards. As he mingles with gangsters and dolls, Henry keeps a watchful eye out for the "hard men" who know about the death warrant issued for him on the other side of the Atlantic. When his overly enterprising ways enrage his superiors, Henry flees to Chicago, where he embraces the emerging jazz scene and becomes trumpeter Louis Armstrong's right-hand man. In an era when skin color dictates status, Smart's responsibilities are clear: "My purpose was my whiteness, and my willingness to walk it beside Louis." The two return to Harlem, where the soaring music scene makes Smart's heart sing. But the past forever haunts Henry, who holds out hope for a reunion with true love O'Shea. Booker Prize-winning novelist and screenwriter Doyle displays his trademark sensitivity and wit in a tale full of adventure, passion, and prose as punchy as a Satchmo riff. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The New York Times Book Review
Astonishing... Narrated with a splendor, wit, and excitement that lift Doyle’s writing to a new level.

The Washington Post
A masterpiece, an extraordinarily entertaining epic.

Boston Sunday Globe
Brilliant...ferociously powerful; Doyle captures the desperation of the slums with the intimate authenticity of a poet.

Seattle Times
A luminescent Bildungsroman... the kind of book you can’t wait to finish, but don’t want to end.

Book Description
Henry Smart is on the run. Fleeing from his Republican paymasters, the men for whom he committed murder and mayhem, he has left behind his wife, Miss O’Shea, in a Dublin jail, and his infant daughter. When he lands in America, it's 1924, and New York is the center of the universe. Henry, ever resourceful, a pearl gray fedora parked on his head, has a sandwich board and a hidden stash of hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. When he starts hiring kids to carry boards for him, he catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district. It is time to leave, for another, newer America. In Chicago there is no past waiting to jump on Henry. Music is everywhere, in the streets, in nightclubs, on phonograph records: furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his color, and the mob is in Chicago too: they own every stage—and they own the man up on the stage. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart. In Oh, Play That Thing, Roddy Doyle once again gives us a prodigious, energetic, sexy novel, rich with language and music and, as Henry makes his way across America, teeming with surprises. It is both a saga unto itself—full of epic adventures, breathless escapes, and star- crossed love—and a magnificent follow-up to A Star Called Henry.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Henry Smart is on the run. Fleeing from his Republican paymasters, the men for whom he committed murder and mayhem, he has left behind his wife, Miss O'Shea, in a Dublin jail, and his infant daughter. When he lands in America, it's 1924, and New York is the center of the universe. Henry, ever resourceful, a pearl gray fedora parked on his head, has a sandwich board and a hidden stash of hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. When he starts hiring kids to carry boards for him, he catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district. It is time to leave, for another, newer America.

In Chicago there is no past waiting to jump on Henry. Music is everywhere, in the streets, in nightclubs, on phonograph records: furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his color, and the mob is in Chicago too: they own every stage—and they own the man up on the stage. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.

In Oh, Play That Thing, Roddy Doyle once again gives us a prodigious, energetic, sexy novel, rich with language and music and, as Henry makes his way across America, teeming with surprises. It is both a saga unto itself—full of epic adventures, breathless escapes, and star- crossed love—and a magnificent follow-up to A Star Called Henry. Doyle's writing to a new level. (The New York Times Book Review) Post) intimate authenticity of a poet. (Boston Sunday Globe) don't want to end. (Seattle Times)

Author Biography: Roddy Doyle is the author of six previous novels, including a Booker Prize finalist, The Van, and a Booker Prize-winning international bestseller, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. He has also written several screenplays and books for children.

FROM THE CRITICS

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Together, A Star Called Henry and Oh, Play That Thing constitute one of the most remarkable achievements in recent Irish and American literature. And we￯﾿ﾽre left with the tantalizing possibility of a third novel to follow.

Chicago Sun-Times

Written in a combo jazzed-up sassy poetry-rhythms part Irish, part New York street, part Chicago South Side blues This is Doyle￯﾿ﾽs rambunctious tale of the 20th century￯﾿ﾽs immigrant America.

New York Daily News

Doyle can make music come alive like no one else. His prose will bop and bang its head to punk or bump and grind to the blues. And he understands that becoming an American-whether you￯﾿ﾽre black or Irish-is a game of improvisation, just like jazz.

Rocky Mountain News

A sprawling tale steeped in the grit, lawlessness and hardships of the early 1900s it all unfolds in Doyle￯﾿ﾽs bold, vivid writing that, at its best, echoes the adventure and rhythm of jazz. By the end, he has us hooked, racing for the finish to a book we wish wouldn￯﾿ﾽt end and eager for the final installment.

Boston Phoenix