'Skippy Dies,' by Paul Murray: review

Skippy Dies

By Paul Murray

(Faber & Faber; 661 pages; $28)

It happens on the first page. Engaged in a doughnut-eating contest with his boy-genius roommate, Ruprecht Van Doren, 14-year-old Catholic school student Daniel "Skippy" Juster keels over and expires on a Dublin pastry shop floor. It's a sad and ridiculous way to leave this vale of tears, made even more surreal by Skippy's final message, scrawled laboriously on the tiles in raspberry syrup: TELL LORI.

This vignette is the perfect set-up for "Skippy Dies," the second novel by Paul Murray, author of "An Evening of Long Goodbyes." In six pages, Murray creates an entire world of teen angst, sophomoric humor, social satire and existential despair. After the prologue, Murray jumps back to chronicle the events leading up to the gluttonous showdown at Ed's Doughnut House, before employing the final third of this deeply engaging novel to detail the aftermath of Skippy's demise.

Set during the boom years when Ireland was still known as the Celtic Tiger, "Skippy Dies" takes place in and around Seabrook College, an educational institution that has seen better days but refuses to acknowledge their passing. Skippy and Ruprecht spend their classes and leisure time with a small coterie of friends, including sexual braggart Mario - still carrying an unused "lucky" condom in his wallet after two years - and sharp-tongued Dennis, who sees himself as above everyone else's foolishness. On the periphery are distinctive personalities like Eoin "MC Sexecutioner" Flynn, the whitest hip-hop enthusiast in all Ireland, and Brian "Jeekers" Prendergast, Ruprecht's nervous chief rival for the title of Smartest Boy at Seabrook.

The teachers and administrators are a similarly diverse bunch of cranks, oddballs and sycophants. Having disgraced himself in the world of business, Howard "The Coward" Fallon has returned to his alma mater to teach history, only to fall under the spell of Aurelie McIntyre, the fetching substitute geography instructor. Badly injured in the bungee-jump from which Howard demurred, coach Tom Roche attempts to draw out Skippy by encouraging his participation in the swim team, while ferocious French instructor Father Green harangues the boy until he vomits in class. Acting Principal Greg "The Automator" Costigan wants everything to run smoothly, even if that efficiency runs against his students' best interests.