The Commitments cover art

The Commitments

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Commitments

By: Roddy Doyle
Narrated by: Laurence Kinlan
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Barrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about. The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul.

Ably managed by Jimmy Rabitte, brilliantly coached by Joel 'The Lips' Fagan, their twin assault on Motown and Barrytown takes them by leaps and bounds from Paris Hall to immortality on vinyl.

But can The Commitments live up to their name?

©2013 Roddy Doyle (P)1987 Random House Audiobooks
Contemporary Fiction Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Rambling Man cover art
Just Say No! cover art
A Town Like Alice cover art
We Need to Talk About Kevin Bridges cover art
Once Were Warriors cover art
Noughts and Crosses cover art
Youth cover art
Maybe You Never Cry Again cover art
Finding My Voice cover art
I Am Ozzy cover art
HWFG cover art
Matt Millz cover art
Glue cover art
The Good Son cover art
The Rock 'n' Roll Diaries, Part 1: Making It cover art
Gladys Aylward cover art

What listeners say about The Commitments

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Why the singing?

It's The Commitments, we know the story, we trust Roddy Doyle.. Why the awful singing?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing story

The story needs no introduction it's brilliant and funny in equal measure. The Narrator does a good job but the singing parts are basically him screaming at you, I skipped these parts. Worth it for the story though.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book spoiled by narrator.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would not recommend this version with Lawrence Kinlan as the narrator.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Laurence Kinlan?

The abridged version read by Aidan Gillan is so much better.

Any additional comments?

I bought this as I love Roddy Doyle's Barrytown trilogy and this is the unabridged version so thought I'd prefer it just as I remember reading it. However, Lawrence Kinlan spoiled it for me. A lot of the content is made up of the songs the band perform and the sounds from the instruments but Kinlan just roars out the lot. Just so over the top and he really isn't a singer by any means. I bought the abridged version narrated by Aidan Gillan and he is excellent. He lets the text speak for itself without making a meal of it and his singing and the sounds from the instruments are measured and easy to listen to.

Kinlan narrates another Roddy Doyle's book, The Guts and does a great job but that has virtually no actual songs. The one he does read is really very good and he seems to have calmed down considerably.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

F******great....

.... portrait of the life of a soul band in Dublin, last century. The film was terrific but the book is gentler, simpler, more intimate, worth visiting. You're right there, a fly on the wall, singing along. Beautifully read, recited, rhythm pulsate throughout.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Shouty, bad singing and no plot

I only listened to this to the end because it was on a Top 100 Books to Read Before You Die poster. I wish I hadn’t bothered. There seems no point to this book- there’s no story or plot and the words mostly just consist of dialogue and singing. And the singing is awful. And the swearing. Reading the actual book might be better, but do not listen to this audiobook unless you want your ears ringing with coarsely sung expletives and you don’t mind wasting 3 hours of your life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing book, truly awful singing.

I don’t understand why a narrator was chosen who sings so badly… it was very jarring and really ruined the listening experience.

I’ve watched the film many times and wanted to read the book, as I like Doyle’s other works and the book and story themselves are 5 star.

I’d hope audible re-records with an appropriate narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Really didn't enjoy this

I downloaded this to help me sleep so as you can imagine it definitely didn't work, all the annoying singing was diabolical just irritating noise,id been told the van was brilliant but since its the sequel to the commitments I had to listen to this first . It's a rare occurrence for me to be happy when I come to the end of a book or in this case audible story but when this was finished I was so relieved, it was a total waste of time and im happy its finished and I definitely wouldn't recommend it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!