Doyle Veers off Smart Path

On the Random House website is an ad for Roddy Doyle's latest novel – since the site biog says his most recent work was A Star Called Henry, we were glad to find confirmation of Doyle's actual upcoming novel in last weekend's papers.

To be titled Paula Spencer, Doyle is set to revisit one of his more famous characters from The Woman Who Walked into Doors as she tries to stay off drink and deal with life as she approaches 50. Doyle told the BBC in an interview last year that he would never write a sequel to The Commitments, as he wanted to avoid the sentimentality this would involve, and because of the vastly changed economic situation in Ireland. It seems now that these reasons will not affect a return to one of his more loved characters. Little has been heard of him since the 2004 publication of Oh Play That Thing, in which he made a swipe at Ulysses for being "over-long, over-rated and unmoving". Such fearless deliberation on an Irish sacred cow seems to be from the same part of Doyle that has allowed him to abandon – or at least take a break from – the Henry Smart trilogy. The trilogy, originally called The Last Roundup, is now missing its concluding part – it was due to span the twentieth century, but maybe Doyle found it slightly long and under-rated itself? Regardless, the sequel to the book, which Doyle says was the most difficult for him to write, goes on sale in September.

Picking through Shattered Pieces

The great American public love their redemption – from politicians to pop stars, the message of the new millennium is that you can overcome; you can atone. Presidents are born again from booze and drug problems, murderers write children's books from death row. The golden rule in this tacit agreement is that your confession must be full, frank and preferably delivered in tears. For that reason, it has been a bad personal month in a dull news cycle for James Frey, author of rehab memoir A Million Little Pieces. He was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as her last bookclub selection, and then revealed as having invented and exaggerated some of the book. The US press have had a field day in overseeing his public flaying. Every day has seen new headlines as he gets fired by his own publicist (just consider the brazen cheek in that act); and forced to lodge a public apology on the Random House and Oprah websites. He returned to The Oprah Winfrey Show, where an unsympathetic audience bemoaned the betrayal, and Winfrey herself branded him a liar. He has stuck to his assertion that he invented and embellished to give the book flow and natural arcs. Oprah has stepped away from the catastrophic mess, selecting and hawking her new choice, Elle Wiesel's Night of which she says "I gain courage from this book". From where Frey is to gain courage and strength is another matter – rising worldwide sales will help (nearly 100,000 in UK and Ireland to date), but having to write a crawling forward for all new copies and becoming a by-word for deceit can't be easy. His publishers are already debating whether or not they will proceed with his current two-book deal, surely making him question whether all publicity is good publicity?

Unhappy Childhood Revisited

A Million Little Pieces has shown the memoir to be a tricky field, but it seems to be working out very well for homegrown talent in recent months. John McGahern received great press and year-end sales for his Memoir – something Dublin writer Hugo Hamilton is now emulating with his new work The Sailor in The Woodwork. Great reviews are proving commonplace, including a book of the week accolade from the Guardian. It is the second part of Hamilton's life story and follows the excellent The Speckled People, which introduced his difficult childhood. Hamilton, who began his career with novels like Sad Bastard and Headbanger had a German refugee mother and a violent father who forbade his children to speak English. The Sailor in The Woodwork moves forward to Hamilton's teen years in the 1960s and his attempts to avoid the legacies of his childhood.

That Mountain Got Us Good

Brokeback Mountain took the Writers Guild Award for best adapted screenplay in Los Angeles last week, installing it as firm favourite to receive the same award at the Oscars at the end of the month. The brevity of Annie Proulx's short story gave screenwriters Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana a chance to flesh out the backgrounds of Ellis and Jack. It is a tribute to them both – and to the quality of Proulx's text – that nothing rings false, even for those familiar with the wonderful source material. Book Notes' copy of Brokeback Mountain cost £2.99 on release, being 51 small pages of big writing – just enough to while away a bus journey. Now, her short story collection Close Range has been retailed after its most favourite story – complete with cover shot of movie stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall. With a cover price of €12, needless to say. Larry McMurty, who co-adapted the story, is a veteran American writer, famous worldwide for heartland tales like Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show.