The musical impresario behind The Commitments is back.  He’s now 47, still living in North Dublin, married with children, and battling bowel cancer. But everything is “grand” in the world of Jimmy Rabbitte.

The Guts finds him running an online business selling obsolete bands’ music to the uninitiated, reuniting with his long lost brother, and catching up with the band’s guitarist Outspan and the ever-delectable Imelda Quirk.

Roddy Doyle’s The Guts, Random House, $24.95

Roddy Doyle, who published his debut novel The Commitments in 1987, is in peak form here, dishing out one of his cleverest and most compassionate stories. It’s also one of his best.

He captures the Irish brogue wonderfully, and the dialogue is mesmeric, hilarious and sometimes heart-rending.  As usual, the Booker Prize-winner delivers a tale that’s intelligent, deeply compelling, darkly farcical, perceptive and engaging, while making wry social commentary.

It’s safe to say that Doyle fans and The Commitments admirers will find much joy in this new work. There’s the usual working-class, downtrodden yet optimistic voice which lifts off the page and lilts into the mind, creating uproarious images despite most of the scenes being only dialogue.

Language sets the tone throughout the book (although the C-word is perhaps dropped too often), and the vernacular exchanges between the characters adds tenor, nuance and charm to situations that are both affecting and hilarious.

The Guts proves there is deadpan humour in dealing with death and lots of “craic” in cancer.