Then, suddenly, a chubby, baldheaded little man in his 50's shows up at Rabbitte's door on a scooter. Rabbitte shuts the door on that one without bothering to get his phone number. One prospective band member cites Jethro Tull and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Unfortunately, most of them list rock groups such as U2 or Led Zeppelin as their influences, thereby failing the only requirement. Rednecks and southsiders need not apply.'' Rabbitte, already convinced that the Irish are the Afro-Americans of Europe, is bolstered in this belief when he's swamped with respondents claiming to have soul. Jimmy Rabbitte, a young Irish Brian Epstein, decides to form a soul band in Dublin and places the following ad in the Hot Press classifieds: ''Have you got Soul? If yes, The World's Hardest Working Band is looking for you. Doyle makes the most of this seemingly implausible trans-Atlantic experience, and the results are remarkable not only for their outrageousness but also for their humanity. A James Brown, in such a culture, could thrive like a new bacterial strain.

The Irish are widely known for being a vibrant, fun-loving, independent-minded people, and they throw great wakes. In music, anything can happen, and that's what keeps us all in the game. The notion of an Irish, working-class soul band inspired by James Brown, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye is not really any more out of line than the idea of the Beatles rehearsing in a squalid Liverpool basement, styling their hair after Tony Curtis and dreaming of conquering the world. Even if you're nonmusical and believe yourself to be somewhat in the debit column in the soul department, ''The Commitments'' will provide you with a rather graphic spiritual blueprint of what it's like to become a star and how it feels to fall from the sky. Paper, $6.95.Īnyone who's ever lived the dream and the nightmare of forming a band will find Roddy Doyle's first novel ''bleedin' rapid,'' as they say in Dublin. New York: Vintage Contemporaries/Vintage Books.

The Commitments by Roddy Doyle