[1] The plot revolves around unmarried Sharon Rabbitte's pregnancy, and the unexpected effects this has on her conservative, working-class Dublin family.

When twenty-year-old Sharon informs her father, Jimmy Sr., and mother, Veronica, about her pregnancy, they aren't thrilled but do not display histrionics.

The Snapper was published in 1990, before the release of The Commitments movie but after the news that it was being made and frequent coverage and discussion of the film shoot in the Irish media.

[6] Writing for the Sunday Tribune, Peter Sheridan remarked that "Doyle has an extraordinary comic touch - not since I first delved into Flann O'Brien have I so consistently laughed out loud while reading a book".

[7] Kirkus Reviews praised the novel, referring to it as "...warm, frank, and very funny account of family life and pregnancy".

[8] In a review for the Irish Independent, Sean McMahon wrote "what is different about this novel and one written even ten years ago is that church and clergy are non-existent.

Both the film and the book have been reappraised in the wake of the MeToo movement and cancel culture, particularly with regard to how consent is addressed in the texts.

It is generally held that the film plays this more ambiguously than the book;[4] in the novel she wonders if what happened to her counts as rape.