Our Fathers

Rating:
Summary: Staccato, Terse Writing Style is Just Too Tiresome
Review: "Our Fathers" takes place in Scotland, and written from the point of view of Jamie, grandson of Hugh Bawn. Jamie escaped the violence and alcoholism of his parents' home to live with his grandparents when he was a teenager. Hugh's relationship with his son, Jamie's father, was strained and Jamie didn't even speak to his parents for years after moving out. The squalor and futility of Jamie's parents' lives is depressing and all too real.

However, I couldn't finish the book to find out whether these relationships were ever healed or resolved. I found the writing style just too tiresome to slog through at times. The terse, staccato style with too many incomplete sentences and paragraphs just left me frustrated and wondering "what is he trying to say?" The Scottish slang and phrases and too many metaphors also left me puzzled at times. Here's an example from page 44 of the book:

"My thirst for the sea. I know of a home I have never known. A liquid bed by some easy beach. I know it well in my sleep. The coast is unclear. The landmarks are ruined or new. Yet water knows nothing of nations. It is called after them - is claimed by them - but water is only itself. The pure green sea in my dreams is all the world I have ever known. Any yet I have never been there. It is only water. It is only a dream. And still I drown there each night in my sleep. And still I look out for the coast as I wake."

What does this really mean? I guess I'll never know, because I couldn't finish the book.

Rating:
Summary: Building the Future
Review: "Our Fathers" tells the story of the last few weeks in the life of Hugh Bawn, a once-powerful local politician. Bawn, an idealistic Socialist, was during the fifties, sixties and early seventies, the chairman of Glasgow City Council's Housing Committee, and was responsible for building the tower blocks which at the time were seen as the answer to the city's perennial housing problems. At the time when the book is set (the mid-nineties), however, Bawn is a sick and dying old man, living in a flat in one of his own blocks. He is visited by Jamie, his grandson whom he has not seen for many years. Ironically Jamie, who now lives in England, is a demolition contractor who makes his living by demolishing blocks of the type that his grandfather was instrumental in building. The story is mostly told from Jamie's viewpoint, although there are also passages of third-person narrative filling in the details of Hugh's past life. Besides narrating what occurs during the three months or so that he spends in Scotland with his grandparents, Jamie also tells of his own past, particularly his miserable childhood at the hands of his brutal, alcoholic father, Hugh's son Robert.

The book raises a number of interlinked questions concerning the conflict between idealism and pragmatism, the conflict between the desire for change and the desire to preserve the past and the conflict between the generations. Building, of course, is frequently used, especially by the political Left, as a metaphor for effecting social or political change, in phrases such as "building the future" or "building a new society". Hugh sees himself as a builder in both the literal and the metaphorical senses of the word. His quarrel with Jamie's generation is that they are, both literally and metaphorically, demolishing what his generation built. In Hugh's eyes modern politicians, both Conservative and New Labour, are undoing the social reforms of the past.

There is no doubting the sincerity of Hugh's desire for social reform, rooted in his own impoverished Glaswegian childhood. Nevertheless, his plans to improve the world have proved less successful than he hoped. The buildings he constructed are unpopular with those who have to live in them and with the wider public who regard them as eyesores. At the end of his life, he finds himself under attack, accused of cutting corners and using cheap materials in his zeal to build as many housing units as quickly and as cheaply as possible. It always struck me that the attraction of the high-rise tower block to the planners, architects and housing officials of the third quarter of the twentieth century stemmed less from a sober calculation of its benefits and disadvantages than from an emotional commitment to "modernity" for its own sake. From their perspective, the main advantage of the tower-block was precisely that it was radically different from any form of housing that had preceded it. Today, it is the tower blocks themselves that look like outdated relics of a bygone age, far more than do conventional houses built during the same period. Nothing dates more quickly than yesterday's view of tomorrow.

As one might expect with a book dealing with the dying days of an old man, there is little in the way of dramatic action. Mr O'Hagan's main concern is with his characters'- especially Jamie's- thoughts and feelings. In some ways it struck me, despite its length of nearly three hundred pages, as being closer to a long short story than to a traditional novel. In places it can seem static, but overall there is, nevertheless, a sense of movement, as Jamie comes closer to reconciliation with his grandfather and a partial understanding of what the old man and his contemporaries were trying to achieve. There is also a sense that Jamie is moving closer to forgiving his own father, whom he meets again at Hugh's funeral.

The writing struck me as uneven. Mr O'Hagan has a good eye for the details of modern urban life, and conveys the beauty of the Scottish landscape in some of the finest passages in the book. On the other hand, some of the lengthy dialogues tended to drag, as did passages such as the description of Hugh's funeral. I was both fascinated and frustrated by the characters, especially the flawed idealist Hugh- frustrated in that I found myself wanting to know much more about his previous life than I was actually told. I wanted to know more about his childhood, his time as Glasgow's "Mr Housing" and his relationship with his own son Robert. I wanted to know why the son of an idealistic reformer should have become a cynical, drunken ne'er-do-well. (There is a hint, not fully developed, that Hugh was too preoccupied with political affairs to have much time for his family). If Mr O'Hagan is considering writing a sequel, there is certainly enough material here for a second novel.

Although this is not a great novel, it is both a readable and an interesting one, introducing an fascinating character and touching upon such major topics as religion (Hugh and his wife are devout Catholics), the decline of traditional Socialism, the clash between ideals and reality, the Scottish national identity, the relationship between the generations and the burden of inheritance.

Rating:
Summary: Grim
Review: "Our Fathers", by Mr. Andrew O'Hagan is a piece about a Grandfather, a Father, and one Son who has gone to great lengths to prevent becoming the third Parent in the generational series. Readers can judge his reluctance, or possibly fear, to become a Father, however if he were to approach his predecessors in conduct, the world has more Fathers from this type as is. Granted this is a novel, but as they often do, this story is and has been played out forever.

Scotland is the locale and three generations are the subject. This story is well written; it is also brutal physically as well as emotionally. If you are offended if an institution you may cherish is portrayed in very poor light, even in a work of fiction, this book may not be for you.

The issues dealt with in this book are unfortunately not unusual, however the number of books written portraying domestic brutality, and conduct bordering on heinous, seem to abound. It is the exception that we read of a Family that is not the victim of many or all of what this book contains. I do not doubt these situations exist; I do question the need for bookshelves upon bookshelves documenting them.

As a comparison, for those who have read, "Angela's Ashes", you will possibly find that memoir lighter by several degrees than this novel. There is misery and suffering everywhere in the world; it is not exclusive to the Northern areas of Great Britain. However if one were to read much of the newer works about Ireland, and in this case Scotland, you would have to wonder if there is a happy, contented Family in either Country. There are of course many such Families, perhaps they just choose not to write, or publishers not to publish.

Many of the books I refer to and have commented upon have used humor however dark to break the misery of the lives of their characters, real or imagined. Mr. O'Hagan has written a very good book deserving of great praise, however be prepared for unbroken emotion that is uniformly negative, and conduct that at times is repugnant.

Rating:
Summary: A Long Road to Forgiveness
Review: Being not a Scot myself, I eschew to contradict the previous reviewer from Scotland in a question of author's seriousness and profundity in depiction of Scottish problems. I'll only try to evaluate the novel from impartial point of view of a man who was born in other country.

In his first novel Andrew O'Hagan raises a serious problem of conflict and misunderstanding of generations. Hugh Bawn, a grandfather of Jamie Bawn who is a protagonist of the novel, in postwar era made his best to eliminate Glaswegian terrible slums and give every citizen a clean and decent flat in tower blocks. He used cheap materials in construction in order to build more houses, not so comfortable but undoubtedly affordable. But the new times come, and today people, whose parents were glad to live in Hugh's houses, tear down the old structures to make way for the new and cast a slur upon Bawn. For those who live on the land of the former Soviet Union the depicted situation is a kind of allegory of our modern life, a portrait of "those fogetters of past necessities, those rectifiers of big mistakes" who discern in the history of our country in the 20th century only Stalin but never arduous labor of hundreds of our grandfathers, the Soviet Hughs, in their attempts to make life of millions better. The principle formulated by Jamie Bawn announces a motto of a conscious part of the new generation: "I wanted my own day, but not at the expense of every day that preceded".

The novel describes alienation between the members of three generations of the Bawn family. Hugh (first generation) is a passionate builder but he has no time for his son Robert (second generation), whom he despises for his inabilities. Robert, being unable to change his father's opinion, hates him instead and becomes a drunkard in fruitless efforts to find his place in the world. He abuses his wife and hates his son Jamie (third generation) who hates him in return and escapes to his grandfather. Jamie is an ardent listener of Hugh's knowledge, but in adulthood he uses this knowledge in demolition of the buildings previously constructed by his grandfather. The train of hatred seems insurmountable, but Hugh's incurable illness gives Jamie possibility to escape an ordinary life rote and time to recall and understand. He, who decided to stop his family probles and sins simply by refusing to marry and have children, commences a hard process of foregiveness of inveterate deep offences...

The language of the novel is poetically terse with a lot of beautiful images and oxymorons, sometimes it is necessary to read a sentence at least twice to understand its true meaning. It is a very good novel justly shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. It resembles Seamus Deane's masterpiece "Reading in the Dark" which I personally prefer.

Rating:
Summary: very brutal, emotionally draining, but infinitely rewarding
Review: i spent tweleve hours reading this book...though in the beginning, i wouldn't really say this was a page turner...some parts of this book really disturbed me: jamie's encounter with the priest; his father,robert, the vicious savage that he is, and just the overall tone of the book, which is extremely bleak( i can handle grim, but this was extremely grim for my tastes)... i once lived with a scottish woman, and she never liked to talked about her family, or about her life back in scotland, but when she spoke of it, it was always with reverence; and unlike the character hugh, she hated the irish... what liked most about book, was although, o'hagan showed his family's dysfunctions, he also showed the love that existed between them,that gives the book its soul...

Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding and magnificent: I laughed and cried
Review: The beauty of the language and the young man's feelings for his father and his grandfather, and the astonishing resolution tucked in a few lines like one beautiful pebble on a great shoreline. He writes of the heart. I could not put it down and missed it awfully when it was over.

Rating:
Summary: "Our Fathers" an Auspicious Beginning for O'Hagan
Review: With "Our Fathers," rookie novelist Andrew O'Hagan announces his entry into the foray of 21st-century writers with great promise. His first novel is as much a test as it is a book.

O'Hagan hasn't written the greatest first novel ever written, in "Our Fathers." He has, however, written a sublimely adequate novel that should leave readers wondering what the author has in store. For a first novel, "Our Fathers," is, perhaps, technically unsurpassed. It's structure, language, and plot are all expertly presented and well recieved. O'Hagan's fault is in his commitment to his characters, all of whom seem superficially created. His is a great story, well told, with characters in whom we never really trust or believe.

Interestingly, the same could be said of early James Joyce, or even Ernest Hemingway. I would place O'Hagan's potential somewhere between the two of those giants; not quite as intelectually distancing as Joyce, not quite as forceful as Hemingway.

O'Hagan is, no doubt, a gifted writer. This book is fun to read, if only to imagine what it might precede in this genuinely talented writer's career.

Here's hoping he continues...

Rating:
Summary: "Our Fathers" an Auspicious Beginning for O'Hagan
Review: With "Our Fathers," rookie novelist Andrew O'Hagan announces his entry into the foray of 21st-century writers with great promise. His first novel is as much a test as it is a book.

O'Hagan hasn't written the greatest first novel ever written, in "Our Fathers." He has, however, written a sublimely adequate novel that should leave readers wondering what the author has in store. For a first novel, "Our Fathers," is, perhaps, technically unsurpassed. It's structure, language, and plot are all expertly presented and well recieved. O'Hagan's fault is in his commitment to his characters, all of whom seem superficially created. His is a great story, well told, with characters in whom we never really trust or believe.

Interestingly, the same could be said of early James Joyce, or even Ernest Hemingway. I would place O'Hagan's potential somewhere between the two of those giants; not quite as intelectually distancing as Joyce, not quite as forceful as Hemingway.

O'Hagan is, no doubt, a gifted writer. This book is fun to read, if only to imagine what it might precede in this genuinely talented writer's career.

Here's hoping he continues...