This is a compelling story which deals with the sensitive subject of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland from 1964 to 2013. It covers the issues of desire, guilt, denial, moral culpability and looks at the subject from the point of view of the families, victims, perpetrators and the members of the church right up to the Pope. He creates a balanced view which shows not only the perpetrators as guilty but also those who looked on and did nothing, or worse, tried to cover up. Boyne tells the story through the eyes of a Catholic priest in Dublin, Odran, a gentle, sensitive man suited to the ministry where many others were not. By moving from present to past continually, Boyne juxtaposes the characters, and shows how the past gives rise to present situations and this creates the tension which makes the book a page-turner. The book is sensitive and incisive, and also incredibly haunting: it stayed with me for a long time afterwards. A brave subject to tackle, written in an interesting layout where timelines are jumbled up and as a result, the plot is jumbled up like a mystery. The moral of the story, exposed right at the end is thought-provoking and wonderfully finally exposed after being hinted at throughout the book. I wonder whether this book has a more profound effect on Catholics who have moved away from the Church because there are so many hypocrisies noted. Hypocrisies that are an almost daily frustration for those Catholics who question their religion. There were some wonderful sentences in the book: 'That entity I call God but that acts on a whim to destroy our happiness and yet still somehow commands the loyalty of a faithful flock' (p.74); 'I remembered ... the swagger of him, the privileged vulgarity he cultivated among his entitled entourage, and somehow doubted that peacock's blamelessness' (p.120). I thought this was a brilliant book and need to read more John Boyne.
What do You think about A History Of Loneliness (2014)?
Nicely written, etc; struggling to articulate a response to the actual story ...
—ash
An amazing & heartbreaking story - highly recommended
—chris
Guilt by omission. How could he have been so blind.
—qimoon
