"My father always said one wasn't a man and knew nothing of life until one could read the local newspaper from cover to cover and find every item interesting. Everything from the church news to the prices of used cars, from the legal notices to the births, marriages and deaths."
Be Near Me(2006) was a Newsday Favorite Book of the Year, San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Best Book of the Year, Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, Library Journal Best Book of the Year and was also nominated for the Booker Award.
What is the good life that all must live? Is it in the forever fun-loving and innocent nature of youngsters? Can it be found lingering late at night within the haunts of metropolitan atmosphere? Is it anything like what was expected? Has it been there all along, in the lifelong journeys, the good and the bad?
This was a good book. It's as if the character contained within moves, eked of their own will and desires, to flagrantly disagree with the perpetuities the reader will find written on each page. The content is richly perceivable, written just like it had been lived. There is a strong sense of spontaneity in a bleak yet beautiful and well-loved atmosphere.
Father David Anderton is a Catholic priest with an education hailing from Oxford. His views are intelligent, prototypical and naive. All good-hearted, learned men must in fact be very naive or masochistic. Father Anderton devotes his life to helping his parish understand the religious soul as Christ saw it. More specifically, he is like a well-cultured, highly cynical, lost puppy. The problem being that he doesn't ever seem to crack a laugh despite literally constant antics incongruous with any sort of reverend-like behavior.
The novel is set in several different time periods, assumably the 1930s to 1970s within England and Scotland. David Anderton grows up never having understood his own father. His mother simply says his father really knew the way things were and what to do about it. Anderton lives the majority of his life bereft of a companion, helping others who are in need. It may seem a pleasurable existence, but his inner soul trapped in methodical boredom is not satisfied.
O'Hagan's style is like walking in a painting, except the people are real. In fact, that's one of the things written that are a part of the story. I could not eludicate on it any better than that, it is exactly accurate. From the moments of a garden kept within a church (enter: Final Fantasy 7?), asides between child and mother, men of great faith at a table, to end-all moments within a courtroom, a theme glitters, fluorishes and leaves the reader with a prism of deeply manifested roleplay.
Be Near Me was another choice from 'must read' book lists. The cover of my particular book featured an unerring masterpiece of an 80's haircut done up in sepia tones. This title was, yet again, an interesting experience that I would have otherwise possibly never picked up. I'd like to include more in the novel review about it, but every piece of description seems to produce spoilers that I am unwilling to yield.
Be Near Me(2006) was a Newsday Favorite Book of the Year, San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Best Book of the Year, Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, Library Journal Best Book of the Year and was also nominated for the Booker Award.
What is the good life that all must live? Is it in the forever fun-loving and innocent nature of youngsters? Can it be found lingering late at night within the haunts of metropolitan atmosphere? Is it anything like what was expected? Has it been there all along, in the lifelong journeys, the good and the bad?
This was a good book. It's as if the character contained within moves, eked of their own will and desires, to flagrantly disagree with the perpetuities the reader will find written on each page. The content is richly perceivable, written just like it had been lived. There is a strong sense of spontaneity in a bleak yet beautiful and well-loved atmosphere.
Father David Anderton is a Catholic priest with an education hailing from Oxford. His views are intelligent, prototypical and naive. All good-hearted, learned men must in fact be very naive or masochistic. Father Anderton devotes his life to helping his parish understand the religious soul as Christ saw it. More specifically, he is like a well-cultured, highly cynical, lost puppy. The problem being that he doesn't ever seem to crack a laugh despite literally constant antics incongruous with any sort of reverend-like behavior.
The novel is set in several different time periods, assumably the 1930s to 1970s within England and Scotland. David Anderton grows up never having understood his own father. His mother simply says his father really knew the way things were and what to do about it. Anderton lives the majority of his life bereft of a companion, helping others who are in need. It may seem a pleasurable existence, but his inner soul trapped in methodical boredom is not satisfied.
O'Hagan's style is like walking in a painting, except the people are real. In fact, that's one of the things written that are a part of the story. I could not eludicate on it any better than that, it is exactly accurate. From the moments of a garden kept within a church (enter: Final Fantasy 7?), asides between child and mother, men of great faith at a table, to end-all moments within a courtroom, a theme glitters, fluorishes and leaves the reader with a prism of deeply manifested roleplay.
Be Near Me was another choice from 'must read' book lists. The cover of my particular book featured an unerring masterpiece of an 80's haircut done up in sepia tones. This title was, yet again, an interesting experience that I would have otherwise possibly never picked up. I'd like to include more in the novel review about it, but every piece of description seems to produce spoilers that I am unwilling to yield.
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