A lot happens in the first 15 pages of
A.M. Homes’ latest novel, May We Be
Forgiven: infidelity, a car crash that leaves a young boy orphaned, and a
horrific assault that suddenly and drastically changes the lives of protagonist
Harry Silver and his entire family. It’s a heck of a start, and as the novel
continues it remains jam-packed with action, scandal and misadventure: health
crises, botched Justice Department missions, a series of internet-initiated
sexual escapades, the murder of a young local woman, and a near-hijacking in
Africa.
But these are all minor plots and
subplots; a backdrop to Harry’s progression as a character. He begins the novel
married and childless, but in the wake of a family tragedy, he finds himself
divorced and the guardian of his pre-teen niece and nephew, whom he initially
described as ‘absent children, absent of personality, absent of presence’.
Harry doesn’t like Nate and Ashley very much, and he isn’t a particularly
likeable character himself. He is strangely unaffected by the dramatic and
life-altering events he has experienced, which at first seems like poor characterisation,
but is later explained as being part of his character. ‘I don’t get angry,’ he explains at one
point. ‘Mostly I don’t have any feelings.’
In the wake of these events (but
unrelated to them), Harry is also fired from his position as a Nixon academic
in favour of a new ‘fellow who has a new way of teaching history’. It’s
ironically a ‘future-forward’ approach, which the college considers ‘less
depressing’. This is one of Homes’ many spot-on comments about contemporary
culture, which she captures brilliantly.
There is a
world out there, so new, so random and disassociated that it puts us all in
danger. We talk online, we “friend” each other when we don’t know who we are
really talking to – we fuck strangers. We mistake almost anything for a relationship,
a community of sorts, and yet, when we are with our families, in our
communities, we are clueless, we short-circuit and immediately dive back into
the digitized version – it is easier.
But Harry’s evolution takes a different
course. He finds himself part of an ever-growing and very real community,
taking in an orphan and, improbably, the elderly parents of one of his sexual
partners. He becomes a dedicated surrogate son and capable parent, and through
these relationships becomes a better and more likable man. At Nate’s Bar
Mitzvah, which takes place in a small South African village, he gives a
poignant speech:
I go on to
say that it wasn’t until this grievous family tragedy that I began to see Nate
as a person in his own right. ‘Nate has pushed me to be a better version of
myself, to expect more – to rise to an occasion and not run from it or sink
beneath it,’ I say. ‘The circumstances of his life were not of his choice, but
when I see Nate, and Ashley and Ricardo, I am impressed with their resiliency.
What I have learned this year is that the job of parent is to help the child
become the person he or she already is.’
This speech and Harry’s overall
evolution into an emotionally connected man are moving, but also trite. Homes
overdoes it in a number of ways, and the result is a somewhat cluttered
novel. Too many outlandish things
happen, with too little introspection about them from the first-person
narrator. Too much personal growth occurs; the change in Harry is too drastic
and overwritten to ring true.
May
We Be Forgiven is an entertaining
novel in that it bounces around from episode to episode, many of them crazy and
humorous. Occasionally, emotional chords are struck as Harry becomes the father
he never thought he’d be. It’s impossible to get bored reading this book, but
this reader was left with the sensation that Homes could have and should have
done more by doing less.
Rating:
3 stars out of 5
May We Be Forgiven
By
A.M. Homes
Paperback,
369pp, RRP $29.99
ISBN
978-1-84708-322-7
Allen
& Unwin/Granta
