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My Son, My Son
The story of William Essex, who rose from humble beginnings to become a successful dramatist and novelist, and his friend Dermot O'Riordon, a fervent Irish patriot and founder of a great London furnishing house; and their sons, Oliver Essex and Rory O'Riordon. Plus some other assorted characters, from old Mr Moscrop and his daughter Nellie, and Maeve O'Riordon. Those boys grow up in friendship, but the passing years create circumstances that divide them as their fathers learn the hard way that sons do not always develop the way a parent might wish.
656 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
42 people are currently reading
449 people want to read
About the author
Howard Spring
64 books35 followersHOWARD SPRING was an immensely popular and successful writer, who enjoyed a large following of readers from the 1940s to the 1960s; and though, since his death in 1965, he has become rather neglected, his books are still worth seeking out for their terrific storytelling and the quality of the writing. He was certainly painstaking and professional in his approach. Every morning he would shut himself in his study and write one thousand words, steadily building up to novels of around one hundred and fifty thousand words. He rarely made major alterations to his writings (all completed with a dip-in pen!).
Howard Spring started out as a journalist, but from 1934 produced a series of best-selling novels, the most successful of which were My Son My Son and Fame is the Spur.
He was born in Cardiff in 1889 in humble circumstances, one of nine children and the son of a jobbing gardener who died while Howard was still at school. He left school at the age of 12 to begin work as an errand boy, later becoming an office boy at a firm of accountants in Cardiff Docks, and then a messenger at the South Wales Daily News. Spring was keen to train as a reporter, and was largely self-taught --he spent his leisure time learning shorthand and taking evening classes, where he studied English, French, Latin, mathematics and history. He mastered English grammar by studying a book on the subject by William Cobbett.
He worked his way up to become a reporter on the South Wales Daily News, and then in 1911 he joined the Yorkshire Observer in Bradford. By 1915 he was on the Manchester Guardian –proof that he was a young man with much talent. Soon afterwards he was called up for the Army Service Corps, where he served as a shorthand typist. After the war, he returned to the paper in Manchester and worked as a reporter on a paper that allowed journalists to write and express themselves. In 1931, after reporting on a political meeting at which Lord Beaverbrook was the speaker, Beaverbrook was so impressed by Spring's piece (he described the man as ‘a pedlar of dreams’) that he arranged for Spring to be offered a post with the Evening Standard in London, where he eventually became a book reviewer –a successor to Arnold Bennett and J.B. Priestley.
At the same time, Spring was developing his ambition to become a full-time writer. He thought he could do a lot better than many of the so-called authors whose books he was asked to review! His first book, Darkie and Co, came out in 1932 (in this period he wrote a number of children’s books for his sons), followed by his first novel, Shabby Tiger (September 1934) and a sequel, Rachel Rosing (1935).
His first major success came in February 1938 with My Son, My Son (originally titled O Absalom, but, happily, changed when William Faulkner used a similar title in the United States), and in 1939 he was able to move to Cornwall to become a full-time writer (he and his wife, Marion, eventually settled at The White Cottage in Fenwick Road, where they remained for the rest of their married life). In 1940, his best-known work, Fame is the Spur, the story of a Labour leader's rise to power, was published. This is without doubt a superb novel, and probably the one book by Spring that is still being read more than 40 years after his death.
During the war years Spring wrote two other novels, Hard Facts (1944) and Dunkerley's (1946), and, subsequently he published There is No Armour (1948), The Houses in Between (1951), A Sunset Touch (1953), These Lovers Fled Away (1955), Time and the Hour (1957), All The Day Long (1959) and I Met a Lady (1961). Spring also produced three volumes of autobiography--Heaven Lies About Us (1939), In the Meantime (1942); and And Another Thing (1946)—which were later published in one volume as The Autobiography (1972). His last book was Winds of the Day (1964).
It is relevant to note that many of his books had Manchester settings, which led to him being referred to as ‘The Manchester Man’, and
Howard Spring started out as a journalist, but from 1934 produced a series of best-selling novels, the most successful of which were My Son My Son and Fame is the Spur.
He was born in Cardiff in 1889 in humble circumstances, one of nine children and the son of a jobbing gardener who died while Howard was still at school. He left school at the age of 12 to begin work as an errand boy, later becoming an office boy at a firm of accountants in Cardiff Docks, and then a messenger at the South Wales Daily News. Spring was keen to train as a reporter, and was largely self-taught --he spent his leisure time learning shorthand and taking evening classes, where he studied English, French, Latin, mathematics and history. He mastered English grammar by studying a book on the subject by William Cobbett.
He worked his way up to become a reporter on the South Wales Daily News, and then in 1911 he joined the Yorkshire Observer in Bradford. By 1915 he was on the Manchester Guardian –proof that he was a young man with much talent. Soon afterwards he was called up for the Army Service Corps, where he served as a shorthand typist. After the war, he returned to the paper in Manchester and worked as a reporter on a paper that allowed journalists to write and express themselves. In 1931, after reporting on a political meeting at which Lord Beaverbrook was the speaker, Beaverbrook was so impressed by Spring's piece (he described the man as ‘a pedlar of dreams’) that he arranged for Spring to be offered a post with the Evening Standard in London, where he eventually became a book reviewer –a successor to Arnold Bennett and J.B. Priestley.
At the same time, Spring was developing his ambition to become a full-time writer. He thought he could do a lot better than many of the so-called authors whose books he was asked to review! His first book, Darkie and Co, came out in 1932 (in this period he wrote a number of children’s books for his sons), followed by his first novel, Shabby Tiger (September 1934) and a sequel, Rachel Rosing (1935).
His first major success came in February 1938 with My Son, My Son (originally titled O Absalom, but, happily, changed when William Faulkner used a similar title in the United States), and in 1939 he was able to move to Cornwall to become a full-time writer (he and his wife, Marion, eventually settled at The White Cottage in Fenwick Road, where they remained for the rest of their married life). In 1940, his best-known work, Fame is the Spur, the story of a Labour leader's rise to power, was published. This is without doubt a superb novel, and probably the one book by Spring that is still being read more than 40 years after his death.
During the war years Spring wrote two other novels, Hard Facts (1944) and Dunkerley's (1946), and, subsequently he published There is No Armour (1948), The Houses in Between (1951), A Sunset Touch (1953), These Lovers Fled Away (1955), Time and the Hour (1957), All The Day Long (1959) and I Met a Lady (1961). Spring also produced three volumes of autobiography--Heaven Lies About Us (1939), In the Meantime (1942); and And Another Thing (1946)—which were later published in one volume as The Autobiography (1972). His last book was Winds of the Day (1964).
It is relevant to note that many of his books had Manchester settings, which led to him being referred to as ‘The Manchester Man’, and
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
June 5, 2019
(4.5) This is the second gem I’ve read from the new Apollo reprint series, after Josephine Johnson’s Now in November. It opens in working-class Manchester in the 1870s and stretches through the aftermath of World War I. Like a Dickensian urchin, William Essex escapes his humble situation thanks to a kind benefactor and becomes a writer. His best friend is Dermot O’Riorden, a fervid Irish Republican. William’s and Dermot’s are roughly parallel tracks. Their sons’ lives, however, are a different matter. Oliver Essex and Rory O’Riorden are born on the same day, and it’s clear at once that both fathers intend to live vicariously through their sons.
My Son, My Son struck me as an unusual window onto World War I, a subject I’ve otherwise wearied of in fiction. A straight line could be drawn between Great Expectations, Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, My Son, My Son, and The Goldfinch: all four feature a simultaneously sympathetic and enraging protagonist who overcomes family difficulties to dream of fame and fortune. No mere period or local interest piece, this is a book for the ages.
Note: When first published in 1938, this was entitled O Absalom! However, considering Faulkner’s similar title, Absalom, Absalom! (1936), it was renamed.
See my full review at Shiny New Books.
My Son, My Son struck me as an unusual window onto World War I, a subject I’ve otherwise wearied of in fiction. A straight line could be drawn between Great Expectations, Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, My Son, My Son, and The Goldfinch: all four feature a simultaneously sympathetic and enraging protagonist who overcomes family difficulties to dream of fame and fortune. No mere period or local interest piece, this is a book for the ages.
Note: When first published in 1938, this was entitled O Absalom! However, considering Faulkner’s similar title, Absalom, Absalom! (1936), it was renamed.
See my full review at Shiny New Books.
January 31, 2015
If I was to sum this book up in one sentence it would be, To a large extent, for good or bad, we are a product of our upbringing.
William and Dermont are two close friends who plan and plot and ultimately live their lives through their two sons, Oliver and Rory.
William is a man who lived a hardscrabble life but pulled himself up by his bootstaps to become a successful novelist. He determines to never let his son lack a thing. He must have everything money can buy and become an even greater man than his father.
Dermont is a frustrated Irish radical but with marriage, a growing family, and a booming carpentry business tying his hands, he must pass his political fervor onto the next generation. His son will right the wrongs he himself could only dream about ..
Well, be careful what you wish for.
"My Son, My Son" is a saga spanning about 35 years. WW1 will arrive when the two sons become of age, with consequences that rock both families to the core. And brooding for decades, the Irish rebellion finally reaches a crescendo with Bloody Sunday and catapults Ireland into confusion, mayhem and terror.
This is my first Howard Spring book and I found him immensely readable. I would compare his style as a cross between Diane Pearson and Warwick Deeping. The male protagonist here is not particularly likeable but at the same time is very human and so its hard to look away. The last 100 pages are unputdownable.
Recommended for adult readers who like chunky family sagas from the turn of the century.
CONTENT:
SEX: One steamy scene which eventually fades to black but takes a while in doing so (two pages). Surprising for a book written in the 1930s
VIOLENCE: Some wartime fighting. Nothing very graphic but people do die.
PROFANITY: Fairly liberal sprinkling of D's, B's and religious cussing.
This would have been 5 stars for me except for 1) some unlikable people were main characters and 2) major foreshadowing in the narrative that ammounted to spoilers. I really dislike that.
But it is so completely engrossing that 4 stars seems almost stingy...
William and Dermont are two close friends who plan and plot and ultimately live their lives through their two sons, Oliver and Rory.
William is a man who lived a hardscrabble life but pulled himself up by his bootstaps to become a successful novelist. He determines to never let his son lack a thing. He must have everything money can buy and become an even greater man than his father.
Dermont is a frustrated Irish radical but with marriage, a growing family, and a booming carpentry business tying his hands, he must pass his political fervor onto the next generation. His son will right the wrongs he himself could only dream about ..
Well, be careful what you wish for.
"My Son, My Son" is a saga spanning about 35 years. WW1 will arrive when the two sons become of age, with consequences that rock both families to the core. And brooding for decades, the Irish rebellion finally reaches a crescendo with Bloody Sunday and catapults Ireland into confusion, mayhem and terror.
This is my first Howard Spring book and I found him immensely readable. I would compare his style as a cross between Diane Pearson and Warwick Deeping. The male protagonist here is not particularly likeable but at the same time is very human and so its hard to look away. The last 100 pages are unputdownable.
Recommended for adult readers who like chunky family sagas from the turn of the century.
CONTENT:
SEX: One steamy scene which eventually fades to black but takes a while in doing so (two pages). Surprising for a book written in the 1930s
VIOLENCE: Some wartime fighting. Nothing very graphic but people do die.
PROFANITY: Fairly liberal sprinkling of D's, B's and religious cussing.
This would have been 5 stars for me except for 1) some unlikable people were main characters and 2) major foreshadowing in the narrative that ammounted to spoilers. I really dislike that.
But it is so completely engrossing that 4 stars seems almost stingy...
June 30, 2017
My son gave me this book he found at a used bookstore. He knew I'd love it because it had an inscription written it. It was dated Christmas, 1939. He knows I collect books like that. They fascinate me. But I'd never read anything by Howard Spring, and had no idea what it was about. I was hooked from the beginning. And just like someone else on here said, good or bad, you are the product of how you were raised. Great book that everyone should read. I'd have loved it as a teenager, and wish I'd known about it then. I'd like to know what I thought about it then, compared to now, reading it as an adult.
August 14, 2016
Επικεντρώνεται στο πόσο μπορούν να απέχουν οι προσδοκίες ενός γονιού για το παιδί του από την πορεία που θα χαράξει το ίδιο το παιδί για τον εαυτό του και το πώς η αγάπη του γονιού για το παιδί μπορεί να παραμείνει ακλόνητη, ακόμη και ύστερα από αποτρόπαιες πράξεις του δεύτερου. Το μοτίβο του "Άσωτου Υιού" στο αποκορύφωμά του και η συγκινητική συγχώρεση του παιδιού από τον πατέρα. Η πρώτη φορά που έκλαψα διαβάζοντας ένα βιβλίο.
June 9, 2020
I have an old copy of his book that I remember buying in a used book store at the beach about 45 years ago. I had read several novels by Howard Spring during the past year, and so was interested in this one. I remembered liking it a lot and so pulled it out to reread last week. Published in 1938, it’s an absorbing story of two families and especially of the love of two fathers for their sons. I particularly loved the first half of the book when the narrator, William Essex was growing up in Manchester and making his way from an impoverished childhood to becoming a prosperous novelist. The second half of the book is a bit too melodramatic for me, but always interesting. Since the history of the time—it spans the years from 1870 to 1922– plays such an important part of the story, I was surprised there was no mention of the flu pandemic of 1918-19.
December 10, 2022
A few books pass by you: you meet them, enjoy them, feel them and then they go on their way. some books stop their way and stay with you forever. I haven’t written a review in a long time and I can’t say much that will do ‘my son, my son’ justice, but it is undoubtedly a literary piece, so rawly truthful, so painfully depicting of the unconditional love parents will always have for the children. we are a product of our upbringing. I’m forever partial to this book. It’s making me write a review and if I’m being honest, I only write such inconsistent half-finished reviews for the books I gave a piece of myself to. [5/5⭐️]
January 21, 2020
The reviews all do justice to My Son, My Son, but there is a fine film version, produced in 1940 with Madeleine Carroll, Brian Aherne, Louis Hayward and a wonderful Laraine Day, who because of her fine work in this picture, was cast by Alfred Hitchcock and Walter Wanger in Foreign Correspondent. Both, or all three, are must not miss events.
August 2, 2019
An old favourite. Very emotional story set in Ireland. Heartbreaking.
November 27, 2022
This heart-robbing story took me by surprise and had some unpredictable turns. The scenery of Manchester and Falmouth is beautifully and accurately described which really brings this period to life. It was devastating to experience the full blown tragedy of this initially hopeful tale but it’s well worth a read.
April 26, 2019
This book was long and very descriptive. A saga about life and how messy it can be. Rory, Oliver, Lavia, Mauve McDermot Nellie all their lives intertwined with the good and bad. It wasn’t one of my favorite books or the worst book I’ve read. A life lesson played out— you reap what you sow.
June 30, 2021
Though long, this is a fine, engrossing family saga, set in the years ranging from 1871 to 1922.
It introduces us to two men and their families, especially their two sons who were born on the same day.
William Essex is a man who has known poverty at its worst, and has attained self-made, hard earned wealth and fame as an author. He married someone with whom he had some affection for but didn't really love. But the son that came from his marriage - Oliver - is someone he loves dearly.
William's life-long friend, Dermot, is a family man, with a stable marriage producing two daughters, and a son with whom he has high hopes for. Dermot is obsessed with Irish national causes and wants his beloved son, Rory, to participate in the cause of fighting against English repression in Ireland.
Sons Oliver and Rory are friends early in their lives but things will become difficult between them in the years that follow. Their doting fathers, in their own different ways, have high hopes for them. But how will things turn out for these two sons, what will be their fates?
William loves his son Oliver and is determined to give him all that he never had as a child.
But Oliver is a somewhat cold, flawed character, will he cause more anguish than happiness for his father?
Dermot wants his son to fight for the causes he himself didn't go out and fight for, and has high expectations of him. Will he one day regret these wishes if/when they come into fruition?
It's worth reading this long book to find out. There are many other characters and storylines that are integral to the book and keep one's interest alive. Another reader has pointed out that the second half of the novel is melodramatic, and that's true, but I do like melodrama. Perhaps the book was a bit longer than it needed to be, but if you stick with it, you'll be rewarded.
Spring writes in a straight-forward manner, and brings alive to the reader a story and characters from a long vanished world. Recommended.
It introduces us to two men and their families, especially their two sons who were born on the same day.
William Essex is a man who has known poverty at its worst, and has attained self-made, hard earned wealth and fame as an author. He married someone with whom he had some affection for but didn't really love. But the son that came from his marriage - Oliver - is someone he loves dearly.
William's life-long friend, Dermot, is a family man, with a stable marriage producing two daughters, and a son with whom he has high hopes for. Dermot is obsessed with Irish national causes and wants his beloved son, Rory, to participate in the cause of fighting against English repression in Ireland.
Sons Oliver and Rory are friends early in their lives but things will become difficult between them in the years that follow. Their doting fathers, in their own different ways, have high hopes for them. But how will things turn out for these two sons, what will be their fates?
William loves his son Oliver and is determined to give him all that he never had as a child.
But Oliver is a somewhat cold, flawed character, will he cause more anguish than happiness for his father?
Dermot wants his son to fight for the causes he himself didn't go out and fight for, and has high expectations of him. Will he one day regret these wishes if/when they come into fruition?
It's worth reading this long book to find out. There are many other characters and storylines that are integral to the book and keep one's interest alive. Another reader has pointed out that the second half of the novel is melodramatic, and that's true, but I do like melodrama. Perhaps the book was a bit longer than it needed to be, but if you stick with it, you'll be rewarded.
Spring writes in a straight-forward manner, and brings alive to the reader a story and characters from a long vanished world. Recommended.
February 29, 2020
Uno dei tanti romanzi della biblioteca di mio padre che egli mi invogliava a leggere e che io per molti anni ho continuato erroneamente a ignorare. Un bel romanzo come se ne scrivevano un tempo che racconta la storia di due famiglie, gli Essex inglesi e i O'Riorden irlandesi, legati da una profonda e indissolubile amicizia fin dalla giovane età di William Essex e Dermot O'Riorden nonostante le loro diverse opinioni politiche. Le loro vite e quelle dei loro figli si incroceranno e si allontaneranno ripetutamente nel corso degli anni attraverso grandi gioie e altrettante tragedie, soddisfazioni personali e inattese cadute fino alla inevitabile resa finale. Un libro scritto benissimo, una lettura che regala forti emozioni
October 11, 2012
I cannot speak too highly of this wonderful novel, and I would urge any of my friends who have not discovered it to seek it out. This and Fame Is The Spur are Howard Spring's best two novels. I first read My Son, My Son when I was about 13 or 14, and the impact it made was such that I could not wait to track down all the other Spring novels then available. His books are very readable, and they capture the life and times of a particular generation so well. It was a different world, then, and we need to be able to understand the way it was for self-made men like the hero William Essex, and, for that matter, Howard Spring.
October 26, 2017
I read this for the first time when I was a teenager, and have re-read it several times since. I am now on a project of reading all of Howard Spring's novels in chronological order, and this was his third - and it is a masterpiece, a leap above the first two. The writing is impeccable and the settings and characters leap out of the page under his treatment. It is - as always - written with love and compassion for the people he is writing about, and with wisdom and sorrow for the inevitable dashing of their foolish hopes.
July 2, 2015
I read it around my sixteen years. I adored it back then. And the thing is that thirty five years after my first reading, I still remember it. But I want to reread it! I wonder how I I am cgoing to evaluate it now
Read
July 28, 2011Beautifully written. I couldn't put it down. If you like Howard Spring, then you'll love this one. His characters are very rich, and make sure you read it with a box of tissues handy!
October 7, 2012
Wonderful evocation of time and place. One of the most engrossing novels I have read.
February 1, 2025
Δεν υπάρχουν λόγια για ένα βιβλίο που το έχεις διαβάσει στα 17 σου κ το θυμάσαι μέχρι τα 50 σου. Κορυφαίο. Πού μπορεί να οδηγήσει η τυφλή αγάπη των γονιων δίχως όρια;
January 8, 2022
Very good story. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Will read more of his books.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Terrific book
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Terrific book
September 27, 2021
Totally splendid
March 26, 2022
Με μία λέξη: Υπέροχο!
December 20, 2025
If you enjoy a fifty year family saga (1870s - 1920s) and can forgive one too many coincidences in an almost implausible plot, this is a belter.
Howard Spring is beautifully sensitive to settings - from urban Manchester to Devon's Carrick Roads and the affluent Big Smoke - and to human relationships of all kinds. The story seems to me to be a warning to fathers impressing their own dreams and hopes on sons. The two fathers in this novel (Dermot and William) met as boys and raised themselves from poverty to great success in their different fields. Each makes less success of raising their respective sons Rory and Oliver; Dermot trains Rory to live his father's unfulfilled dream, William spoils Oliver with everything he never had himself. Rory obliges while Oliver rebels and each suffers. Sticky ends are inevitable but gripping.
Other children, wives and lovers are drawn into this world spun by the two men and their sons so that we see how even talented daughters and clever wives are let down by the egos of these two forceful friends.
There is something of Greek tragedy here, with a violent background of the '14-18 war and struggle for Irish independence.
Howard Spring does humans, hubris and heartbreak very well but it's the beautiful passages around Devon's waterfront and wildlife that provide the dramatic relief from the well-intentioned but domineering dads and the chaos they cause through control.
Howard Spring is beautifully sensitive to settings - from urban Manchester to Devon's Carrick Roads and the affluent Big Smoke - and to human relationships of all kinds. The story seems to me to be a warning to fathers impressing their own dreams and hopes on sons. The two fathers in this novel (Dermot and William) met as boys and raised themselves from poverty to great success in their different fields. Each makes less success of raising their respective sons Rory and Oliver; Dermot trains Rory to live his father's unfulfilled dream, William spoils Oliver with everything he never had himself. Rory obliges while Oliver rebels and each suffers. Sticky ends are inevitable but gripping.
Other children, wives and lovers are drawn into this world spun by the two men and their sons so that we see how even talented daughters and clever wives are let down by the egos of these two forceful friends.
There is something of Greek tragedy here, with a violent background of the '14-18 war and struggle for Irish independence.
Howard Spring does humans, hubris and heartbreak very well but it's the beautiful passages around Devon's waterfront and wildlife that provide the dramatic relief from the well-intentioned but domineering dads and the chaos they cause through control.
August 9, 2022
We Need to Talk About Oliver, the spoilt son of a selfish, self-made narrator.
Spring's breakthrough book now looks more like a dry-run for his masterly 1940 novel, Fame Is the Spur, another sprawling saga in which his sad-eyed chronicler accrues wisdom as he mellows. Except here it's money and Irish Republicanism in place of renown and labour history, and the characterisation is too daft and cartoonish to properly engage.
It isn't just Oliver, whose sole attributes are a physical beauty and a spiralling sociopathy, but the preposterous supporting characters like Irish rabble-rouser Michael Flynn (sample quote: "the peasants haven't so much as a rotten potato to eat") and a mad sea captain who thinks he's Judas Iscariot, comfortably two of the worst creations I've encountered in recent years.
The book does pay off, though, building momentum through an aggregation of incident (and an investment of the reader's time) so vast that you can't help but be affected by it. And if it relies too much on coincidences that it mistakes for fate, its final chapters are certainly its best, as Spring's miserable thesis closes out with a succession of punches to the gut.
Spring's breakthrough book now looks more like a dry-run for his masterly 1940 novel, Fame Is the Spur, another sprawling saga in which his sad-eyed chronicler accrues wisdom as he mellows. Except here it's money and Irish Republicanism in place of renown and labour history, and the characterisation is too daft and cartoonish to properly engage.
It isn't just Oliver, whose sole attributes are a physical beauty and a spiralling sociopathy, but the preposterous supporting characters like Irish rabble-rouser Michael Flynn (sample quote: "the peasants haven't so much as a rotten potato to eat") and a mad sea captain who thinks he's Judas Iscariot, comfortably two of the worst creations I've encountered in recent years.
The book does pay off, though, building momentum through an aggregation of incident (and an investment of the reader's time) so vast that you can't help but be affected by it. And if it relies too much on coincidences that it mistakes for fate, its final chapters are certainly its best, as Spring's miserable thesis closes out with a succession of punches to the gut.
July 28, 2022
I liked this book and I cared at least about the narrator and his best friend and his daughter Maeve. I read this because it was one my Dad mentioned and from which I think he got his belief that children owe nothing to their parents but parents owe everything to their children. I know the story was episodic and full of coincidences and the language is hard for a modern audience. It was redolent of the Victorian era nocel and even felt a little Dickensian in tone and plot. I liked the "gloopy" language. it was not so hard to read as say Saki or others of his time. The description felt integrated not added like Hardy often does and he was able to draw a scene with a few lines. I recognise the universality of the themes, heightened though they must be to make a drama. Much of my liking for the book is this is helped by knowing many of his locations. A satisfying read which I will muse over in the coming weeks
March 17, 2024
So maybe a tragedy about fatherhood wasn’t the best book to read right after my son was born, but here we are. This novel is excellent in the inevitably of its tragedy. You know disaster is coming (the narrator hints at it constantly), but you never know exactly how that tragedy will occur. And when it does, when in the chaos of Bloody Sunday and The Great War our sympathetically flawed protagonist’s tragedies are infinitely more personal and painful, you can’t help but grieve.
My Son, My Son draws heavily on the Biblical tale
of Absalom (from which it drew both its current and original titles) but delivers are story more impactful, painful, and believably disastrous.
My Son, My Son draws heavily on the Biblical tale
of Absalom (from which it drew both its current and original titles) but delivers are story more impactful, painful, and believably disastrous.
March 20, 2025
I read this many years ago and liked it. On reading it again, I enjoyed the description of William growing up in Manchester in poverty,his rise to prosperity and his friendship with Dermot.
The descriptions of life in Manchester and London pre WW1 were interesting.
The later sections of the book were about the problems of both fathers in trying to live through their sons.
The descriptions of life in Manchester and London pre WW1 were interesting.
The later sections of the book were about the problems of both fathers in trying to live through their sons.
February 15, 2025
4.5*
When I rate a book, I round down.
My criteria are:
5.0 - Amazing
4.5 - I loved it
4.0 - I liked it a lot
3.5 - I Liked it
3.0 - It was OK
2.5 - Just
2.0 - I wouldn't bother
1.5 - I didn't like it much
1.0 - I hated it
When I rate a book, I round down.
My criteria are:
5.0 - Amazing
4.5 - I loved it
4.0 - I liked it a lot
3.5 - I Liked it
3.0 - It was OK
2.5 - Just
2.0 - I wouldn't bother
1.5 - I didn't like it much
1.0 - I hated it
August 15, 2021
Beautifully written, as mum always told me! A journey of two friends as they journey through life in the late 1800s and early 1900s in England and Ireland. Loved it!
September 20, 2021
3 stelle e mezza..a tratti un po' lento.
April 5, 2022
Childhood friends lives intwine with political and philosophical differences.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews