May We Be Forgiven in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 28, 2012 Sam rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2013, 1-contemp-literary, reviewed, tournament-of-books13

In May We Be Forgiven, Nixon scholar Harold Silver gets his life turned upside down when a series of tragedies disrupts his numb, lonely existence. The upheaval leaves him in custody of his brother’s two young children and sets off a chain of events that force Harold to work out his baggage as well as engage with other people and with the concerns of the world. As Harold mentions in the first part of the book, “It’s as though I’ve been waiting for my life to rev up and get going for years. Somet In May We Be Forgiven, Nixon scholar Harold Silver gets his life turned upside down when a series of tragedies disrupts his numb, lonely existence. The upheaval leaves him in custody of his brother’s two young children and sets off a chain of events that force Harold to work out his baggage as well as engage with other people and with the concerns of the world. As Harold mentions in the first part of the book, “It’s as though I’ve been waiting for my life to rev up and get going for years. Sometimes I thought I was making progress, getting closer; other times it was like I was simply waiting to be discovered—by who? Looking at myself, my half-spent life, I find it unbearable that this is where I have ended up. Is my life over? Did it ever begin?” (177)

People weren’t kidding when they said that a lot happens in this book. One after the other, traumatic events and silly shenanigans come in quick succession. Just within the first 100 pages, we already have tons of crazy shit popping up, including: (view spoiler)

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. We also have Harold taking care of a cute Latino kid, taking all of the kids on a sojourn to an African village where his nephew had built a school for them as a side project, not mention undertaking a potentially groundbreaking Nixon project.

Despite its huge size, the story was a fast read, no doubt helped by the good writing and all of the action. But it’s a difficult to book to pin down. The book is mostly realistic, but is dotted with a lot of slapsticky, bizarre set pieces too. (view spoiler) I didn’t mind these ridiculous story threads, but they did lend the novel a kind of TV show feel, which kept me at a distance. The tone was also pretty light and not consonant with what you’d think you’re supposed to feel. Readers are treated to what are some serious situations, like the murder of the sister-in-law or inappropriate teacher-student interactions, but none of them feels horrific in the way that they would if this were a more realistic novel. I guess it was dark comedy? Moreover, really sharp insight into life was placed right next to seemingly trite, maudlin clichés. It’s hard to articulate why I couldn’t wrap my head around how to assess this book, but this is a big part of it.

In any case, this was a perfectly entertaining story until close to the end with the trip to Africa. For both Harold’s kind-of-adoption of the Latino kid as well as the Africa part, there have been criticisms that the book falls back into some “white man’s burden story” of the white guy going to rescue the “brown people.” I can see how these two storylines could rub people the wrong way, but as I read it, Howard’s motivations seemed sincere enough that I was willing to cut Homes a break on this front. But then we get to one of the conversations between Howard’s nephew and the folks in that African village. The nephew gets pissed off because the people in that village want to use the money that he raised for them on consumer items like refrigerators and guitars and Vespas. The kid’s lecturing to the villagers cannot be interpreted as anything but condescending. Check this passage exchange out:

(461-2) ‘Enough,’ Nate says. ‘You are becoming just like us: you aren’t thinking of your village, of your parents, your children, your future; you’re thinking that you want a fancy car and a gigantic TV.’…

‘The child is pointing the way,’ Londisizwe says.

So these people are supposedly so stupid and childish that they need to be lectured to by a child? More than condescending, it’s offensive. And to add on to that, the language sounds awkward and amateurish in this section. I’ve never read A.M. Homes before so am not very familiar with her style of writing, but understand that she is a super respected writer. So did she make this part awful, terrible, and awkward on purpose and most of us just don’t get it? I don’t know, but it almost ruined all of the good will I had toward the characters and the book.At the end I gave it 3 stars because most of what came before this was an okay story.
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