Reviews

My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor

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cwill89's review

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adventurous emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

clmckinney's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This is the story of Hugh O'Flaherty who was a priest at the Vatican during WW2. We see as a group of people assist with the resistance and help the persecuted. I really loved O'Connor's previous novel Shadowplay. I think his writing is pretty good. I read this book because of the author and because it is on the Walter Scott Prize list. But sadly, I didn't care for the subject matter. I am not a fan of WW2 books as I have read too many of them. So although the writing and the action of the novel were good, I found the book a bit of a slog to get through. I give this a 3.7/5.

berylbird's review

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emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

We don’t go to a novel for a sermon, but in a time that has its troubles, it’s good to have stories of courage and coming through, and in a time when there’s too much fixation on the differences between people, we need stories about making a stand for one another. And I like a story about men and women who question what they’re told. They remind me we’re not actually here to obey fools or monsters. We’re here to stand up for better. From an interview with Joseph O’Connor

Standing up for others and for better is the throughline of “My Father’s House.” The story revolves around the fascinating character of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, a priest from Kerry, Ireland, who has landed in the Vatican. However, it is far from his story alone. ‘The Choir’ composed of some of O’Flaherty’s friends and associates are also major notes in this storytelling venture. Their undercover mission is to help escaped prisoners and Jews flee Nazi-occupied Italy. Significantly they were Catholic, Atheist, and Communist, but they did not let theology nor political ideology deter them from the partnerships crucial to their success.

This moderately-paced story is written in short chapters. Each chapter takes on the POV of a member of ‘The Choir,’ with most chapters coming from Father Hugh O’Flaherty’s POV. With this multi-voiced approach, O’Connor deftly develops generous character analyses. These characters are operating under the stress of the Nazi regime with everything they’re doing promising death if they’re caught. An hourly countdown to the 1943 Christmas Eve Rendimento (mission) is given in chapter subtitles. 1962 interviews and written statements are interspersed with these chapters plus an excerpt from a memoir. The action of the story and the countdown intensify the suspense.

Father Hugh O’Flaherty is a flawed and honorable man. Once Paul Hauptmann, “the Gestapo chief of Rome” is introduced, the lines between good and evil fall into place like tetra blocks. Hauptmann’s favorite “interrogation tool is the blowtorch” and he would love nothing better than to drag O’Flaherty in for a torch blowing. Hauptmann is aware that an Escape Line is operating in Rome and he thinks he knows who the major players are but so far he’s been unable to catch them or prove anything.

Father O’Flaherty’s fight is not only with the Nazis. The Pope and others of his superiors have told him to stand down lest the Nazis disregard the Vatican’s neutrality and destroy it and hundreds of years of Christian culture and history. O’Connor reveals O’Flaherty’s internal and external struggles, his angels and demons.

This is my first time reading Joseph O’Connor. I enjoyed his prose style which had its soaring moments.

“Some consolation of the spirit, some release happens when human beings sing in a group, wherever and however that occurs. In a place of worship, on the terraces of a football stadium, in a cramped and draughty attic, bombers droning overhead. Nearly all music has beauty, but when it includes the marriage of baritone and soprano, of bass and alto, chorus and soloist, it becomes something more than merely the upliftingly beautiful. Harmony is an everyday, achievable miracle.”

This is a beautiful description of the magic of music and an analogy for the achievements of the unique “Choir” in this story where the sum became more than the parts.

sarajg's review

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

burrowsi1's review

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challenging informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

portybelle's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The author grabbed my attention from the very first dramatic chapter when diplomat’s wife Delia races through the streets of occupied Rome with a seriously ill man in the back seat of her Daimler. One of the other passengers is Father Hugh O’Flaherty, an Irish Catholic priest and part of the resistance movement.

O’Flaherty was instrumental in helping thousands of allied soldiers and Jews escape during the Second World War. The Escape Line, as it was known, referred to those escaping as books with their hiding places were shelves. Those involved in The Escape Line became members of ‘The Choir’, a way they could meet without arousing too much suspicion.

I thought the way the author told his story was brilliant. We hear from the points of view of many of the different characters through different styles of writing. For example, some chapters are straight forward narrative, while others are written as extracts from memoirs of those involved in The Escape Line or as if transcripts from interviews in later years. The varying time periods and individual voices blended beautifully to build up the complete narrative.

This is a powerful read with the chapters in the hours before the Rendimento, the code word for the mission, adding a particular sense of urgency. The book is all the more compelling knowing it’s based on real events and real people: real heroes I would say. This is the first in what is planned to be a trilogy with the second book, The Ghosts of Rome, due to be published in January 2025. I will definitely be reading that as I thought My Father’s House was superb, one of my favourite reads this year.