In 1945, a
16-year-old girl is banished from her Irish village because she is unmarried
and pregnant. She flees to Dublin where
she gives her son up for adoption. Cyril
is adopted by a wealthy, unaffectionate couple, Maude and Charles Avery, who
constantly remind him that he is “not really an Avery.” The novel, in 7-year increments, focuses on
Cyril’s life from birth until the age of 70.
He struggles to come to terms with his sexuality and lives in fear because
he is gay in a society in which homosexuality is a criminal offense. He remains closeted for many years, resorting
to numerous, anonymous sexual liaisons; it is only when he leaves Ireland that
he has a loving relationship with another man.
This book
is in many ways an indictment of Ireland.
At one point, Cyril describes Dublin as “a city I loved at the heart of
a country I loathed. A town filled with
good-hearted innocents, miserable bigots, adulterous husbands, conniving
churchmen, paupers who received no help from the State, and millionaires who
sucked the lifeblood from it.” Later, in
a conversation with Cyril, one character summarizes what is undoubtedly the
author’s view of the country: “’What’s
wrong with you people?’ he asked, looking at me as if I was clinically
insane. ‘What’s wrong with Ireland? Are you all just fucking nuts over there, is
that it? Don’t you want each other to be
happy?’”
The book focuses
on the Catholic Church’s dominance. The
first sentence of the novel draws attention to the church’s hypocrisy: “Long before we discovered that he had
fathered two children by two different women, one in Drimoleague and one in
Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood on the altar of the Church of Our Lady of
the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West Cork, and denounced my mother as a
whore.” The priest allows that the
father of the unborn child can “’give his confession and be forgiven’” but no
such compassion is shown to the woman.
Homosexuality
is such a crime in Ireland that a father who kills his homosexual son is not
punished: “’The jury let him off, but no
great surprises there. A jury of twelve other
fat old Irish bastards who said that his son was mentally disordered and so he
had the right to do what he did to him.’”
The book ends with Ireland’s legalization of same-sex marriage, so
progress is made in the country by the end of the book, though Boyne shows that
attitudes towards gays are changing more slowly. Interestingly, the book’s release predated only
by a few months the election of an openly gay man as Taoiseach.
Politicians
are also shown to be hypocrites; a young up-and-coming politician who is being
seen as a potential future minister speaks of his plans: “’I don’t like
drinking in my own constituency. . . . People come up to me all the time over
there and ask me about potholes and electricity charges and will I come to
their kids’ sports day at school to hand out the medals, and you know, I really
couldn’t give a fuck about any of that stuff. . . . [I’m interested in]
climbing the ladder. Reaching the highest rung that I can. . . . Why can’t I
just seek advancement and try to get to the top and then, when I’m there, if I
can do something positive with it, then that’s great, and if I can’t, sure I’ll
just enjoy being the top man.’” This
same politician is gay but is getting married to a woman because “’My
constituents expect that of me. The
party expects that of me. There’s no way
that I’m going anywhere unless I have a wife and children.’”
There are
many humourous scenes in the novel. A
woman argues that her son is not guilty of a murder for which he is
incarcerated: “’But there’s no real
evidence, other than fingerprints, DNA and an eyewitness.’” A couple makes disparaging comments about
gays, not realizing that Cyril is gay: “’We
never would have said such things if we’d known that you were the gay homosexual. . . . We’d never say such thing to a
person’s face . . . Of course, I should have realized . . Now that I look at that jumper you’re
wearing, I suppose I should have guessed.’”
A woman has a gay couple as roommates, but she is rather naïve: “And the bed itself was hardly big enough for
one, let alone the pair of them sleeping top-to-tail. It was no wonder, she told herself, that she
heard the most peculiar sounds emerging from there during the nights. The poor boys must have had a terrible time
trying to sleep.” The novel deals with
some very serious issues, so the comic scenes are a welcome reprieve.
Watching
Cyril’s personal growth is one of the enjoyable aspects of the novel. At the beginning he is totally cowed by
society’s attitudes to homosexuals. He
lives in shame, telling no one about his sexual orientation. As a young man, he is also as a friend
describes him: “A selfish, arrogant,
conceited shit who thinks the world has done you such a bad turn that you can
do whatever you like to get back at it.’”
Later, we see someone who laughs at people’s ignorance, takes pride in
not deceiving “a single person about my sexuality,” and realizes there’s “’no
reason why he shouldn’t be held accountable for the things he did in the past. ‘”
The novel
is lengthy but very readable, though there are weaknesses. One problem is the preponderance of
coincidence. For instance, several times
characters encounter each other in different parts of the world. It seems that the writer was aware of his use
of barely credible coincidences because he has Cyril commenting, “It was
possible, of course, that it had been pure coincidence, that the use of that
phrase . . . was just chance.” Another problem is that women have a habit of
becoming pregnant after having sex only once.
Perhaps it was intentional, but some of the characters are portrayed as
being rather stupid. A university
student doesn’t know the word fatwa? Another university student doesn’t know who
Klaus Barbie was? A politician doesn’t
know the difference between libel and slander?
I had not
read any of Boyne’s books other than his The
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; having enjoyed that one and this one as well, I
think I need to read more by this writer.
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