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annemariewhelehan's review against another edition
3.0
An aging priest, a parish in Scotland, teenage kids, we know where this is going to end up. Character is well drawn but hard to like, so not exactly an uplifting read.
kelbi's review against another edition
4.0
A very sad book about a sad flawed man. Not uplifting but authentic
sadiereadsagain's review against another edition
2.0
I'll start with a positive - this book is incredibly well written. It flows, the prose is beautiful, the story is well-layered and develops at a steady pace. It is insightful, clever and deals with the subject matter in a non-sensationalist and balanced way.
Which is why it pained me to give it such a low rating...but I just can't see past the glaring flaw in this book. And that flaw is that it just wouldn't happen. Teenagers like Mark and Lisa wouldn't hang about with David in the way portrayed (use and take advantage of, yes, but not socialise), and someone like David (no matter how lonely he was or how deep his mid life crisis went) wouldn't have allowed himself to be in such a position with them. Their worlds were just too far apart, their ages too far apart...I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to engage with the story. That stopped this being a great read, in my opinion.
And don't even get me (native Scot) started on the anti-English stuff. Again, the author made it too extreme and trashed the believability.
Which is why it pained me to give it such a low rating...but I just can't see past the glaring flaw in this book. And that flaw is that it just wouldn't happen. Teenagers like Mark and Lisa wouldn't hang about with David in the way portrayed (use and take advantage of, yes, but not socialise), and someone like David (no matter how lonely he was or how deep his mid life crisis went) wouldn't have allowed himself to be in such a position with them. Their worlds were just too far apart, their ages too far apart...I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to engage with the story. That stopped this being a great read, in my opinion.
And don't even get me (native Scot) started on the anti-English stuff. Again, the author made it too extreme and trashed the believability.
louismunozjr's review against another edition
2.0
Pride Month Read 2023 #5: 2 stars, "It was okay,"... barely.
Part of my education was at Catholic parochial schools, and I was very inspired by the lives of the saints books I read and RE-read. Many of the saints had had a calling, and many also gave up their lives as martyrs. I myself felt a calling during my preteen and early teen years, and while I wasn't also aspiring to some day be a martyr, I was very moved by someone giving up their lives as a martyr.
I bring this up because the main character of this book, "Father David," recklessly gives up his life and livelihood and becomes a kind of martyr, yet it absolutely made no sense, neither in a real-world sense nor at least within the context of this novel. And so while there are some beautiful passages in this book, and there are some interesting things being presented about faith, about purpose, and about some other important life issues, the idea of this priest being so completely out of touch, with himself, with his parishioners, with consequences, with COMMON SENSE, doesn't make me much respect the various authorial choices made and presented. For this and other reasons, I found myself deeply disappointed by the false, unnecessary, and completely nonsensical "martyrdom" of Father David.
Part of my education was at Catholic parochial schools, and I was very inspired by the lives of the saints books I read and RE-read. Many of the saints had had a calling, and many also gave up their lives as martyrs. I myself felt a calling during my preteen and early teen years, and while I wasn't also aspiring to some day be a martyr, I was very moved by someone giving up their lives as a martyr.
I bring this up because the main character of this book, "Father David," recklessly gives up his life and livelihood and becomes a kind of martyr, yet it absolutely made no sense, neither in a real-world sense nor at least within the context of this novel. And so while there are some beautiful passages in this book, and there are some interesting things being presented about faith, about purpose, and about some other important life issues, the idea of this priest being so completely out of touch, with himself, with his parishioners, with consequences, with COMMON SENSE, doesn't make me much respect the various authorial choices made and presented. For this and other reasons, I found myself deeply disappointed by the false, unnecessary, and completely nonsensical "martyrdom" of Father David.
megmcardle's review against another edition
4.0
When you hear that the story is about a Catholic priest, you can't help but fear that you know where you are going. But this delicately written, complicated story takes you many other places. Father David does not fit in in the insular, conservative Scottish town where he has come to be near his ailing mother. He would have stuck out simply for being Catholic in the mostly Protestant north, but his being English and Oxford-educated set him even further apart. The writing is gorgeous, if slightly obtuse at times, and the main character is deeply flawed, but somehow still appealing, if not always sympathetic. Highly recommended.
emzbaa23's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
runkefer's review against another edition
3.0
The writing is beautiful and parts of it evoke Brideshead Revisited. The “present-day” parts, however, didn’t age all that well. Reading this book nearly 15 years after its publication was a bit jarring. Attitudes toward homophobia and Catholic priests and other circumstances of this novel have changed enough that this feels much more of a period piece than I would have expected. The overall atmosphere of the book is reminiscence and contemplation, so it’s not so surprising that the main action comes near the end of the book. But when the inevitable occurs, it’s a little bit of a letdown.
nocto's review against another edition
1.0
Odd book. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
Firstly, I probably wouldn't have got past the first few pages if I hadn't have been stuck with it for the first 70 pages or so (toddler napping at the seaside and nothing else to read or do). And in the middle I couldn't much have cared about what was happening because I put it down for about a week. The end though, I found really quite interesting, the central character's life has fallen to bits and that's more interesting than the bit before where it was falling to bits.
The narrator is a Catholic priest and the writing feels very old fashioned. I thought I was in a bygone age, and references to shopping in Ikea or terrorism threw me out of time. This is kind of the point though, it works quite well. I just didn't find the largest part of the book very entertaining. Definitely an odd one.
I might try something else by the author because I think he's probably quite good, I just didn't get on with this book really.
alicihonest's review
2.0
I gave this book a second chance because I was nostalgic for Scottish authors. Still no success. Books about bad things are not necessarily bad, when the book *realizes* that the thing is bad. Be Near Me seeks to romanticize what is not romantic, to cultivate a 'grey area' mentality where the action is black and white.
wordnerdy's review against another edition
2.0
I only read one book on the way to ALA (I slept on the plane, and read the newest issue of Craft magazine), and was really excited for it, b/c I loved O'Hagan's Personality. Unfortunately, this novel involved one of my least favorite plot points--an old dude forming an inappropriate relationship with someone much, much younger. And O'Hagan is way too young to be writing a book about a pretentious old British priest who takes a post in a tiny town in Scotland and forms a friendship with two drug-addled asshole teenagers. The conclusion was extremely predictable, the main character was weak-willed and unlikable, and there was an abundance of interminable dinner parties discussing the situation in Iraq and fine wines. Ugh. C-.