Scan barcode
A review by serendipitysbooks
My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
My Father’s House is a wonderful mix of literary thriller and historical fiction. It’s based on real-life events - an escape line run by a group of conspirators led by Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, meeting under the guise of choir practice and taking advantage of Vatican City’s independence and neutrality, to help escaped Allied PoWs and Jews escape Nazi occupied Rome. This is a really interesting story, told well. What more could a reader ask for?
O’Connor has a real way with words and uses plenty of sublime and unique phrases which make this book a pleasure to read. The structure, such as the slow countdown to the Rendimento (code name for the 1943 Christmas Eve mission at the heart of this novel) and the inclusion of sections from the perspective of the Gestapo leader determined to stop it, is very effective at ramping up the tension. Many of the chapters are told in the close third-person from O’Flaherty’s perspective. This ensures the reader really connects to him and makes the tension during the Rendimento itself, when it seems certain he will be captured, almost unbearable. I also loved the transcripts of fake interviews with other members of the escape line twenty years later. They add a broader lens to the story and help emphasise that the escape line was a team effort. The transcripts clearly play to that part of me which tends to love epistolary novels, but the way they were interspersed with the 1943 chapters did slow the narrative flow, especially at the beginning, and meant it took a little time for me to settle into the novel. Still that’s a minor quibble about an otherwise excellent book.
O’Connor has a real way with words and uses plenty of sublime and unique phrases which make this book a pleasure to read. The structure, such as the slow countdown to the Rendimento (code name for the 1943 Christmas Eve mission at the heart of this novel) and the inclusion of sections from the perspective of the Gestapo leader determined to stop it, is very effective at ramping up the tension. Many of the chapters are told in the close third-person from O’Flaherty’s perspective. This ensures the reader really connects to him and makes the tension during the Rendimento itself, when it seems certain he will be captured, almost unbearable. I also loved the transcripts of fake interviews with other members of the escape line twenty years later. They add a broader lens to the story and help emphasise that the escape line was a team effort. The transcripts clearly play to that part of me which tends to love epistolary novels, but the way they were interspersed with the 1943 chapters did slow the narrative flow, especially at the beginning, and meant it took a little time for me to settle into the novel. Still that’s a minor quibble about an otherwise excellent book.