A review by drsldn
May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes

4.0

When I started this book I wondered if I would be able to finish it, but its brilliance lies in the the emotional growth of the narrator: a man who is, in the words of one of his lovers a "two-by-four" with no real life to speak of at the beginning, and the centre of a warm, loving, flawed "family" at the end. The dis-connect never entirely left, which partly arises I think from not being sure if life for some people in America really is like this - I was watching Girls at the same time and it had the same tone. Parts of the story (bringing in the Israeli arms-dealer from the open prison in the woods with choc-chip cookies and the fbi for example) exacerbated this. But the chapter set in Kwazulu-Natal and the fact that is it never explicitly underlined that this person learning to be a good homemaker is a middle-aged man balance out the bits I found boring. I am intrigued to read more of this author.