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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Good men doing nothing? A History of Loneliness by John Boyne

13/9/2014

25 Comments

 
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I’d come across John Boyne’s writing in the form of his bestselling novel for younger readers, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a clever tale of friendship across the concentration-camp barbed-wire, but I’d never read any of his novels for adults. Like another Irish writer whose novel I reviewed recently, his most recent book is his fifteenth. But A History of Loneliness doesn’t read like the work of someone who’s exhausted their creativity. This is a powerful, thought-provoking and deeply disturbing novel about human limitations and the disastrous institutions we limited humans create.

Odran Yates is an ordinary well-meaning young man of no great ambition, who believes he is dedicating his life to the good when he enters a Dublin seminary to train for the priesthood. While some of his peers struggle to adapt to a life of sexual denial he, apart from one brief interlude, feels he is well suited to his role. But, as Irish culture evolves over the following four decades, and the extent of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is eventually revealed, his moral courage is put to the test. How far Odran, and others like him, is guilty by association, by turning a blind eye to the clues that speak volumes to the informed reader, is one of the central questions of the novel. The quote attributed to fellow Irishman, Edmund Burke, a good two centuries previously, comes readily to mind: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Yet the difficulty of both recognising and acting on that evil becomes apparent from the way in which, like the Mafia, Catholicism has such tight control of people’s lives. The picture John Boyne paints of Ireland towards the end of the last century is almost as bleak as the depiction of North Korea in The Orphan Master’s Son. Teenagers, constitutionally unsuited to the clerical life, are forced by their parents to sacrifice their burgeoning sexuality, and any hopes they might have had for a mature loving partnership, to the church. Abused boys, acting out their distress through minor acts of delinquency, are returned by their parents for moral guidance to the very priests who have abused them. Similarly, low ranking clerics have nowhere to report their suspicions when the upper echelons are peopled by sexist bullies such as Father Yates’ manager, the dreadful Archbishop Cordington. And at the very top, the Vatican demands a degree of loyalty and obedience reminiscent of the futuristic theocratic state in God’s Dog. It would take a saint to live a truly moral life in such a corrupt organisation.

Odran Yates is no saint. He is actually much happier rearranging the library bookshelves than undertaking any pastoral duties. In common with any young person discouraged from thinking for himself, he constructs his identity from others’ perceptions of him and his role, rather like the central character in In Search of Solace. And how the priesthood is revered! In one of several humorous touches in a deeply serious novel, when Father Yates boards a crowded train, the other passengers compete fiercely among themselves to offer him a seat and food, which he neither needs nor wants, for the journey. Yet there is a poignancy to this scene of adulation as, just as later in the novel, when attitudes have flipped to the opposite pole, and Odran is abused in a cafe, no-one sees him for himself. This, as his ill-fated friend, Tom Cardle, remarks at the end of the novel, is the enduring history of loneliness.

Sparks of black humour can also be found in the sexist gossip and condemnation of the few who live beyond the church’s reach; in the bizarre rituals including the absurdity of men with limited life experience conducting compulsory “marriage classes” to couples wishing to tie the knot in church. John Boyne has great fun with some of his larger-than-life characters who are much more entertaining on the page than they would be in real life. Another pleasure is in the rhythms of the prose and the lyrical dialogue that is so evocative of Ireland.

John Boyne is as even-handed as anyone could be in his treatment of this shameful aspect of recent Irish history. While exposing the institution’s rotten core, with a righteous anger in the later chapters in which the church is tested in both the media and the courts, he brings a sympathetic gaze to those flawed individuals who exist within it trying, and failing, to be good. Thus A History of Loneliness is more than a novel about the perils of religious dogmatism. It is a universal story of the extent of self-delusion in our efforts to stay loyal to our chosen paths.

It’s not easy, as a novice reviewer, to do justice to such powerful novel but I hope I’ve tempted at least some of my blog readers to find out more. It’s even more difficult to pinpoint what I can take from this novel into my own journey as a writer. What fuels the forward movement of this novel? The obvious answer is the importance of the subject matter and the quality of the writing, but is there anything more? As for character motivation, Odran has surrendered his desires to God. His goals are undefined and his attempts to achieve them are as passive as those of Lewis Sullivan in Alison Moore’s He Wants. Yet the reader perhaps feels motivated on his behalf. We want him to confront his mistakes, yet we want him to come out of the mess intact. Because, at various points, we know more about the corruption in the church than he does, it’s almost like watching a child transition to an adult and, although Odran is all of fifty-seven at the novel’s end, it does seem as if it takes until then for him to grow up. Is motivation handled differently in coming-of-age stories? I don’t know but perhaps you do?

A History of Loneliness was published by Doubleday on 11 September. Many many thanks for my proof copy. And, lest we delude ourselves that it’s only in Catholic Ireland that rampant child sexual abuse can go unpunished, I refer you to the recent debacle not so many miles from where I live. You might also want to check out my short story on Catholic guilt, Four Hail Marys, as well as my blog post about writing about abuse. I welcome your comments on any aspect of this post.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
25 Comments
Norah Colvin link
14/9/2014 05:13:37 am

Hi Anne,
I'm not surprised you have delved into the darkness of this tale. So horrific, and not just in Ireland and close to where you live, here in Australia too, and I'm sure in many other places around the world. To think that the very people who are preaching about how to live a 'good' life do such despicable things. Many of these appalling acts are only now coming to light because of changes in society which are allowing people to find their voices and realise that being abused was not their shame, but the evil of their abusers. Even without reading the novel, this is an important topic for discussion. Thanks for sharing. :)

Reply
Annecdotist
16/9/2014 07:05:49 am

I agree, Norah, this nasty stuff cuts across any geographical or cultural boundaries. I think part of how it happens is children being expected to comply with the demands of adults, no matter how crazy they might be. Hence the importance of your own work in persuading others to encourage children to question everything.

Reply
Norah Colvin
14/9/2014 05:15:59 am

I meant to say: that quote from Edmund Burke about the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, is excellent; but scary on so many levels!

Reply
Annecdotist
16/9/2014 07:50:18 am

It is scary, because it's so easy to look the other way, especially when intervening is difficult and the situation not crystal clear. And then we fall back on the assumption that someone else will sort it out. The NHS brought in policies to facilitate whistleblowing and training to support people to recognise their responsibilities, but it's still hard.

Reply
Charli Mills
14/9/2014 02:26:59 pm

Excellent review. Such a tragic subject and sounds as if Boyne handles it with a graceful pen. It's more than an Irish phenomenon, globally it is a Catholic travesty. I have such mixed emotions about Catholicism. I was raised unbaptized in a Catholic family, yet received my degree from a Catholic college. There is good, and there is bad and it sounds as if The History of Loneliness explores what it means to survive in such a dichotomy. The fact that the character doesn't have great self-awareness makes it more tragic, yet a great exploration of human behavior. We still don't handle child abuse (sexual and otherwise) very well. It seems a trend to put blame on the victim, and as a whole most people want to ignore it except when it makes titillating headlines in the media. Ugly stuff, yet this seems like a book with beautiful writing and a balanced approach to the topic that does need discussing. Love the Burke quote!

Reply
Annecdotist
16/9/2014 07:55:21 am

Thanks Charli, I wonder what you'd make of the novel itself from your Catholic background. An unbaptised Catholic is quite an interesting position to be in – had your parents lost the faith or did they just not get round to it? Personally, I'm grateful to Catholicism for my exposure to singalong music from an early age, but most of the rest of it was unhelpful.
Thanks also for your thoughtful comments on my other post which I hope other readers will take a look at
http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdotal/would-you-go-there

Reply
Charli Mills
16/9/2014 04:15:52 pm

My parents were teens when they married (in a Catholic Church). I think the decision to not baptize me was part of a power struggle in my father's family. My father was being defiant toward his father, not really the church. I even went to Catholic School as a young child if you can imagine that! But I grew up an outsider with the word "unbaptized" equating to "unholy" and some relatives let me know it. I once genuflected, emulating an aunt and I got told in nasty tones that I was not allowed. Funny, how many Catholics grow up and reject the church; I grew up feeling rejected by it. College helped reconcile those conflicting emotions I had since it was--by chance, not choice--that I went to a Catholic Liberal Art College. Met many dynamic, intelligent, compassionate Jesuit priests and practicing Catholics. I've even toyed with getting baptized but doesn't really fit my beliefs. It's just that I feel sometimes that I was denied the great lineage of my Kincaid family who came to the colonies in the mid 1700s, ousted for their Catholic faith, which they remained faithful to until I was born. That feels heavy to me. I would have liked to have been the one to decide whether or not to reject the faith. So I do think about this topic, and will definitely read Boyne's book. In fact, I've pre-ordered it on Amazon.

Annecdotist
17/9/2014 08:47:13 am

I can see how you could be more attached to something that has shut you out, especially when this resonates with an ancestral experience of the persecution of Catholics. However, that attitude to children, which, okay, I'm sure not all Catholics would follow so literally, is one of the things I dislike about that culture. I can easily see people thinking you being "unbaptised" was a stain on your character, rather than something to do with parental choice. I don't think it's so strict nowadays, but when I was a child the idea was that we were born with original sin (i.e. born bad) that would be fixed by baptism, just doesn't seem a very good way of welcoming a baby into the world.
Look forward to further discussions when you read the novel. Would love to have your angle on it.

geoff link
15/9/2014 10:42:10 am

I'm with the others on the power of this post. It is such a tendentious subject, or at least still seem to be even though you would think the arguments have shifted in favour of listening to what's being said rather than hearing what is wanted or expected. The Burke quote put me in mind of Primo Levi's 'if not now, when' book title based on Hillel the Elder but that too carries it's own dangers because, taken to its conclusion all pre-emptive action that prevents a crime is justified You then get into arguments about the priority of crimes; you see it in Gaza, sadly, justifying the bombing from both sides. Clearly even around potential child abuse you need to avoid the counter, namely easy accusation being treated as fact - a danger that Rotherham highlights where a fear of a racist accusation has permitted a worse crime. Why oh why do we make life so difficult for ourselves?

Reply
Charli Mills
15/9/2014 03:14:40 pm

That's a good point, Geoff. I have also seen lately how bullies are actually using the anti-bullying laws to do what they do best (or worst). Vigilantes in Montana started out by protecting citizens and ended with hanging innocent citizens. Even members of the heinous Klu Klux Klan think they are upholding southern rights and justify their crimes. Yet we continue to be embarrassed to face sexual crimes and want to somehow blame the victims than acknowledge that it happened; that it broke trust on many levels. Indeed, why do we make this all so complicated? But I suppose, that is the life of a writer--to write into these tangles and unravel something worthwhile and maybe even to make something beautiful out of the ugliness.

Reply
Annecdotist
16/9/2014 07:01:49 am

Good point, Charli – and I love it when my readers start chatting to each other rather than through me – and brings to mind that 60s protest song With God on Our Side https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8IoLkoQ19E
Although it's about war, I still think it's an appropriate answer for this novel.

Charli Mills
16/9/2014 04:18:06 pm

Ah, I love Joan Baez. Her voice is so pure. The old war protest song makes a valid point. The faithful should not ask if God is on their side, but whether they are on the side of God. :-)

Annecdotist
17/9/2014 08:48:35 am

She's wonderful, isn't she? I did consider the Bob Dylan version since he wrote it, but Joan's voice is so much better.

Annecdotist
16/9/2014 08:03:56 am

I do think it's complicated because human beings are complex but we try to reduce it to simple dichotomies of, like Charli says, good and bad, and it's hard to move between. You're right to point out the risks of overreaction the other way – there's a poignant scene in the novel when Odran has arranged a meeting with the altar boys but has to keep them all standing outside in the rain until another parent arrives to act as a chaperone. And I'm dreading the day they decide they can predict criminal tendencies from a person's DNA profile and tried to intervene from day one. I'm all for early intervention but it's best if it takes the form of something that is useful for everyone, building up resilience and a clear moral code (though, regarding the latter, I suppose the Catholics thought they had that – never helpful to be so certain you've got the answer)

Reply
Sarah link
16/9/2014 02:34:18 pm

This is difficult to read (the post and the comments) but so needs to be out there. Which is part of the point here, I suppose: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

I had heard of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas but haven't read it. I am getting that one. Also, I think I'll have one of my sons read it (the older one).

Thanks for always getting in there, digging around, and ripping out the roots so we can see them. I admire that about you and your writing.

Reply
Annecdotist
17/9/2014 08:52:24 am

Thanks for persevering, Sarah. It is a difficult area to read about especially, of course, when you have young boys yourself. Happy to continue digging the dirt while you look on approvingly. ;)

Reply
John Boyne link
19/9/2014 07:31:13 am

Thank you so much for such a generous and insightful review. I'm delighted you enjoyed the novel and I appreciate your bringing it to your readers' attention. John

Reply
Annecdotist
20/9/2014 08:55:21 am

Thanks for visiting and commenting, John. Glad you liked the review – as you can tell I loved the novel!

Reply
Annecdotist
15/11/2014 08:51:44 am

Thanks to Safia for pointing me to this review in the Irish Times: a Catholic priest’s perspective
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/what-does-a-priest-make-of-john-boyne-s-portrayal-of-fr-odran-yates-1.2000881?page=1
Here’s the response I pasted in the comments:
Oh, Martin Boland, what a fabulous opening line, feeding in so cleverly to one of the major themes of John Boyne’s novel. Criticism of the church or priesthood – or even merely the acknowledgement of an alternative point of view – is not taken as a cue for self-reflection but for a metaphorical slap of the hand for stepping out of line. As both you and John Boyne have illustrated, those who believe they have a direct line to some hypothetical supernatural power will be particularly resistant to new ideas from “outside”.
I do sympathise with your disappointment at not finding your profession portrayed in the novel as you would wish it. I have similar concerns about the portrayal of fictional therapists but I do try, in my reviews, not to let that distract me from the novel’s literary merits. It’s a pity that your own blinkers have prevented you from appreciating this beautifully written and profound novel, not only about Catholicism’s deepest shame, but also a cautionary tale about the extent to which any of us might delude ourselves in our efforts to stay loyal to our chosen paths.

Reply
Charli Mills
15/11/2014 04:13:05 pm

Anne, I followed the link to read the review, too. So glad you posted your comment! And I read John Boyne's response, too. I have to say that it disturbs me to think that priests are untouchable in the sense that their vocation is spiritual and somehow above the rest of us and unless we write them that way, we shouldn't write about them. I felt it displayed some of the delusions established to protect the abusers and not the victims. Both you and John were spot on in your responses.

Reply
Annecdotist
16/11/2014 03:22:31 am

Thank you, Charli, it was the first time I'd responded to a piece in a national newspaper but I couldn't resist! I thought all the responses were pretty helpful, and pleasantly surprised that they were unanimously critical of the review. When John Boyne wrote about his personal experience of abuse in an article in The Guardian newspaper, there seemed to be as much defence of the priesthood as support for his position in the online comments. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/03/john-boyne-novelist-catholic-church-abuse-priesthood-boy-in-striped-pyjamas
Perhaps there's hope for Ireland yet!
I actually think the novel was very generous in its portrayal of the Catholic Church, given the atrocities committed over the years as outlined here by Steven Fry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L1xvdZMC10

Charli Mills
16/11/2014 03:56:07 pm

They say that one must have genius to master comedy, and I've been following Geoff's NaNo Num-Nums that have included comic clips with Stephen Fry. He is genius, and seeing his debate I now realize he is an enlightened genius. He spoke so eloquently in his debate--the opposite of a man who stays silent. Somehow, John Boyne walked through the fire and gained insight that probably took writing about other things to realize. In his article he states, "We felt they had the right to do what they wanted because they wore a collar." I go back an re-read Boland's statements and basically he's giving supernatural entitlement to that collar. It's part of how the abuse (or child-rape as Fry aptly names it) perpetuates. The priests are held above accountability. Denial seems the easier road. While Boyne and Fry have taken the paths less trampled, they will break down the walls of protection that collar has had. And as Fry asks, would the Galilean carpenter even be welcome (or want to) enter the marble and gilded halls ruled over by those collars?

Annecdotist
19/11/2014 02:19:28 am

Such important points beautifully articulated, Charli. Thank you.
Steven Fry is something of a national treasure here – such a broad range of talents coming from a solid intellectual foundation.
While religion CAN be a force for good there's something spookily crazy about practitioners who put themselves above human judgement. It's amazing to me how much that is tolerated.
Thanks again for your support.

Rich
20/1/2017 04:03:19 pm

How odd, Anne, to make such a simple mistake in your opening paragraph. Have you never read the words 'I re-name you according to a new role you will now have, Cephas (Rock), and on this Rock I will build MY Church'. (Matt 16:18). Not your church, or the church of any evangelically inclined individual, who decides some two thousand years later to 'plant' a church. My Church. Christ's Church. Run indeed by human beings, this divinely instituted Church continues to suffer due to our human weaknesses, and downright evil in certain cases. But that doesn't make it a human institution.

And odd too that you would fall into the trap - although that said, you're in lots of company here - of a one dimensional nature of the Church. The same Church which has had the courage to apologize for the actions of some of her children, (eg. Inquisition, Conquistadors in South America, some in the Crusades). When did you last hear of an organisation - any organisation - religious or otherwise say 'yes, we screwed up. We offer no excuses. We did it, and we were wrong. Can you find it in your heart to forgive us'?

The simple fact of the matter is that unlike those in the secular mileau, the Catholic Church is more genuinely human and compassionate than virtually any other organisation. Yes we get it all wrong. Yes we make terrible mistakes. But we not only admit it, but take definitive action to do something about it. (For which you may find a stunning lack of evidence of both those in the new churches and schools - together responsible for over 80% of abuses - EIGHTY PERCENT!

Lastly, how odd to think that you, and so many others - we all know the secular, largely unhistorical narrative - would fall into the trap of failing to recognize just how much this 'human institution' has brought into the world. Which other organisations do you know of who have founded countless hospitals, charities, orphanages, adoption homes, old age homes, schools, to say nothing of the entire university system? Which other is credited with building nothing less than an entire civilization - Western civilization - with human rights greater than any previous in history (and still greater than countless areas around the world). Perhaps a few years in Mali or Afghanisation would be in order.

No Anne - rigorous academic integrity requires more than a flip emotional response. Perhaps when you can point to us the secular, the atheist, the agnostic Mother Theresa's (to say nothing of the tens of thousands of selfless nuns and priests in her Order), you will have a better footing from which to depart.

Reply
Annecdotist
20/1/2017 05:08:32 pm

Welcome to my blog, Rich, and thanks for reading my review and leaving your comments. I have to say that I was a little puzzled about your reference to the mistake in my opening paragraph, but I take it that you mean that the church is not a human institution? If that’s the case, while I respect your opinion, I do consider that it is you who is mistaken although not something on which we are ever likely to agree, as I do not believe in the divine.
Your middle paragraphs seem unrelated to either the novel or my review so I won’t comment on them.
Finally, although I’m flattered that you should think this novice reviewer is striving for rigorous academic integrity, this is certainly not a flip emotional response. I gave a lot of thought to this novel, and to my review, and rereading it this afternoon, I remain proud of my analysis. Thanks for bringing my attention back to it.

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