A History of Loneliness

Posted on 25 April 2017 by John Boyne

Propelled into the priesthood by a family tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition When he arrives at Clonliffe Seminary in the 1970s, it is a time in Ireland when priests are highly respected, and Odran believes that he is pledging his life to the good Forty years later, Odran s devotion is caught in revelations that shatter the Irish people s faith in the Catholic Church He sees his friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the lives of young parishioners destroyed, and grows nervous of venturing out in public for fear of disapproving stares and insults At one point, he is even arrested when he takes the hand of a young boy and leads him out of a department store looking for the boy s mother.But when a family event opens wounds from his past, he is forced to confront the demons that have raged within the church, and to recognize his own complicity in their propagation, within both the institution and his own family.A novel as intimate as it is universal, A History of Loneliness is about the stories we tell ourselves to make peace with our lives It confirms Boyne as one of the most searching storytellers of his generation. New Read A History of Loneliness [ author ] John Boyne [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr Odran Yates attends the seminary in the 1970 s After a family tragedy, his mother has a revelation that priesthood was his calling A very passive person, Odran goes along with her wishes The book follows his path through seminary, his duties in Rome, his postings, his family and his involvement in the pedophile scandals It is incredibly moving watching him walk a straight and very narrow path He calls it being na ve but it is really blinders He chooses not to see and it is a choice It Odran Yates attends the seminary in the 1970 s After a family tragedy, his mother has a revelation that priesthood was his calling A very passive person, Odran goes along with her wishes The book follows his path through seminary, his duties in Rome, his postings, his family and his involvement in the pedophile scandals It is incredibly moving watching him walk a straight and very narrow path He calls it being ...2.5 starsFather Odran Yates is dedicated to his vocation since entering Clonliffe College seminary at seventeen He has lived through betrayal, controversy and public condemnation of some of his dearest friends Through all of this he has remained firm to his beliefs A History of Loneliness by John Boyne was a book I had been so looking forward to reading as John Boyne is one of my favourite writers I was intrigued when I read the blurb of this book and looked forward to how Boyne would tac 2.5 starsFather Odran Yates is dedicated to his vocation since entering Clonliffe College seminary at seventeen He has lived through betrayal, controversy and public condemnation of some of his dearest friends Through all of this he has remained firm to his beliefs A History of Loneliness by John Boyne was a book I had been so looking forward to reading as John Boyne is one of my favourite writers I was intrigued when I read the blurb of this book and looked forward to how Boyne would tackle this tough tim...Hauntingly sad, yet compulsively readable, this book revolved around the widespread child abuse in Ireland under the mantle of the Catholic Church The author captures the prevailing thought patterns of the time convincingly There was a common hope, an expectation even, that one child per family would choose to enter the priesthood Priests, as highly respected authority figures, were pillars of the community, and the betrayal of this trust was a tragedy with ever widening currents The reader Hauntingly sad, yet compulsively readable, this book revolved around the widespread child abuse in Ireland under the mantle of the Catholic Church The author captures the prevailing thought patterns of the time convincingly There was a common hope, an expectation even, that one child per family would choose to enter the priesthood Priests, as highly respected authority figures, were pillars of the community, and the betrayal of this trust was a tragedy with ever widening currents The reader is privy to the inertia which gripped so many Somehow, if a person didn t want it to be true and ignored it, then maybe it wouldn t be true after all, or it would go away One sees the cruelty, the flagrant abuse of power, and the resulting damage visited on individuals as well as entire families Also, the gui...While A History of Loneliness is an aptly named title for this disturbing story of the child abuse cover up surrounding the Irish Catholic Church, it was just an ok read for me compared to others I ve enjoyed from John Boyne.Overall, I found it somewhat slow going with the abuser obvious to the reader early on, but disappointingly not to Father Odran Yates.I found him to be rather annoyingly naive for an educated man and particularly insensitive and weak for a man of the cloth.A tough, but While A History...Very easily a 5 from me Odran Yates is a sensitive and compelling character dealing with private guilt, public betrayal by his church and his fellow priests, and his own innermost feelings of love and loss.I m linking you to Eileen s review because frankly, she says it better than meIndringendheftigEen roman over seksueel macht misbruik van jongens, door priesters binnen de katholieke kerk in Ierland Indrukwekkend hoe integer John Boyne dit thema vormgeeft.Het on bewust weten van de priester Odran Yates, over een tijdsbestek van ruim 30 jaar Het daaruit voortvloeiende schuldgevoel En het meest ironische was nog wel dat er een veroordeelde pedofiel beste vriend, priester Tom Cardle voor nodig was om me te laten inzien dat ik door te zwijgen net zo schuldig was IndringendheftigEen roman over seksueel macht misbruik van jongens, door priesters binnen de katholieke kerk in Ierland Indrukwekkend hoe integer John Boyne dit thema vormgeeft.Het on bewust weten van de priester Odran Yates, over een tijdsbest...St Patrick has been mythologized as having driven all the snakes out of Ireland, a biblical reference that author John Boyne symbolically dispels in A History of Loneliness, suggesting that the fork tongued creatures with a primary concern for self preservation in an institution that has become a worldwide money making business, rather than uphold its fundamental pledge to protect and to guide its flock to ultimate morality and spiritual health, still infest the Emerald Isle preying on its unsu St Patrick has been mythologized as hav...The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing Rarely has a quote summed up a book so well Odran Yates is a good man probably however he is also naive and prefers to ignore things which he finds uncomfortable The book follows him from his childhood in 1960 s Ireland to middle age in the present day, from the last glory days of the Catholic Church in Ireland to its death throes.A man destined to be uninspiring, Odran s mother pushes him into the priesthood at The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing Rarely has a quote summed up a book so wel...I was unsure until the end whether or not I was going to give this book 5 stars Boyne creates a complex portrait of a priest in Ireland before, during and in the aftermath of the clerical abuse scandals Odran Yates went to the seminary in the early 1970 s, at a time when most Irish families yearned to have a son become a priest Boyne s story describes how young these boys were, and naive Many did not have vocation, in the sense that Catholics understand vocations Some were forced into the p I was unsure until the end whether or not I was going to give this book 5 stars Boyne creates a complex portrait of a priest in Ireland before, during and in the aftermath of the clerical abuse scandals Odran Yates went to the seminary in the early 1970 s, at a time when most Irish families yearned to have a son become a priest Boyne s story de...All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing This deeply unsettling and powerful novel is a penetrating exploration of Edmund Burke s words Odran Yates is a good man who wants to carry out faithfully his duties as a priest But all around him the Catholic Church is disintegrating as the extent of the child sexual abuse within it is being revealed At one time the power and control of the Catholic Church in Ireland was unquestioned Odran now has to navigate his w All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing This deeply unsettling and powerful novel is a penetrating exploration of Edmund Burke s words Odran Yates is a good man who wants to carry out faithfully his duties as a priest But all around him the Catholic Church is disintegrating as the extent of the child sexual abuse within it is being revealed At one time the power and control of the Catholic Church in Ireland was unquestioned Odran now has to navigate his way through a new world and as he does so he questions, as does the reader, his own complicity in what has been going on.This is the first Irish novel to tackle the subject and it does it brilliantly Expertly ...

English
25 April 2017

John Boyne