Father & I: A Memoir, Vol. 1 Book

How funny it is that books you have on mnt tbr for ages and ages and constantly overlook in favour of other books, turn out to be absolutely marvelous.

I bought this - probably in a charity shop - because I recognised the name of the author -I had not that long before read one of his novels. What I didn't realise then, was that Carlo Gebler is the son of Edna O'Brien.

This is a very well written memoir, honest, even - and this is surprising - becoming sympatetic toward a man who at best was cruel and difficult. Carlo Gebler paints a poignant picture of a childhood, where he and his brother were pulled between their warring parents - they elected eventually to live with their mother. Ernest Gebler seems to have been able to strike at the heart of the child Carlo's insecurities, his cruel barbs never forgotten, and heard so often, Carlo becomes able to predict them almost word for word. As his father ages, and falls victim to Alzhiemer's Carlo Greber begins to see him in a different way - while never forgetting the man he grew up with. It is only after Ernest's death that through painstaking research Carlo comes to a better understanding of his father.