The Father, the Son and the Ghostly Hole

Oct 22, 2024 4:39 PM

Author:Rory McGrath

'I remember thinking when I was about 14, "I hope God doesn't find out I'm an atheist".'

This is Rory's story of being brought up a Catholic, going to Catholic school, being an altar boy; of the parents, priests, the nuns who taught him, the life and characters at his local Church. Until, that is, as a teenager in crisis, he abandons his faith and enters the god-forsaken world and the glamour of its evil ways with a spring in his step.

But almost immediately he realises he has in the process also freed himself from certainty, comfort and hope. So his apostasy is a long and winding road which includes the coincidence of marrying a (lapsed) Catholic and getting married in a Catholic church so his children could attend the best school in the area. Its about how being raised a Catholic always colours your view of life and death and how it fuels the guilt you feel in every nook and cranny of that life, and how it provoked for him an [unsuccessful] search for God in other things; sex, drugs, drink, love, family, football and the Periodic Table.

May contain traces of jokes.

Reviews

An exceptional book

—— Guardian

A compelling narrative of childhood survival ... the tale has a freshness, a vitality and a relentless energy ... extraordinarily powerful. The Invisible Wall is a triumph of the human spirit over multi-faceted adversity.

—— Daily Mail

Extraordinary ... spare, uncomplicated, and terribly vivid for it

—— Independent

[A] heart-wrenching memoir ... the setting, beautifully rendered, recalls early DH Lawrence. It is a world of pain and prejudice, evoked in spare, restrained prose that brilliantly illuminates a time, a place and a family struggling valiantly to beat impossible odds. As an emotional experience and a vivid retelling of the author's past, it exerts uncommon power.

—— New York Times

A remarkable memoir ... vivid, compassionaite and notably unsentimental

—— Times Literary Supplement

[An] affecting debut ... the nonagenarian gives voice to a childhood version of himself who witnesses his older sister's love for a Christian boy break down the invisible wall that kept Jewish families from Christians across the street. Yet when major world events touch the poverty-stricken block, the individual coming-of-age is intensified without being trivialized, and the conversational account takes on the heft of a historical novel with stirring success.

—— Publishers Weekly

A fascinating, poignant story ... which leaves one with a sense of hope

—— William Woodruff, author of The Road to Nab End

A superb story ... A delightful, fascinating read which held me spell-bound throughout.

—— Billy Hopkins, author of Our Kid

An enormously intellectually challenging book. A fascinating way of approaching the subject

—— Rabbi Julia Neuberger

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