UNITED STATES
eMissourian
Reviewed by Bill Schwab
Irish author John Boyne’s insightful novel, “A History of Loneliness” is an insightful novel about a dark side of his country’s recent church history, the revelation that pedophile priests have been passed from parish to parish by a hierarchy unwilling to expose the scandals. Boyne describes this tragedy by creating a gripping narrative with a sharp, flowing dialogue.
Father Odran Yates, an honorable Irish priest, has served as the chaplain of a boy’s school for nearly 30 years. He has never abused a student, but early in the novel his former seminary roommate is found guilty of multiple abuses, jailed and put on the sexual offender list for life.
As the scandal emerges, Yates sees trust in the church collapsing around him and observes the scandal’s damaging consequences in the young lives of parishioners. Yates himself becomes a suspect and is treated as a pariah by people who previously respected him. He grows reluctant to appear in public for fear of insults and disapproving stares. Then, Yates himself is arrested for taking the hand of a young boy in a department store in order to help the child find his mother. Despite the charge against him being dropped, he grieves that he can no longer even talk to a child without getting strange looks nor can he have a meeting with the altar boys without a parent present.
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