Father's Day

Simon Van Booy does it again ("it" being a novel that is carefully crafted, beautifully written without being flamboyantly so, full of tenderness between its characters, and with a surprising plot twist or two). Father's Day is the story of Harvey and her father, Jason. Harvey's first parents were killed in a car crash when she was in first grade, and thanks to a persistent, good-hearted social worker named Wanda, Harvey is adopted by her father's brother. Half the novel takes place in Paris, where Harvey lives and works, during Jason's visit there for Father's Day. The other half takes place in the past, and explains the back story for each gift Harvey gives him for the day. The final item, some official documents, are a surprise to show more Jason and to the reader, though Harvey herself won't understand the significance unless Jason explains it to her.

Quotes

Sometimes she would lose count of the things that didn't make sense. (4)

But somehow her father had seemed always older - or never quite so young as he must have been to himself. (31-32)

When it first came to light, she felt betrayed - but was old enough to know that emotions take time to settle. (46)

Although Jason had not spoken to his brother in over ten years, he felt this wa a different sort of absence - like opening your eyes upon darkness. (50)

He considered how memories hold our lives in place but weigh nothing and cannot be seen or touched. (50)

One thing Wanda had learned in her thirty years on the job: Disappointment later on is better than no hope to begin with. (65)

But war only ends for those who have not been in one. (88) show less

Father's Day by Simon Van Booy is a very highly recommended story about a father and daughter that follows two timelines.

The novel opens as Harvey, a little girl, is remembering scenes around her as a very young girl. Then we jump twenty years ahead into the future when Harvey at age 26 is living in Paris, and planning a special week of activities for her father, who is coming to visit her over Father's Day. Harvey has a box of gifts that symbolize some important moment in their lives together. The last gift she has will free her father from a secret he's been keeping for years.

Harvey's parents were been killed in a car accident when she was six and she ends up living with her father's estranged older brother, Jason. Jason is a disabled show more ex-con and a recovering alcoholic who has anger management issues. He reluctantly becomes Harvey's father - and rises to the occasion. These chapters follow the building relationship between Jason and Harvey and notes important events in their lives together as Harvey grows up.

The alternating present day chapters take place in Paris and follow the father and daughter as they enjoy each others company and Harvey plans special activities for them to enjoy. The affection Harvey feels for Jason is palatable; clearly he has been a great father for her. The alternating chapters telling their story as she grows up show what Jason has done and sacrificed to care for Harvey. She didn't fully comprehend some of the things he did until later, as an adult.

Father's Day is a wonderful, emotionally honest, poignant novel about a unique family. And yes, I did shed some tears as I was reading. Jason is trying very hard to be a good father, but, it becomes clear that he perhaps learned how to be a good father from being a good big brother. The bond between Jason and Harvey is as strong as any father/daughter relationship. The two build a relationship and a future.

The writing is incredible and perfectly captures the relationship between the two. I loved Van Booy's The Illusion of Separateness and this adoration continues with Father's Day. Again, it feels like each word, each sentence has been very carefully planned. The language and sentences are seemingly simple, but express a world of emotion. (I like the idea that this story is reminiscent of a fable.) This is another thoughtful, sensitive, intelligent novel that you need to savor, as the depth of the relationship between the two slowly unfolds and builds.

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. show less

“Disappointment later on is better than no hope to begin with.”
In October ‘22, I first encounter van Booy and immediately fell in love with his plain but poetic prose, poignant characters, and understated narratives. His style and themes made him feel like a close cousin of many of the contemporary Irish writers I love. In October ‘23, I read this novel, and was hugely disappointed. There is some lyrical writing and some poignant scenes. The underlying story is sweet (rather too sweet for my taste), but there was too much that was contrived and implausible.

Outline - no spoilers

The story is told from the point of view of Harvey: as a child of about six, with her parents in NY state, and twenty years later, when her father visits show more her in Paris. Her childhood is realistically ordinary: neither rich nor poor, nor especially happy or sad, though there are hints of secrets and sadness that the six-year old doesn’t understand.

As an adult, she’s assembled items linked to key events and connections with her father:
“It was difficult to walk a straight path without being caught in the background of someone else’s memories.”

Between the main two timelines, something dramatic happens. The gaps are gradually filled in.

Image: Two abstract figures, one holding a heart, either taken from, or to put in, the heart-shaped hole of the other. By Sasha Tverdaya. (Source)

Father’s day is not a single day

Families are born, and made, and reconfigured. Their many varieties are increasingly visible: single parents, gay, adoptive, IVF and surrogacy, shared parenting, mixed-race, mixed-faith, blended, and found family of friends.

Part way through, I realised I’d been thinking of my late father a lot recently. Perhaps that’s subconsciously what prompted me to read this, especially as it was approaching the fifth anniversary of his unexpected death. I found that oddly comforting, even though I didn’t enjoy the book.

My father was a complex man, and although we never doubted our love for each other, we were both aware of each other’s shortcomings and issues we disagreed about.

Gentle difficulties and misunderstandings are portrayed really well: things that upset, anger, or puzzle young Harvey are often revealed to involve love, sacrifice, and pain, endured for her benefit. But not always, because all parents make mistakes. Redemption is possible, though. (There is a Prodigal Son angle, if you want a Biblical slant.)

See also

• Better van Booy, imo: five longish short stories, Love Begins in Winter, which I reviewed HERE. Ducks and birds are frequently mentioned, as in this novel, though I’m not sure of the symbolism.

• When reading this novel, I read an unrelated short story, Importance by Manuel Mujica Lainez, which I reviewed HERE. It is an exploration of an idea that van Booy describes thus:
“Ghosts... are not the people who've died but the people who won't.”

Quotes

• “All life is pieced together from memory where nothing is ever certain, even feeling.”

• “She was told to smile because in pictures it’s how your supposed to feel that counts.”

• “She had met many children whose lives had broken into pieces that would not fit back together.”

I don’t believe

This is for my own reference and contains plot spoilers, as well as criticisms that might spoil the book for those who loved it.



• Even for a social worker about to retire, Wanda was too reckless. Surely she would have been found out and there would have been consequences for leaving a child with an alcoholic loner who’d been in prison for assault?

• Jason was too much of a caricature: both his good and bad sides.

• Would a company pay a fairly ordinary 26-year old graphic designer to move from the US to Paris?

• The final revelation (Harvey was the biological daughter of Rita - and Jason) was predictable, implausible, and a hugely convenient coincidence. Worst of all, it undermines what I thought was the message of the story.



Although I didn’t enjoy this novel, Love Begins in Winter was so good, that I will read van Booy again. But not yet. show less

Eltern-Kind-Romane sind meist sehr gefühlvolle Lektüren, und diese hier macht keine Ausnahme. Mir war es zu Beginn fast etwas zu viel, da ich keinen roten Faden erkannte und so befürchtete, es handle sich hier nur um eine Aneinanderreihung von Sätzen in der Art wie '...stellte sich bei jedem Bissen die trockenen Münder vor, die schon lange aus dieser Welt verschwunden waren, deren Unschuld aber überlebt hatte.' Und das 300 Seiten ohne größere Handlung? Doch nach und nach tritt die eigentliche Geschichte hervor und ich verfiel regelrecht diesem melancholischen Schreibstil voller Gefühle ;-)
Harvey verliert als kleines Mächen ihre Eltern durch einen Verkehrsunfall. Einziger Verwandter ist der Bruder ihres Vaters, Jason, das show more schwarze Schaf der Familie: vorbestraft, aufbrausend, offenbar gewalttätig. Doch Wanda vom Sozialamt glaubt an ihn und mit einigen Tricks gelingt es ihr, dass er Harvey bei sich aufnimmt. 20 Jahre später lebt Harvey in Paris, wo ihr Vater sie besucht und sie beide sich an vergangene Zeiten erinnern.
Nach einer kurzen Vorgeschichte, in der Harvey noch bei ihren Eltern lebte, stellt Jasons Besuch bei seiner Tochter in Paris die fortlaufende Rahmenhandlung dar. Darin eingebettet sind Erinnerungen, die ausgelöst werden durch kleine Geschenke an Jason zum Vatertag, wie beispielsweise eine Peter-Hase-Tasse oder ein Baseball, was jeweils für ein bestimmtes Ereignis steht, das wiederum zu weiteren Erinnerungen in Jasons Kindheit führen kann. Dies mag sich jetzt wie Kraut und Rüben anhören, eine chaotische Geschichte der nur schwer zu folgen ist. Doch die jeweiligen Rückblicke fügen sich harmonisch zusammen und man erkennt dadurch, wie Jason der wurde der er war, als Harvey zu ihm kam.
Es ist ein trauriges, aber auch ein mutmachendes Buch: Zu lesen, wie dem jungen Jason durch seine Eltern jegliches Selbstvertrauen verwehrt wurde und er dadurch beinahe sein Dasein in permanenter Wut und ständigem Zorn vertan hätte. Dann aber durch seine Liebe zu und die Verantwortung für Harvey seinem Leben wieder einen Sinn verlieh. Einfach eine schöne Lektüre! Nur der Schluss ließ mich etwas ratlos zurück: Hätte es nicht völlig geklärt werden können? (Hier schreibt die Sehnsucht nach einem kompletten Happyend ;-) ) show less

Several years ago, I read Simon Van Booy's novel, The Illusion of Separateness. It was a profoundly moving novel of interconnected vignettes and I was anxious to see what Van Booy would do in a more traditional novel. He is still a beautiful writer but his newest novel, Father's Day, didn't quite have the same luminous feel that the previous one did. This novel is different in so many ways and while I loved the other one more, it was still a worthwhile reading experience.

Harvey is just six years old when her parents die in a car accident. The only family she has left to her is her Uncle Jason, a man she's never met, a man her mother never acknowledged, a man who her father spoke of rarely although protectively. Jason is not the sort of show more man you'd think of to raise an orphaned child. He is an ex-con, sent to prison for fighting and blinding another man. He is disabled, having lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, and unemployed, surviving by selling things online. He's building a custom motorcycle in his garage whenever he can find the money to buy parts. And he struggles with the demons of his easily provoked rage often. There's not really any space in his life for a niece he's never met. Yet Wanda, the social worker assigned to Harvey's case, sees beneath the obvious disqualifications to the very heart of him and is determined to place Harvey in his care.

The story alternates between the past and the present, starting with Harvey's life before the accident that left her orphaned and then flipping to present day Paris, where she has a wonderful creative job and is preparing for her father to come and visit her. She has discovered something she wants to confront him about. Her preparations and their visit together are interleaved with the story of her childhood and growing up years. There are also glimpses of the terrible childhood that Jason and her father lived as well. The reader watches as Jason learns to be a father, sees him determined to control his impulsive anger, to allow the caring portion of himself not destroyed by his own father's abuse to come to the fore in loving this child, and finally in cherishing her as a father does. The flipping back and forth in time serves the story but can be awkward in execution, making for an uneven narrative tension. Jason's character is uneducated but his language drifts in and out of sounding that way, making it a bit inconsistent in voice. And the ending is too tidy and predictable. But the plain and rooted caring between this reluctant father and the daughter he inherits is touching and lovely and those who enjoy simple, unadorned stories of created families will appreciate this emotionally loaded and heart warming tale of family, unconditional love, and belonging. show less

This is one of those books that grow on you. I read a little of it and put it down to read something else. I picked it up this morning and finished it. And, really enjoyed it. Six year Harvey loses her parents in an auto accident and luckily her case is being handled by a veteran social worker who knows how to make things work. Harvey is alone in the world except for a disabled uncle who has been in prison. She tells Wanda, her social worker, that she wants to live with him. The story goes back and forth in time between her childhood and as a 26 year old working and living in Paris. Her father, Jason, comes to Paris for Father's Day. This is a quiet book on what it takes to be a family, the small moments that add up to a good life. I show more can highly recommend this wonderful story. show less

The Short of It:

A quiet non-traditional story about a father’s love for his daughter.

The Rest of It:

Harvey is just a young girl when her parents are killed in an accident. After the accident, Harvey is placed with Jason, her uncle, who was recently released from prison for a crime he committed as a teen. The two have a lot to learn and with the help of his social worker, Jason learns that fathers aren’t perfect and that the love of a child is something you have to hold dear.

I really enjoyed this story even though I found it to be very different from what I’ve previously read by this author. The language isn’t as poetic as his short story collections. The story is told plainly but the tone and quiet nature of the story really show more appealed to me.

I enjoyed reading about this unlikely pair. Jason is a little rough around the edges but charming and remorseful for his past actions. He comes across as very genuine and sincere. Harvey is mature and wise and the two seem to understand each other, which makes the story work so well.

In the end, all the pieces come together and what you have is a satisfying read.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less