Be Near Me [Hardcover]

Andrew O'Hagan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2007

"Always trust a stranger," said David’s mother when he returned from Rome. "It’s the people you know who let you down."

Half a life later, David is Father Anderton, a Catholic priest with a small parish in Scotland. He befriends Mark and Lisa, rebellious local teenagers who live in a world he barely understands. Their company stirs memories of earlier happiness—his days at a Catholic school in Yorkshire, the student revolt in 1960s Oxford, and a choice he once made in the orange groves of Rome. But their friendship also ignites the suspicions and smoldering hatred of a town that resents strangers, and brings Father David to a reckoning with the gathered tensions of past and present.

In this masterfully written novel, Andrew O’Hagan explores the emotional and moral contradictions of religious life in a faithless age.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This burnished gem of a novel has drama, emotional resonance and intellectual power enough to recall one's favorite 19th century writers. At its center is David Anderton, a Scottish-born, Oxford-educated Catholic priest who, after years in England, assumes a parish in working-class Scotland to be closer to his mother, a writer and free spirit. Now in his 50s, David recalls his own passions vividly, but he has traded his 1960s university ideals to favor the Iraq war, and his realizations of romantic love for a life of the cloth. From early on, there's a glaring gap between David's first-person recollections and the elitist, alienating affectations he assumes with others. His Dalgarnock parishioners are suspicious of his education; his only companions are his sardonic but morally stringent housekeeper, Mrs. Poole, and a pair of thuggish teenagers, Mark and Lisa, who remind him of his own youthful rebellions. As Mark and Lisa draw David into their chaotic lives, the novel builds to an inevitable clash between the spiritual and the secular, the adult and adolescent, the utopian 1960s and the neoconservative 2000s. Throughout, O'Hagan (The Missing) enchants with his effortless prose, vivid characters and David's uncanny asides, making O'Hagan's fourth novel a heartrending tour de force. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker

David Anderton, a fifty-six-year-old English priest in a gritty Scottish town, comes from a long line of Catholic martyrs, but he himself has settled for quieter satisfactions: good Alsatian wines, Chopin Nocturnes, banter with his housekeeper about the twelfth-century roses in the garden. Then, one Good Friday, he encounters Mark and Lisa, two charismatic juvenile delinquents at the local Catholic school, and he’s drawn to them like a moth to fire. O’Hagan tackles a highly charged subject with exceptional intelligence and subtlety. Father Anderton’s voice can be arresting even when he’s describing heartburn ("I felt an empty, dyspeptic scorch as I drove to the school, like a rising argument at the centre of my chest"), and our growing intimacy with his inner voice describes its own arc of seduction and betrayal. No one gets off easily here, and yet the corruptions revealed are not necessarily the expected ones: as O’Hagan reminds us, the variety of deceptions we practice on ourselves and others is almost infinite.
Copyright © 2007 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (June 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151013039
• ISBN-13: 978-0151013036
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,397,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, sad, and wise July 15, 2007

By moviegoer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am taking my time only because the other reviewer (there is only one so far), was so far off the mark, in giving
the book only three (or 3.5, as she claims in her review), that I want to remedy her review. This is a terrific
book. The writing is beautiful--not lah-dee-dah beautiful, but strong and thoughtful--and the characterizations
are splendid. I believed utterly in the conflicted priest, in his dying, snobbish, decent housekeeper, and most
of all I believed in the ghastly beast that the Scottish town became.

If you are a reader of highly literate material, I recommend this. If you like your novels more obvious,
skip it. (But you will be missing a fine book).

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving July 30, 2007

By Jon Hunt

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Andrew O'Hagan's "Be Near Me" is a work of indescribable beauty. From the opening dialogue that David Anderton (Father David) has with his mother to the final pages, a wistful thirty years later, O'Hagan elicits some of the finest characterizations and dialogue I have read.

This is a story about distance and loss. David, an Oxford student, falls in love with Conor, a young man from another college. After a certain kiss with Conor, David knows where he his headed...the priesthood. As it turns out, that's one of the few pieces of knowledge David will carry with him.

Much of the book centers around Father David's time in the Scottish town of Dalgarnock many years later, where he is not exactly welcomed by all. He meets an adolescent couple, younger than their years, befriends them, takes them on trips and becomes their confidante. After falling for Mark, the male of this duo, David is drawn into him one night and an indiscretion occurs. A trial follows and the rest is left for the reader to witness.

"Be Near Me", like the fine wine David drinks, simply gets better with each passing chapter. O'Hagan's narrative is so good that I found it hard to leave his book for even a minute. Each character evokes a certain empathy...not an easy task with multiple principals. By telling a Catholic priest's story from within, O'Hagan captures the "other side" of what we so often miss in the headlines of abuse. It is the choice of not facing one's sexuality that often draws men into the priesthood coupled with the ensuing loneliness that tortures its victims. The author presents this side with pathos and tenderness.

I highly recommend "Be Near Me" as it is a compelling work and one of the best books of the year. O'Hagan has created a masterpiece and the reader will understand the joys and sorrows of each of the individuals portrayed. It is a tour de force, full of emotion, depth and care.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A poignant story August 31, 2007

By Z Hayes HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Be Near Me is a searing read and paints a vivid portrait of an idealistic priest battling his inner demons. The Catholic priest in question, Oxford-educated David Anderton, finds himself heading the parish of a small town, Dalgarnock, and is met with suspicion by the townspeople. He befriends two troubled teens, Mark & Lisa & this friendship leads Anderton on a dangerous path that causes him to confront his past demons whilst struggling to deal with the consequences of his present actions.

Though the stories of sexual misdeeds in the church is not uncommon in these present times, the author succeeds in making other themes in the novel strike a more resonant chord within readers. Themes such as devotion, friendship, love, even ethics are given due consideration and the character of the priest arouses one's sympathy, despite his failings. A well-written novel that enables us to gain an insightful perspective of the central characters' lives.