Customer Reviews

Father of the Man: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Robert Mooney studied with John Gardner at SUNY/Binghamton. I had the very good fortune to know a circle of writers/artists who studied with him when he taught at SIU/Carbondale. This book, like their works, has qualities I believe are the mark of the student/protege Gardner especially fostered--great crafting of sentences, a mix of very beautiful and the raw, very real people, an allegiance to his ideal of moral fiction but never in any way righteous, just true. As the extremes in response among the reviews show, it's not a work for the Saturday afternoon speed reader, but then I wouldn't expect that from someone who studied with Gardner, who in addition to the better known of his writings, was so astute in medieval and renaissance works he is renowned for having written Cliff notes for Chaucer!

These characters will follow you. I've never read something quite so suspenseful (I had to hold myself back from flipping ahead) but also so literary. Mooney takes the reader on a weaving journey through the past and into the depths of relationships. A wonderful novel.

After reading Father of the Man, I was on a bus when a passenger became belligerent and starting ranting and yelling. My first thought was, "Here we go! Into the Pennsylvania wilderness, just like Dutch." But sometimes, life doesn't turn out as carefully constructed (or as beautiful) as it does in novels.

Father of the Man has some of the most engaging characters I've ever read. Mooney has a gift for illustrating the complexities of real, every day life and making them seem subtley mythic. This is a story about fathers & sons and about families -- the ones we are born to and the ones we make. A wonderful first novel worthy of multiple readings.

I have never read this book, but my friends dad wrote it, so it must be a gooden. I highly advies to you that you go out and buy this book.?! Do it now, then once you do, email me and tell me if it was good, i'm 99.9% sure that that the book is a great one, or, how them youngins say today, the book is "off of the chain". Go get it now.

This is not only a novel which grips the reader all the way, but the writing "glows," whether the subject is the meaning of an individual life or the texture of a bus seat or the fear at the hearts of those who may die--and have never really lived. If you know someone who's unafraid to grapple with human frailty, you have his or her Christmas gift right here.

This is a great book that reached out and touched me. I thought the story was great and i learned a lot> If your looking for a good book i advise this one strongly.

Mooney scuplts a detailed, whirling, exciting story in "FATHER OF THE MAN". The research is exhaustive, the writing style fluid and strong, the story full of suspense. A great read.

I think that pretty much says it all. So much work went into the construction of every sentence that the entire work is stifling. Each sentence is like a gasp for breath, a desperate claw at the reader to gain attention and acceptance. The book tries too hard to tug at the heartstrings of the audience and generally ends up insulting our intelligence. It is true that this book is character-driven but too many of the characters serve no purpose but to give the author a chance to flex his muscles in front of a mirror.

Father of the Man is a gripping, poetic tale of madness, forgiveness, and the terrible and beautiful power of love. In prose that is by turns gritty and delicate (as one reader put it--it's Dog Day Afternoon as if written by Virginia Woolf and edited by Dostoyevsky) Mooney moves from the panorama of World War II to the potholed streets of Binghamton, NY in the mid 1980's, taking us on a journey which finally ends in the myopia of a bursting heart. Father of the Man is a magical journey I'll never forget.

I found little in this book that was original or creative. Entire passages seemed to be pointless padding. Pass this one up.