KEY POINTS:
It's a brave book that tackles both religious intolerance and global terrorism.
Successfully examining European terrorist bombing campaigns and personal quests for religious tolerance, Niall Williams' Boy in the World is that book. It's a braver book, though, that goes behind the grand stage of global politics to find essential human truths in the everyday. It's here where Boy in the World's high-minded idealism beleaguers rather than boosts matters.
Strip away its framework of terrorism, and Boy in the World is a story of an adopted Irish boy's search for a father he's never known. Jay has been raised by the Master, a man who is simultaneously his devoted grandfather and senior-school tutor.
One day, the Master gives Jay a letter written by his dead mother which reveals the identity of his father. What follows is Jay's rejection of Catholicism and his journey across Europe in search of his missing lineage and alternative faith-beliefs.
Along the way, Jay encounters Maori overstayer Whatarangi, Portuguese child-beggar Nuno, mysterious German itinerant Gus, the BBC's London offices, the autobahns and an Egyptian hospice.
For all of Jay's globe-trotting, his story falters more than it fascinates. In perpetually referring to Jay's grandfather as the Master, for instance, Williams needlessly stereotypes the latter; allowing the Master a first name would have also allowed us to get closer to him, and in so doing understand Jay's love for him. However, this flaw pales into insignificance to the finale, which _ without giving the game away _ cheats the reader, as much as Jay, of much-needed catharsis.
Essentially, for all its profound politicking, it's the touchy-feely stuff (particularly between Jay and the Master, and Jay and his longed-for father) that the success of the story depends upon most; and, crucially, this is where Boy in the World is found wanting.
*HarperCollins: $34.99
- Sunday Extra, HoS
