The Father's Tale Awfulganza; Part 2

The Father's Tale

By Michael O'Brien

Catholic-ometer: 3 of 5

Enjoyability: 0.5 of 5

I got the distinct impression that the author wanted me to like some of these characters that he'd created.  I didn't.  I didn't like any of his characters, although for different reasons.  There are two major reasons for this, and a minor one.  First the major reasons.


Major Reason 1; Certain characters were simply uninteresting.

This falls into two categories, really.  Some characters, like the bum, the prostitute, the church caretaker, Kiril, and really, Alex himself are simply uninteresting people from the start, and nothing could really be done to fix that, short of giving them development sufficient to make them interesting.  This wasn't done.

However, there's also the rare case where a character seems like they're sort of on the verge of becoming interesting, like Ilya, and Alex's emergency intervention prevents this from happening.  Joy.


Major Reason 2; Certain characters were simply depressing.

Many characters failed to accomplish anything of any value, and thus wound up being depressing.  I'm not thinking of Aglaya, exactly.  In her little world, taking care of that cow seemed pretty important, I'll bet, but of Yevgeny, the bum again, most of the intelligence agents, Alex again, and every chinese character in the story.  Ilya and Kiril probably fit into this as well, if not the entire population of their town.  Nothing really gets accomplished by anyone in this story.  Doesn't that get old?


Minor Reason; Certain characters were simply annoying.

Well, I didn't mention Aglaya in either of the first two headings, but that's because she belongs right here.  Aglaya is -the most- annoying character that I have read about in a long time, and certainly the most annoying one in this book.  She's like a cross between a jewish matchmaker, a broken record and the excitable little dog that always barks at you when you walk down the street.  Pretty much every single line she gets (with the exception of the part where she recites her life story,) is aimed squarely at hooking up Alex with Irina with as little subtlety as possible.  She even tries to claim it's God's plan.  They call her "the crow" in this story, but she goes over the same ground so darn much that I would have called her "the parrot."


Oh, yes.  The characters bothered me, alright, but that's not all.  Stay tuned for part 3; where we'll unveil the problems that this book has in its understanding of church teaching.  Until then, stay strong, and don't let the world get you down.