A Son Called Gabriel

by Damian McNicholl

Set in the hills of Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 70s, A Son Called Gabriel is a deeply felt and often funny coming-of-age novel that is ultimately unforgettable.

Gabriel Harkin, the eldest of four children in a working-class family, struggles through a loving yet often brutal childhood. It's a turbulent time in Ulster, and in the staunchly Catholic community to which Gabriel belongs, the strict rules for belief and behavior are clear. As Gabriel begins to suspect that he's not like other boys, he tries desperately to lock away his feelings, and his fears. But secrets have a way of being discovered, and Gabriel learns that his might not be the only ones in the Harkin family....

Evoking a sense of time and place as compelling as Angela's Ashes and At Swim, Two Boys, Damian McNicholl's A Son Called Gabriel announces the arrival of a
striking new literary voice.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Gay, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Ireland, Historical

343 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2004

About the author

Damian McNicholl was born in Northern Ireland. His latest novel, THE MOMENT OF TRUTH, will be published by Pegasus Books on June 6, 2017. His debut, A SON CALLED GABRIEL, was an American Booksellers Association Booksense Pick and Lambda Literary Awards finalist. It will be republished by Pegasus in Fall 2017 with an entirely different ending. He lives in Bucks County Pennsylvania.

I love to read well-crafted stories that are literary but accessible as well as memoirs and nonfiction that is meaningful and relevant to living in contemporary society.

Reviews

[Louis Muñoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, at times, almost a 5, at others, a 3.5, LOL. At the end of the day, it is a 3.5 rounded up.

Coming-of-age books can be tricky. I like them quite a lot, usually, especially LGBTQ+-themed ones. However, one of the biggest problems that comes up is that as the character ages, what I might have found endearing, or energizing, or whatever, starts to fade, starts to grow old. In any event, I don't find this author was completely successful with this book, as I often found Gabriel either a bit of a pain, a bit of a bore, and sometimes both, and sometimes worse. Honestly, I was tempted to start skimming, but the book picked up finally, and there was a reveal towards the end that I did not expect, as well as several characters who were not what I had expected, which I appreciated. So, not my favorite book in the different genres it inhabits, but I definitely plan on reading more from Damian McNicholl.

[Erastes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book struck a lot of chords for me, and I found myself reading it in one session because I simply couldn’t put it down. Being raised myself by a Catholic mother with the same values and standards as Gabriel’s mother–don’t shame the family, don’t show yourself up, don’t give in to bullies, always look nice, study hard, do better–I could empathize with everything in this story.

Gideon is a normal little boy–until he starts to worry that he isn’t. He’s about six at the start of the book and going to school. Or at least, he decides he’s not going to school because he’s being bullied.

The choice was school or the big stick and seemed easy to make. My younger sister Caroline and any boy in the whole of Ireland would choose school, but I knew I was right in refusing to go.

No, he’s not the most self-aware boy in Ireland, he’s just not into sports. However that’s enough of a reason for Henry Lynch to pick on Gabriel and when pushed to the point of fighting, and then backing down he realises that he’s never going to be able to fight–which makes matters worse. There are gradual hints as he gets older that he’s not like the other boys in his immediate circle which he doesn’t understand.

In this respect I was reminded of William Golding’s The Inheritors, or more recently, Terry Pratchett’s Nation where someone tries to understand a way of life that in many ways makes no sense at all. Gabriel’s so desperate to fit in; but there are things that even he’s not aware of that make him stand out.

Don’t go thinking that this is a bleak and tragic story. It could easily have gone that way, but there’s a bubbling exuberance that buoys it up, and a streak of black humour running through it which saves it from irremediable emo.

As an example, Lynch picks on Gabriel at the funfair. Gabriel is wearing purple jeans, jeans he begged his mother to buy him, and of course, they are unlike anyone else’s jeans. Gabriel is stripped by the bullies and saved by the girls–who he plays with at school. A dreadful situation but the sting is taken out of it when his cousin remarks that she’s seen her brother’s thing a hundred times and Gabriel’s is no different.

The book is full of childhood smut, like this. Children experiment with sex, and these children are no different, so if you are averse to children playing doctors and nurses (in one case quite delightfully with Gabriel and his male cousin) then this isn’t the book for you. But it’s not presented in any titilaating way–simply as a fact of life, because that’s what children do. They learn “bad words” and keep them from their parents because they know they shouldn’t know them.

In this respect is a lovely nostalgic read, children certainly being more innocent than they are today.

As would be expected in the time and place, religion plays a strong part in the book, and Gabriel is buffeted between the Church and his family when he learns the confusing facts of how to deal with confession. “Tell the priest the truth.” “Don’t you dare tell the priest anything about this family.” and other impossible matters. He’s often punished for telling the truth, when it’s discovered that he tells the truth about a lie he told earlier.

When Gabriel really begins to realise what might be “wrong” with him, that’s when the tone of the story changes and he struggles with his possible homosexuality with all of his might. The book could have spiralled into despair at this point, but it’s Gabriel’s tenacity and–even more importantly, the strength and solidity of his family that prevent this.

His family are every piece as important in this, and I came to know and love (and dislike!) all of them. Anyone with a largish family will be able to take something away from this, the nice grannie, the not so nice grannie, the embarrassing aunt, the brother no-one talks about… and so on.

I don’t know if the author is planning a series of books about Gabriel, but I hope so. The book ends with him just about to leave Ireland for London, and it seems perfectly set for a sequel. I’ll certainly be getting it if so.

I think many people will find something to take away in this book–especially if they were raised in the 1960s and 70s. As a debut novel, it’s a terrific read, and anyone with an interest in this era will find it absorbing – and I’m sure, as unputdownable as I did.

[mencey]

leído para hacer un essay de clase 😵‍💫

Ha sido elección mía y creo que ha valido la pena, a pesar de que se me ha hecho pesado porque lo tenía que analizar en vez de disfrutar. Se hace algo largo pero a la vez quisiera q la historia siguiera. Creo que abarca mucho y de muy buena manera. Trata sobre identidad sexual, de género, nacional, familiar, religiosa... Tiene escenas muy fuerte y explícitas y a veces se hace algo incómodo pero bueno lo he sobrevivido. Creo que no se siente fresco en la manera de escribir; se siente muy tradicional y eso le resta. El personaje principal está muy bien construido y es muy creíble, me encantaría otro libro sobre él o incluso una serie. El interés amoroso me ha encantado pero me ha sabido a muy poco... Tiene sus más y sus menos. Ahí está yo q sé jjsjsjsjs

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I have changed nothing in terms of opinion I have recently reread and removed infelicities of style as well as spelling and grammar mistakes - February 2024.

I am reviewing this book nearly nine years after I read it which, in some circumstances would lead to hold off reviewing and rating till I had reread the book, but this novel made such a strong impression at the time I read it that I feel confident about reviewing and rating it, though I would like to read it again.

I thought it an excellent novel about Ireland and the way families and communities functioned in the 1970's (it is always odd when your childhood/teenage years become history) and having been written and published before much of the clerical abuse story in Ireland had been acknowledged or accepted it has an honesty and truth that is free of what could have easily become retrospective denunciation and foreknowledge. This an honest and true portrait of the way abuse by family and church was intertwined, linked and indissoluble - it is one of finest things in the book because to often now the scandal of abuse in Ireland is presented as something the Catholic Church did. But who made up the Catholic Church back then? Who were those abusive priests and nuns? They were Irish men and women, they were the brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, cousins, nephews and nieces, friends, neighbors, schoolfriends. They were not strangers 'parachuted' in to inflict terror on subject population (though many abusive Irish priests were 'parachuted' into missions in Africa, Australia and North and South America after they had blotted their copy books to badly in Ireland) they were an integral part of the society they lived amongst and were formed by.

It is also about growing and growing up and away from small places that once seemed the world but are revealed to be very small and unimportant. To make that story relevant and true requires a fine novelist and Mr. McNicoll is one. This is novel worth reading free prejudgment about its time and setting. A very good novel about truth and honesty and the complications of loyalty which are never as easy as those not caught in loyalties complications make out.

[Paul Trainor · Rating 3 out of 5]

About a third of the way through Damian McNicholl’s debut novel, his chief protagonist seems to have his prayers answered, and I did too, for it was then that the novel finally got hold of me an kept me with it to the end. The first third unfairly dallied that it would be a run-of-the-mill depressing tale of shoeless drunken Ireland a la Angela’s Ashes but patience brought good things just like the saying predicts.

Having grown up in Northern Ireland at exactly the same time as Gabriel, I found a lot of it very familiar; his mother was my mother, his father my father, and the relationship between his brother and father scary in how it mirrored similar events in my house. Ultimately a coming of age tale of youngster’s realization of his homosexuality, the parallel of being a catholic in troubled and prejudicial Ireland is somewhat underplayed.

The ending (with an unsuspecting twist) seems rather rushed, and although overall a fascinating insight into the troubled mind of accepting homosexuality, I was left somehow feeling that there was a lot of other threads that did not have proper closure.

I have been working on a story for several years that is set almost on the same stage and era —different central theme— and I was impressed at how Damian brought me back to Ireland in the early seventies. I brought it more alive, to add to lot of my own memories scattered in my notebooks, and as Gabriel might say, I want to write more about it fierce bad.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is about a boy named Gabriel growing up in Ireland. His hysterical mother's rants made me laugh and his father reminded me of The Wonder Years dad I always loved. Brother, sisters, aunts, grandparents, school friends and teachers are all great characters, and I love an Irish brogue, but still this book felt long to me. Family secrets involve Gabriel's uncle Brendan, a priest away on an African mission. Most of Gabriel's childhood experiences seem to revolve around sexual experimentation and Catholic guilt. The author spends 328 pages steering the reader to conclude that Uncle Brendan's shame is due to homosexuality, and then the last 12 pages come as a surprise. I think this could have been a shorter, more artful book.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new to be learned from this one. Every cliche under the sun woven together and not particularly well.

[Beatriz Sá · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gentle story narrated by young Gabriel Harkin, the son of the title, who lives in Northern Ireland during the 1960s and 70s. A young boy in 1964 when the novel begins, his story is one of growing up during the time of the "troubles" which provide a subtle background for his personal experience of dealing with his own homosexuality. He does well enough in school, but is not a scholar, and from the beginning he does not fit in either at school or at home. The novel traces his gradual discovery of why this is, and his homosexuality is only one of the reasons. How he deals with his growing awareness of his sexuality is one source of suspense in the story. At the same time his family gradually prospers financially even as the violence of the "troubles" grows ever more menacing in the background. This novel is quiet and understated, but it has just the right tone for the story. There is additional suspense primarily due to a subplot regarding Gabriel's Uncle Brendan who is away from home at the beginning of the story. He returns and the result of that event along with the growing political clamor provides sufficient action to keep the reader interested until Gabriel's story comes to its climactic close.

[Robert Rice]

Robert Rice
A Son Called Gabriel
I would recommend this book to people who want to understand more of what happened during this time period. I think the author wrote this to enlighten the reader of the life’s of everyday Irish people and the hardships some endure. “Her ability to reverse herself and stand up for Father was truly astonishing” because it showed that even though she was mad at him she still wanted to protect him. I felt sorrow for the main character for all the trouble he has been through. My favorite character was the main character, Gabriel, because of his perseverance. I did not like Henry because he was always mean to Gabriel for stupid things. When the book got into the school being harsh part is when I got hooked into the book and got my attention the most. The book had foreshadowing for the ending so it made it easier to predict the ending of this book. If this book was made into a movie I would choose my old friend Mitchell because he fits the description of the main character of this book very well. I kept reading the book because I thought it exploited its strengths very well.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure about this book going into it. One of the best books I’ve read this year was The Absolutist by John Boyne, which is the story of a young gay man coming of age written by an Irish author; and one of my all time favorite books is At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill, which is the story of a young gay man coming of age written by an Irish author.

Overall I was completely underwhelmed until the last 15-20 pages of the book. I think McNicholl did a great job portraying working class Northern Ireland and interlacing just enough of the political landscape to keep the focus on the main character and not the conflict, but I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t feel like Gabriel was a sympathetic character and I just kept wanting to tell him to shut up. I honestly kept thinking, good grief I hope I wasn’t that annoying when I was his age (even though I’m sure I was more-so).

Click here to continue reading on my blog The Oddness of Moving Things.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this book. I'd seen it compared to At Swim Two Boys, presumably because it's set in Ireland and has a gay protagonist, but really the two books have nothing at all in common. ASCG doesn't even read like a novel; it's more like one of those rather worthy over-detailed confessional affairs, in which everything that's there is there because it happened and not because it makes much narrative sense. There's very little narrative sense to be had in this book, in which one thing follows another and, well, that's it. The author says it's not autobiographical and I suppose we have to believe him, but it has the feel of barely digested truths, as though the authority of the book depended on its authenticity. I wasn't convinced. I found it shapeless and over-larded with whimsical but unnecessary detail. It cried out for editing. In other words, I didn't like it at all.

[K-dizzle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well written book which really brought the struggle of growing up different to life. The language and the way it was able to convey a whole plethora of emotions is quite a rare quality. The backdrop of ‘the troubles’ provides another layer of complexity to the story and is an interesting take on the life of those caught in the crossfire.

[Idit Bourla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave it 5 stars, although it was not perfect.
I shall start with the things I did not compel with in the novel. First of all, NO LOVE STORY! I wanted so badly for Gabriel to fall in love with someone and actually make his lust come real. It was also a big role in his changing, because all over the book, he is got no one, he even ends up alone although he got himself a girlfriend. Second of all, I kinda felt Gabriel did not receive an appropriate ending with his identity issue. He did not have the TALK with his actual father, which was quite a character and did not fully admit whom he really attracts to. It was kinda in the air. Maybe that was the author intention, and if he it did, he should have writing a squall.
However, I gave it 5 stars by all the means. I loved everything in it, especially the settings of magical Northern Ireland of the 60's and 70's. I loved Gabriel and his adorable family; I even liked his abusers, like Henry, Noel, etc. They were all thoughtful, interesting characters. I loved the light writing and the story. It was emotional and lovely.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable book, which for the first third really engaged me, however, as it moves along for me it lost inertia and became as poignantly repetitive as the obsessions of a preteen and teenager are likely to be. Experiencing them as the vehicle of the novel, however, was not necessarily pleasurable. The book has a twist at the end, which is predictable and in an effort to make it accessible to non-UK readers about Catholic traditions, and the educational system it becomes boringly didactic.

Still, I finish the book, and I would say that if there was a major disappointment in it, it was the sparse and inconsistent attempt to recreate, the lilting idiosyncratic vernacular of rural Ireland. I think of “At Swim Two Boys” and “Shuggie Bain “and felt this book simply would not wrap me authentically in the linguistic Irish world.

[Cami · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like I've read a different book than the one advertised. As in, I was lead to believe this was an enjoyable, gay, coming-of-age story. It's really not; as I saw another review say, it's more of a "these things happened, and in this order," with no real effect on the plot.

And it ends awfully. If taken at face value--and the author has not given us any reason to believe it shouldn't be--this queer young man believes he's going to be happy in London with his girlfriend, and that he's "leaving for a new beginning," and is looking forward to no longer being queer. What kind of bullshit is that?

Anyway, I read it over the course of a few days, and I'd classify it as a slog. I would recommend not wasting your time.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I noticed this book on a shelf while perusing a bookstore many years ago, bought it on impulse and devoured it. I will reread it this year because while the character of Gabriel has stuck with me I'll admit I don't remember a lot of the details. What I do remember is that the story is captivating, and has a long lasting effect.

[Julie Barnard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I didn’t think this was as good as the author’s last book, it was well worth reading. Not easy though.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is predictable, I enjoyed the last quarter of the book and how it explained things and have hope for the future.

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pacing was really off.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to feel on this story.
But more on this book @ https://scifisstrs.blogspot.com/2019/...

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A coming of age novel about Gabriel, a boy in Northern Ireland in the 1960's and 1970's. Gabriel tries to keep a secret about himself and he discovers another family secret.

[Brody Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book which is why i tried again and again to get into it over the past two months. However, it lacked anything out of the ordinary. I was just so bored.

[Amris]

DNF @ 19%

[Dan L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good coming-of-age story of someone growing up gay and catholic

[Luka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Firstly; I was expecting the ending to reveal Gabriel's uncle Brendan's concealed (but hinted at) homosexuality, instead I was completely thrown to learn Brendan was in fact Gabriel's father!

I am prone to 'coming of age' novels and this was no exception. I thoroughly enjoyed the authors writing style. I found it very intimate and personal. This enabled me to quickly get into the novel. I liked the picture he painted of Northern Ireland in the mid 60's, gruff, run down but cosy living surroundings.
The family bonds, secrets and conflicts drew me in and I found this a realistic depiction of family life.

Gabriel's voice was often a pained one and I felt it easy to empathise with his adolescent pains. His deep rooted confusion/guilt/shame, repressed anger, resentment over his strict religious upbringing what's more, angst concerning his brewing sexuality and at times, rampant desires.

One qualm I have is that the ending was rushed, just as we had been subjected to a shocking (through my eyes) twist, the tale was spun and merely paragraphs left until the end.

I had invested in Gabriel and in Brendan too,(I believe, the only grown up who was consistently patient and considerate in his treatment towards Gabriel.) I was curious to know the outcome, how their relationship would now further develop after such a revelation? But was denied this with the ending cut short. A sequel could work well, with the author's writing style reading like a biography of sorts.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel about a gay Catholic boy growing up in a rural town in Northern Ireland during the "time of troubles" quickly captures the reader's attention. The first-person narrative, laced with Irish idiomatic expressions, is charming and cheeky during Gabriel's grade-school years. But, as he grows older, he often comes off sounding like a drama queen as he goes through typical adolescent rebellion. The scenes of his furtive gay experimentation with cousins and school mates are at first humorous. Then, as he moves into puberty, he becomes miserable as he learns that the Church considers his innocent sex games to be mortal sins.
The plot gathers suspense as Gabriel gets an inkling that his Uncle Brendan, a seldom-seen priest stationed in Kenya, has a shady secret his family won't discuss. The secret gets revealed in the closing chapters, giving Gabriel a fresh wound to his fragile self-esteem. That, plus other subplots -- the Protestant girlfriend, the simmering friction with his father, outing himself to his mother, doctor and priest -- all get resolved too hastily and rather implausibly at the conclusion. As Gabriel gets ready for a fresh start by going off to England to attend college, still hiding his sexuality from his girlfriend, the reader senses he is being set up for a sequel. This is McNicholl's first novel, and we are told he is working on a second.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say this was impressive, because despite a fairly one-note, first person delivery, which seemed to lack the level of rhythm and description other Irish writers have, this was nevertheless fairly compelling. In parts the vocabulary and level of questioning of Gabriel didn't match his age and was difficult to believe in, but overall the tale was well told, if not exactly 'enjoyable', because of the uncomfortable ups and downs of adolescence and all-too-recognisable insights into family life.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept waiting for something to happen, and was a bit disappointed that the huge secret was that Gabriel was Brendan's son. I was waiting for the scandal that forced him (Brendan)to missionary work in Kenya...
I found the narrator's voice unconvincing. Gabriel's 1st person's voice is just too mature for a boy, though it gets a bit better when he hits the teenage years. He sounds like an a (stiff) grown-up in his conversations with his grandmother, parents, relatives...

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here on Goodreads, 2 stars means 'It was okay' and that's exactly what this novel was - just okay. I didn't hate it, but I wasn't particularly invested in it either. It left me wondering, "So what?" It's a fairly average coming-of-age story that read just like plenty of others, but the twist at the end was (to my surprise) more interesting than what I had assumed it would be.