"オー!ファーザー" is another quirky, funny, full of twists and mysteries, novel by Kōtarō Isaka. As with "ゴールデンスランバー" we get politicians, a mystery, silly characters and way too many twists for its own good in a package that is sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching and sometimes too much.
Here we get Yukio, a high school student with a twist: he has four fathers. His mother was dating four guys when she got pregnant and all of them decided to live together and take care of the baby. While the mother is basically absent in Yukio's life, the four parents are always there, and each one of them offers something different: Kata is obsessed with betting and knows the dark side of town, Aoi is the handsome one that all the ladies love, Satoru the smart one with knowledge of everything and Isao the strong one. Each of them has taught Yukio something different, skills that will become in handy when he observes a man stealing a bag from a shady 'lawyer' at the dog races.
What follows is a funny farce, with characters appearing and disappearing, silly and over-the-top situations, and twists on top of more twists (kind of like "Snatch" if you like movies with weird English accents). And Isaka does a great, almost amazing job at it. The characters, even if they fit an stereotype, are well created and developed, and are well used in some really funny situations; the plot is always trying to surprise and engage the reader; nothing seems as it is... But there is a moment when all of this becomes just a little bit too much and the reader may be in danger of feeling Isaka is just putting another twist or plot development out there for the sake of it, because he thought it was funny. And sometimes there can be too much of something.
Really enjoyable, but a little bit too long in the end.
The best: the humor, the characters, twists and situations
The worst: way too many twists; the premise is actually quite silly and there a couple of moments when the novel is in danger of becoming too much of a parody of itself; it loses steam close to the end, in particular with an ending that is a little bit too fast, too clean
Other options: "ゴールデンスランバー" is a better novel, but deep down, quite similar; David Foster Wallece is also full of fun and silliness; different but similar are Shinichi Hoshi or Terry Pratchett. And Shion Miura and her "神去なあなあ日常".
7/10
(Original Japanese language)