First Day

by Phil Harrison

An intense, questioning novel about marriage, love, family and religion. Outside an east Belfast mission hall, pastor and family man Samuel Orr meets Anna, a young Beckett scholar. They embark on an intense love affair, their connection fuelled by their respective passions. When Anna falls pregnant, the affair is revealed. The repercussions are slow to emerge but inescapable, and the fallout is shocking, cruel and violent. More than thirty years later Sam, their son, is in New York, living a steady, guarded life, his childhood and family safely abandoned. But the sins of the fathers are not to be so easily buried; the past crashes inevitably into the present, and Sam is forced to confront the fears he has kept close for decades.

Genres: Ireland, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature

224 pages, Paperback

Published June 7, 2018

Reviews

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

When first they meet, Anna is a twenty-six year-old Beckett scholar who taught at Queens University, and Samuel Orr is a pastor of a small mission hall in east Belfast, married, with three sons, his building between an off-licence and wasteland, filled with weeds, refuse, broken glass. They meet under his sign above the door, which reads:
ACQUAINT THYSELF WITH HIM AND BE AT PEACE. JOB 22:21

She was taking a photograph of the setting, the early-autumn evening light fading from the sky. He stepped out of his door and into her photograph, a film camera.

He asks if she only photographs places of worship, she replies: “Is there anything else?” He responds by quoting Psalms: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” She counters his scripture with words she holds as holy, Beckett: “The earth makes a sound as of sighs.” He asks if she is saved. Drawing once again on Beckett, “What is that unforgettable line? she said. If I do not love you I shall not love.”

Religion is his passion, he loves the words of scripture, and it is there he finds beauty. Words are her passion, Beckett’s words and then his when he courts her with scripture. She falls in love with his words, he falls in love with her passion. Despite the obvious obstacles that should prevent this courtship begat by scripture, this love affair fueled by their individual passions creates a new passion. There is a child on the way.

The truth emerges with the birth of Samuel, slowly repercussions follow, and guilt begins to wear on him, on them. Eventually there is the inevitable domino effect and the unforeseen, but unavoidable brutal consequences that unfold over the following few years.

Some thirty years later, Sam is living in New York City, his memories of all those years ago faded, the edges worn, but not completely forgotten. It is here he must confront his past and find a way to untangle the story of his being, a love conceived by way of deception, before the consequences consume them all.

Religion, faith, morality, marriage, love, family, deception, guilt, grief, bitterness, vengeance, forgiveness, all of these are observed, questioned in this haunting, beautifully lyrical debut novel which abstains from easy solutions or resolutions. It leaves you, instead, with a sense of compassion and, perhaps, recognition of how human we all are, and how utterly we fail at perfection.


Pub Date: 24 Oct 2017

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no denying that the prose in this novel is some of the most beautiful I've ever encountered. But that's about all that can be said for The First Day, which I found to be directionless and disappointingly misogynistic.

This book is divided into two parts. The first half chronicles a love affair between a priest called Orr and a Beckett scholar called Anna, living in Belfast. The two of them fall in and out of love, and somewhere in between, they have a child, called Sam. The second half is set some thirty years into the future in New York City, where Sam is working at the Met, and suddenly comes into contact with a figure from his past.

There's not much congruity between these two halves. Each focus on different themes - the first, adultery, religion, predestination; the second, sexuality, fear, shame. Harrison's writing seemed to exist constantly on the precipice of genuine insight - if he had given himself more room to develop the themes in this novel, I think the result would have been a lot more resonant. But unfortunately, coming in at 224 pages, this novel stops short of making any sort of statement that hasn't been made before. And it's frustrating, because Harrison is an incredibly skilled writer. His prose is incisive and clever and compulsively readable - lyrical, but not flowery - but really, it ends up being window dressing for a rather aimless story, that builds tension but culminates in a lackluster conclusion.

And now to my second criticism - the treatment of female characters in this novel is abhorrent. Or should I say, character. One. There's really only one female character who makes any significant impact on this story, and while the men around her are three-dimensional, complex, enigmatic, contradictory, she, Anna, is essentially a void, unfulfilled until she becomes a mother. This is one of those books that is so, so obviously written by a male author. I'm sorry, but when you devote an entire paragraph to the experience of motherhood being literally (I'm not bending the use of the word 'literally,' folks) orgasmic, you've lost me.

"For Anna, the sheer physicality of her son was a starling location of pleasure, an eroticism she had not expected but found herself longing for daily, the strange combination of pain and focused, visceral pleasure[...]"

Anyway. Disappointing too were Anna's lack of convictions about Orr, who let her down on more than one occasional, but who she still begged to take her back when he tried to leave. Again, all of this wouldn't sting quite so much if Anna weren't the only noteworthy female character in this novel.

I still have no idea how to rate this, so I'm going with the noncommittal 3 stars. I occasionally liked this in spite of myself, in spite of my many criticisms, and undoubtedly it will work better for some people than it did for me. Phil Harrison is definitely one to watch in Irish literary circles. With the self-assured quality of the prose, it's hard to believe this is a debut novel.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley, Houghton Mifflin, and Phil Harrison.

[SueLucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A devastatingly sad story of lives blighted by grief and unresolved bitterness. Teenaged Philip cannot forgive his father’s adultery and its effect on his mother. He refuses to accept the new family he is expected to fit into. His resentment, crudely articulated at first, is honed as he grows older into calculated, systematic manipulation of those around him, with the aim of wreaking vengeance on his father. And at enormous cost, not only to those who love him, but above all to himself.

The structure of the novel is interesting, split as it is into two distinct halves. During the first half, I was unsure who was narrating. It was clear that the events were being described from some distance in the future, and comments along the lines of ‘in retrospect she should have noticed…..’ introduced a sense of foreboding leading to the dramatic events hinted at. In the second half, the family by now all grown up and living independent lives miles away from each other, they are brought back together for a final resolution of unfinished business. The build-up to the inevitable confrontation of old ‘enemies’ is unnerving and atmospheric, terrifically well plotted and paced.

Have I made this sound unremittingly bleak? It isn’t at all - it is a thoughtful exploration of motive, guilt and religious faith. No character is wholly good or bad, they are people caught up in tragedy, believing themselves to be doing what they must. We are invited to sympathise with them all. Highly recommended.

With thanks to Fleet/Little, Brown Group for the opportunity to read this ARC.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC from Netgalley.

This is a book of two halves. The first half is the story an odd, stilted kind of romance between an old-style Belfast preacher and a young Beckett scholar. They meet and, despite their religious beliefs, his marriage and children and his career, they embark on an affair, which eventually leads to the birth of a child and to an unsuccessful attempt to make a home together. The protagonist of the second half is the child born of their affair, describing his life in New York.

I found the writing style a little difficult to get into at first; it was a little too flowery for me. Sometimes it seemed to me that the author's favourite book must have been a thesaurus. However the writing is still impressive and the author clearly has talent. As someone familiar with the setting of Belfast around 2012, I appreciated the accuracy of the setting - not just geographically, but of the attitudes and culture of the city, which are keenly-observed.

The story meandered a bit and focused very much (especially in the first part of the book) on the inner life, the thoughts and feelings rather than the actions and words of the characters. I was somewhat thrown to discover that the second half of the book was set some time in the future and this seemed slightly jarring somehow. There were a few nods to the "futuristic' setting, such as a throwaway line about "where the zoo used to be", but at other times there were lines that made me frown at the assumption that things would not have changed so much - e.g. will hip-hop music still be trendy for teenagers in 2030?

It felt to me as though this author was trying to make a point but wasn't quite sure what that point was - but having said that, there is enough good writing, enough sharp observation, enough character development to make me come back for more.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 star read for me. The reason for this is I felt the author's portrayal of the affair between Samuel Orr, an East Belfast, fundamentalist pastor, and a much younger woman, Anna, a Queen's University graduate student, was not very believable to me. As the story evolves, Anna is the character that I find the least sympathetic as her affair with the married Samuel is only the first of such relationships for her. Samuel Orr is the character whose presence throughout the novel anchors the story.

Though dates are not mentioned in the novel, it begins sometime in the early 1980's and concludes in present day. The story moves from Belfast to New York. The Troubles are not mentioned in the early part of the book, and but in the second part of the story, there are references to the rapid gentrification of East Belfast, including the destruction of thousands of working class homes.

The audiobook was wonderfully read by Gerard Doyle, the go-to narrator for books set in Northern Ireland.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not 100% sure what exactly my final feelings are about this novel, although I should qualify that by saying I mean did I like or love it?

I found the structure interesting - third person then first person narrative; I also liked the way that a lot of the narrative in the second part of the novel takes place in the future, with hints of Belfast's development etc coming through in the text.

What I wasn't so sure about was Philip's character. Almost like a 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' style character whose motivatioj we find very little out about, constantly hovering over the other characters. Not sure how realistic this character was, but his role in the narrative did keep me turning the pages.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely cracking debut novel. I found myself immersed quite quickly in this book. A charismatic, family man preacher has a love affair with a twenty-something academic. There are far reaching consequences of the illicit tryst, particularly for the child who results from the affair. I thought the prose was eloquent and smart. The use of biblical quotations added to the story and credibility of Samuel Orr as being a man of faith, without being off-putting. My thoughts as I came close to the end were that I wanted and needed to know more. More about Samuel's estranged oldest son, more about the intervening years. This was definitely a book I could escape into and can highly recommend.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
'I had, as I said, told her who I was, but in every story there are gaps, and I’d been careful enough, or cowardly enough, to leave out some of the darker ingredients.'

The sins of the father shadow the sons, twisting every possibility of the future. What begins as a forbidden affair between 38 year old Pastor, Samuel Orr, married father of three boys and 26 year old Beckett scholar, Anna Stuart becomes an evolution of tragedy. The first half is full of passion, and where one would expect Samuel to repent for his ‘sins’, instead his shameless love for Anna is like a religion itself. Anna is ‘flooded by Sam’, seduced by his words. When she becomes pregnant, he must come clean to his wife and children and find a way to bring his two families together, remain steadfast in his devotion to Christ while well aware of his hypocrisy. Fate isn’t done with him, and soon tragedy strikes, forcing his hand with his flock. Staunch in his belief and his desires, that refusal to hide who he is and instead acceptance of his ‘punishment,’ so to speak, by retreating from his work as a pastor, sours something vital in his eldest son’s soul.

The tragedy is for the children to bear, and for who do you weep? Which fruit? The innocent child born into a game of revenge or the eldest son, tormented by the consequences of his father’s indiscretion? What I expected was a story I’ve read before, the old struggle of faith over sinful lust. This is not that novel at all! This is not your usual ‘step family’ makes or breaks it. As much as Samuel loves to speak in scripture, his words can never be loaded with enough salvation to repair the rift in his children’s universe. When the newly formed family decides to come together, it seems Philip draws closer to the infant, and later, to Anna. It’s hard to see what is real when you’re so close. Samuel turns distant and cold, becomes an absence, wants Anna and baby Sam to leave. Philip’s resentment is a planted seed, growing until he is near bursting. One moment alone, between Philip and his little brother Sam, is the start of a great divide full of disappearances and fractured memories. Never will they know how life could have been before the cruelty.

Fast forward to the future, Sam is now living in New York City working in an art Museum, Anna isn’t so much a main character in the second half, more flirting on the edge of her son’s life. He seems to have broken free of them all, trying to find out who he really is when he isn’t under the wings of his mother and her close friend, but still haunted by the past. His father Samuel has his own failing health to contend with and struggling with his memories, Sam is unsure and full of insecurities, but longs to anchor to something safe. Where is Philip? The threat of violence is alive in Sam’s mind, always, a scar a reminder of what hate can give birth too. More than anything, this novel is a mind game, and surprisingly you’re never sure what will happen. I had compassion for each character and understood the violence growing below the surface. Samuel will frustrate readers, just when things have a chance to begin anew, he retreats and we are left in the dark with Anna and their child. In his beliefs, he is also selfish, what a refreshing freedom-at the cost of so many.

It’s a strange read, and I actually felt the ending was perfect, because it isn’t tidy and neat. This is one interesting book, the family a complete wreck. When Philip appears in Sam’s life again, the reader knows it’s a portend but of what? We live in fear beside Sam and long for a confrontation, for something, anything! Some of us suffer with the hatred we harbor, and others are the target, through no fault of our own, just the happenstance of our birth. How different we are, how much the same. I was uneasy through much of the novel, but I like stories that shake me. It’s strange for a book to be quiet and destructive at the same time, and it is. I know every reader is going to be reading a completely different book here. It’s sad, horrific, tender, and always frustrating! How did they get here? How could desire cause so much destruction? It was different too that it’s the father and his sons that are the center of the novel, usually it’s the woman being punished in such stories of forbidden fruit. I can’t wait to here other reader’s thoughts.

Available Now

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

[MisterHobgoblin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First Day is a really well crafted novel exploring love, loyalty, forgiveness and revenge.

Samuel Orr is a pastor in East Belfast. He is married and has children. One day, inexplicably, he meets Anna, a literature PhD student from across the divide. They fall for each other and Samuel Junior is the result.

The first half of the novel is told in third person by a very present narrator, throwing in editorial comment. It is heavily laden with biblical references - perhaps also Samuel Beckett references that I wouldn't recognise - telling the sorry tale of Samuel and Anna. Samuel wrestles with conflicting loyalties to Anna and his wife; to God and to his congregation. He tries to do the right thing, but sometimes there is no right thing to be done. This part of the novel is not a new plot but it is told in such a distinctive way, and the spirit of Belfast is evoked with brilliance.

The second half of the novel is set thirty years later - some distance in the future - where we meet Sam Jr in New York where he works in the Met art gallery. He is haunted both psychologically and literally by Philip, his half brother who has never forgiven the two Samuels for the infidelity. Sam Jr narrates this in first person but, ironically, it loses some of the immediacy and feeling of the first half of the novel. The time and place never seems to be fully created and the plotting becomes somewhat more obscure. The chronology gets really hazy and it is not always clear what is driving the characters, what is motivating them to do what they do. It's still a good read, but just not as captivating as the earlier sections.

Overall this is an impressive novel that captures some of the nuances of Northern Ireland society without being captured by the obvious divisions of sectarianism and politics. It demonstrates real innovation in narrative voice and structure, and leaves the reader wanting more. That's pretty impressive for a debut novel.

[Viva · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars = it was ok by GR's rating system. This is a neutral rating from me at best.

I did not feel that the writing was easy to read or follow. Instead of the story flowing, I had to concentrate in order to follow it. Even then I found the story meandering and not really going anywhere. I had to struggle to read it, hence the 2 star.

I got this book as a free ARC.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the writing is exquisite, the narrative is imperfect. The characters’ reactions to challenging situations are sometimes disproportionately violent and extreme, and it is unnecessarily dark. If this were a meditation on psychopathology that would be one thing, but that’s not the intent. Nevertheless, the writing alone earns it four stars.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

read/skimmed 1/4 of it and could not get into it. It dragged and I found I didn't care about any characters so I stopped. On to something better.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read an advance copy in exchange for an homest opinion.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half way through- different to my normal read, but has gripped me

I'm waiting in suspense as I foresee tragedy and devastation to come

Well just finished and has expected terrible event in the middle, but not as expected

Good plot, but left with some unanswered questions and confusion about the characters, but they are complicated characters - and maybe not meant to be understood...

[Casey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot get into this book, let alone finish it. Too painful to weed my way through all of the flowery words and more words. Reminds me of something I was forced to read in high school English class. Just say what you mean and move the story along please. Reader overboard.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
I'm not entirely sure what motivated me to finish this book in 24 hours (other than I have some time off from work and school), let alone pick it up at the library. I do not typically read books with religious overtones, because I have very little knowledge about the Bible, but I became quickly enthralled with Harrison's prose and easily connected the Bible passages to content of the plot.

This novel is divided into two sections: the first part focuses on a love affair between an Irish pastor and a visiting PhD student, as told by their son who is a result of their affair. The second section focuses on the son, over thirty years later, and how the actions of his parents and the fallout from the affair affect his relationships with his family, his lovers, and himself.

This story is authentic and tragic. It spins together the love of God, the love of self, and the love of family, and critiques the powers of each. The plot itself was beautiful, and the writing even more so. Some characters develop faster within the first sections, and are stagnant in the second, while others develop fully towards the end- which is true of the pace of life. I almost wished it was longer, but I felt satisfied with the ending.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a two-stage tale of love. In the first we have lovers in love with words: he is in love with the Word of his Savior and she is in love with poetry. They both use these words to explain their emotions and physical yearnings until they can’t; once their words fail them, their relationship ends. The second half of the book involves the repercussions from the first but relies upon imagery more than vocabulary to guide the tale. The child of the previous affair works with art but is less facile with words. It’s a fascinating progression within the novel and the author does an outstanding job of bringing everything together. The tale itself is mostly dark with brief moments of light, it is meant to be an Irish tale of suffering for love rather than denial for family and faith. It’s a remarkable tale, well-told and difficult to put down. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy.

[Sharon M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley, Fleet Publishing, and Phil Harrison for the opportunity to read his debut novel.

This story is told in two parts - the first takes place in Belfast, Ireland, and centers around a preacher, Sam Orr, and Anna, a young Beckett scholar. Despite the fact that they are more different than alike and that Sam is married with 3 boys, they begin an affair. This, of course, reaps long-reaching consequences on his family, escalating when Anna gets pregnant. The second half of the book centers around their son, also named Sam. Sam is living in NYC, working at the Met, when his past comes crashing into his life.

I wanted to get into this story more than I did. The writing was great and holds much promise for the author. This was one of those books where I felt I just didn't get it - was I missing things I was supposed to read into the story? Lots of scripture quoting and flowery prose but I just couldn't get into the characters and their stories too much.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samuel Orr is the pastor of a small mission hall in Belfast. He’s happily married with 3 children but falls in love with Anna and has an affair with her. So far, so banal. But the consequences of this relationship are far-reaching as they reverberate down the years and become more and more unpredictable as time goes by. In spare and measured prose, well-crafted and well-paced, the tension builds as the novel progresses and it’s a compelling domestic drama. Love, loss, forgiveness, faith, and above all vengeance, make for a heady mix and a complex exploration of family dynamics. Thoroughly engaging and enjoyable.

[Farzan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hugely impressive debut novel by Harrison. Though, admittedly, it fell off as it progressed, The First Day features a surprisingly mature prose, ripe with lilting language and eye-catching metaphors, usually associated with experienced writers. The only thing that bothered me with the novel was his consistent use of academic theory to make characters sound sophisticated. Indeed, had he stuck with the biblical quotes, he would have achieved a more cohesive unit than he did by throwing Bataille or Kierkegaard at random. This is a minor error, however, and I can't wait for his second novel to come out. Hopefully soon.

[Maxine Purdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Ireland, this book seems, in the intial pages, very dark. The direct links to the Bible through one of the main characters, an Irish pastor called Orr, can be distracting. However, I didn't give up and by the middle of this short novel I was hooked.

The story is basically about Orr having an affair with a woman who falls pregnant and the consequences of this throughout their lives. Without giving too much away, it has a tense ending with tones of a thriller.

A short, thought provoking and, at times, intense read.

[Beth Peninger]

Thank you to NetGalley and Fleet for this reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

The synopsis made me believe this title held potential. But very quickly, within the first few pages, I felt disappointed. It was boring. The two main characters didn't interest me even a little bit. In fact, they annoyed me. The chapters were very long, with a lot of unnecessary detail (in my opinion), and the pace was very slow. I read into chapter two but when I finally decided to give up I felt like I should have read about 75% of the book. Instead, I got to 17%.

[Missy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super sad book. Hated the ending, but the rest of it was hard to put down.

Chapter 1: "But God knows, we have whole cities inside of us, places to hide secrets from ourselves.

Chapter 2: "How tempting to mistake hindsight for wisdom."

Chapter 4: "There's not a person I have met anywhere, anytime--any kind of person--who would not be relieved by forgiveness. Forgiving others, forgiving themselves, being forgiven." I don't need God for that." "I do."

"When we look at the world, we create it."

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much liked this book because of the settings in Ireland and New York. One of those books that spans generations, which is often hard to pull off without getting the reader bored. But not the case here. Thought it was well paced and very human. Not lots of dramatic developments, but things that real people might do. Good read.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

After I had some doubts initially about this book (mainly due to the religious content) the plot and writer’s style got me hooked. It intertwines so many human frailties - anger, guilt, revenge, and includes a shocking tragedy and suspenseful tension. Highly recommended and I look forward to more from Harrison.

[Jeanne Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Character study. Lots of biblical and art references. Sins of the father are visited on the children theme in a way, but no one really seems to be too worried about initial sin that causes the rest of the story to unfold. Kept my interest, but could have been more in depth character analysis.

[Megan Vimarco · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got half way through the book and it still wasn't holding my attention.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. But nothing terribly memorable or enjoyable.

[Audreygold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only 244 pages but felt longer. Not a memorable book and the main woman character, Anna, is poorly developed. Plot jumped from Belfast to New York.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took too much concentration to follow, and the ending wasn't worth the build up.

[❄️BooksofRadiance❄️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely heart racing debut.
I hated the two protagonists (the adulterers) to my very core but loved all the rest.