Pagan and Her Parents

by Michael Arditti

A powerful novel about a gay man's struggle to adopt the daughter of his late best friend

'Unputdownable' The Times

'Arditti writes exactly like Dickens' Scotland on Sunday

' I honestly couldn't put the book down' Literary Review

Candida Mulliner and Leo Young have been the closest of friends since university, living together but loving separately. When Candida dies after a long illness, she leaves her five year old daughter, Pagan, in Leo's care.

Candida's adoptive parents are horrified; they refuse to accept that a single man is a suitable person to bring up a child and challenge Leo's guardianship in the courts. The ensuing hearings are complicated by tabloid exposure of Leo's homosexuality, which threatens not only his position with Pagan but also his job as a television chat-show host.

As Leo fights for his and Pagan's rights in a society that continues to regard gay men as a threat to children, he finds himself isolated, vilified and, ultimately, arrested. Meanwhile, he endeavours to discover the truth about Candida, the cause of her estrangement from her adoptive parents, the identity of her natural mother and the reason for her refusal to name Pagan's father.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT

440 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 1997

About the author

Michael Arditti FRSL is an English writer. He has written twelve novels, including Easter, The Enemy of the Good, Jubilate and The Breath of Night, and also a collection of short stories, Good Clean Fun. His most recent novel, The Anointed, was published in April 2020. He is a prolific literary critic and an occasional broadcaster for the BBC. Much of his work explores issues of spirituality and sexuality. He has been described by Philip Pullman as "our best chronicler of the rewards and pitfalls of present-day faith".

Reviews

[Philip Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up on this pretty early. I found the characters unbearable and the writing style close to unreadable. Pagan’s mother Candida sounds like a proper nightmare - half manic pixie dream girl, half self-obsessed social climber, and then you have Leo, who is so ashamed of his working-class upbringing that he barely talks to anyone at university (Cambridge, natch, and of course they “go up” there rather than just “going”) and is so wet that he follows this annoying woman around like a lapdog, accepting all of her criticisms and even getting roped into acting as father to her child. He also just so happens to be a famous TV presenter and documentary maker, despite those shameful vowels.

And it’s written in the second person, from Leo to dead Candida, which is annoying and difficult to read.

The other three novels by Arditti that I’ve read have been uniformly brilliant, but this is a much earlier work. He’s obviously managed to pare down the silliness with age.

[Niamh]

Dnf🤕

[Girl with her Head in a Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a habit of finding a book that I think looks interesting and then writing down the title and author in the Notes bit of my iPhone. It means I don't forget and when I get book vouchers I know what I'm looking for. It does mean though that I can be surprised when I find myself buying books that I've forgotten I wanted. Pagan and her Parents has been a wonderful surprise. It was written in the early 90s and out of interest, I checked the web to find out more and I was surprised that it had been so forgotten yet aside from being recommended by Stonewall, there was nothing. Still, I do not believe that this book was written purely for the gay and lesbian community. While some of the attitudes and prejudices described within are dated, all too much of it is as fresh as a daisy and the case of Pagan and her parents still offers a lot for discussion.

For my full review:
http://www.girlwithherheadinabook.blo...

[Cmbrooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of a bereaved companion of the mother of the child Pagan and his battle for custody of the child with her parents. Common themes of Michael Arditti's work are homosexuality and its place in society, child safety and abuse, a spell in jail for the protagonist, and a positive outcome for the sympathetic characters in the novel. Absent is the debate on religion so much to the fore in Easter and The Enemy of the Good.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as the April read for Walk Cafe Book Club in Nottingham. At first I found the narrative pretty hard going, between talking to his deceased friend and talking to the reader, the place and time seemed to flick back and forth between paragraphs. However, I was really interested in the character buildup, even if I didn't like them. The twist towards the end of the book came as a surprise, as I had another character pegged in that role. Would recommend to others.

[Wifenotlodger Sunflower · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter and ensueing conflict kept me going, but to be honest the style this novel was written in put me off, not my most enjoyable read. Would have given up if it were not for Book Group. History has over taken the events too, 'Every Child Matters' means the child would have been treated very differently. Scary though, which things did not seem to have progressed as much. Interesting and irritating in equal measures!

[Marston Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this as a read only...someone had it before it was officially released...it was a great read... i couldn't put it down....it really went a long way in reinforcing how i wanted to be read..how i want to be heard... this author has a great voice

[Sediqa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a fucking genius. I wish I had this much talent. I've read his book 6 times over and I'm not willing to part with it.

[Beth Tovar · Rating 2 out of 5]

i thought I could get through it in short spurts on the treadmill but half way through i gave up. i will never understand why men think women with no moral center are interesting