ameliasbooks's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Father/Son relationship. Toxic masculinity.
Changes in times and perspectives.
Changes in times and perspectives.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Sexism, Medical content, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Grief, Gun violence, War, and Emotional abuse
amyzmt's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
shumska's review against another edition
3.0
kratak prozno poetični tekst, pisan kao reminiscencija na oca i pomiješane osjećaje koje autor gaji prema njemu (od obožavanja i ljubavi, preko čežnje i ovisnosti, do mržnje i prijekora) - vjerojatno je tekst kvalitetniji nego što mi je bio dopadljiv i/li lijep; ne mogu reći da mi je ta forma sjela - unutarnji monolog miješa se s obraćanjem (neprisutnom) ocu i cijeli tekst (nekih 70tak stranica) mogao bi egzistirati i kao pjesma u prozi. intimno pretumbavanje, za poetične duše.
elenasquareeyes's review against another edition
4.0
At under 70 pages this novella manages to be impactful and almost whimsical at the same time. It can be a little hard to follow at times as the unnamed narrator tends to jump back and forth in his memories of his father. Sometimes he’s recounting a story of when he was a young child, and what he felt in that moment, while in others he’s then looking back on an event with through the eyes of his adult self, offering a different perspective to the one he had as a child.
The first chapter was the most interesting to me as that contained extracts from the father’s diary from when he joined the British army, in the King’s Own Malta Regiment in December 1939 at age nineteen. A lot of it was just the everyday goings on of life in the army but the diary is the springboard for the son’s thoughts about his father’s time in the military and how that shaped him as a man.
What it means to be a man and how soldiers and men don’t cry is a big factor. How the father’s attitude towards his son for any perceived weakness, how the son likes the feeling of tears running down his face, and how he only ever saw his father cry twice and both times his father had tried to hide it from everyone. It’s clear to see how this strict masculinity has affected the son and caused him to rethink certain elements of himself. It’s something he also muses about, masculinity and the role of a father, when he has his own son.
One thing that was a bit unusual, was how the narrator would bring in quotes or ideas from different writers and theorists and then relate them to his father and his memories of him. This little novella had footnotes with references to textbooks and it made the reading experience a real mix of things.
With the theory stuff it sometimes seemed academic, then there was the historical aspect, giving a brief rundown of the political landscape in Malta and how his father interacted with it, and then there’s the family and relationship history making it a condensed memoir. All these elements means that when reading it, there’s a distance to In the Name of the Father (and of the Son). It’s like the narrator is looking through the fog of memory, trying to work through his grief and thoughts. It’s an interesting and thoughtful reading experience and one that cant help but leave you feeling a little melancholy.
The first chapter was the most interesting to me as that contained extracts from the father’s diary from when he joined the British army, in the King’s Own Malta Regiment in December 1939 at age nineteen. A lot of it was just the everyday goings on of life in the army but the diary is the springboard for the son’s thoughts about his father’s time in the military and how that shaped him as a man.
What it means to be a man and how soldiers and men don’t cry is a big factor. How the father’s attitude towards his son for any perceived weakness, how the son likes the feeling of tears running down his face, and how he only ever saw his father cry twice and both times his father had tried to hide it from everyone. It’s clear to see how this strict masculinity has affected the son and caused him to rethink certain elements of himself. It’s something he also muses about, masculinity and the role of a father, when he has his own son.
One thing that was a bit unusual, was how the narrator would bring in quotes or ideas from different writers and theorists and then relate them to his father and his memories of him. This little novella had footnotes with references to textbooks and it made the reading experience a real mix of things.
With the theory stuff it sometimes seemed academic, then there was the historical aspect, giving a brief rundown of the political landscape in Malta and how his father interacted with it, and then there’s the family and relationship history making it a condensed memoir. All these elements means that when reading it, there’s a distance to In the Name of the Father (and of the Son). It’s like the narrator is looking through the fog of memory, trying to work through his grief and thoughts. It’s an interesting and thoughtful reading experience and one that cant help but leave you feeling a little melancholy.
joecam79's review against another edition
3.0
In 2006, the author was present at the birth of his son. Just a few months later, in 2007, the author’s father died. These two momentous events, which he lived as a father and as a son, led Immanuel Mifsud to write Fl-Isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben) (later translated into several languages, including English as “In the Name of the Father (and of the Son)”). Another source of inspiration for the author was the discovery of a “war diary”that his father started to write when he joined the King’s Own Malta Regiment in 1939. Brief extracts from the diary are included in the text and the image of Mifsud’s father as “soldier”, in both a literal and figurative sense is a running theme of this short book.
Immanuel Mifsud is best-known as the writer of short stories which break taboos by focussing on less savoury aspects of Maltese society. Fl-Isem tal-Missier (U tal-Iben), for which Mifsud won the European Literature Prize in 2011, is not very typical of the author. One could say that it is also quite an unusual sort of work in the Maltese literary context. More than a novel, I would describe it as a meditation on fatherhood – a Sebaldian mix of essay, autobiography and (possibly?) fiction, rendered in a highly poetic prose. It is also, very evidently, a personal project close to the author’s heart.
Tellingly, in its introduction, Mifsud voices his concern, via a reference to Roland Barthes, that this book, completed as a “promise” might not speak to its readers as it does to him. This observation is well-placed. The searing emotion of the text is often moving but sometimes made me feel uncomfortably like a voyeur.
3.5*
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/03/in-name-of-the-father-Immanuel-Mifsud.html
Immanuel Mifsud is best-known as the writer of short stories which break taboos by focussing on less savoury aspects of Maltese society. Fl-Isem tal-Missier (U tal-Iben), for which Mifsud won the European Literature Prize in 2011, is not very typical of the author. One could say that it is also quite an unusual sort of work in the Maltese literary context. More than a novel, I would describe it as a meditation on fatherhood – a Sebaldian mix of essay, autobiography and (possibly?) fiction, rendered in a highly poetic prose. It is also, very evidently, a personal project close to the author’s heart.
Tellingly, in its introduction, Mifsud voices his concern, via a reference to Roland Barthes, that this book, completed as a “promise” might not speak to its readers as it does to him. This observation is well-placed. The searing emotion of the text is often moving but sometimes made me feel uncomfortably like a voyeur.
3.5*
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/03/in-name-of-the-father-Immanuel-Mifsud.html
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