My Father (The Year of The Golden Man‪)‬

Francis J D Hyland’s latest novel My Father (The Year of the Golden Man), is the semi-biographical sequel to his earlier work My Son (A Journey), which I also read. My Father (The Year of the Golden Man) brings back most of the original characters, however, given that the principal narrator in each novel is different – father in one, son in the other, a new reader could start with either book without being displaced.

The principal narrator of this story is the young American-born Oliver who sports blond dreadlocks and is in a loving relationship with Phaedra. His father, Xavier, was born and raised in Ghana on the West Coast of Africa, hardly a decade after independence. Xavier retains the warm, wild and free spirit of his birth-country and yearns to return. But that Ghana is no longer a place, but a time, thereby frustrating Xavier’s efforts at a literal, geographical repatriation. Xavier has inherited his own father Albert Lewis’ sense of adventure from that vast and wonder-filled continent and time. All this, as Oliver discovers, making his father anything but conventional - a mix between Mowgli and Denys Finch Hatton abruptly uprooted from Africa and deposited in a small, cold English town. And the huge effect that has on him, and knock-on effect on Oliver.

This is Oliver’s discovery - and trying to make sense - of himself, the adult world about him, and his relationship with his unconventional father, while enjoying the loving support of his partner Phaedra. And to help him, guide him even, is his father’s journal.

The love element is explicitly promoted as crucial in the relationship between Oliver and Phaedra, as it is in that between Xavier and Julia. Both couples enjoy exemplary levels of mutual commitment and romantic affection that are the envy of onlookers. The links between the main characters’ lives and the author’s philosophy are clearly and relevantly drawn, with striking additional examples from African folklore. Meanwhile the other characters swing in and out of and around Oliver’s life, adding insight and prompting reflections useful to Oliver’s journey of discovery. Places are clearly portrayed and often imbued with effective atmospherics to add dimension to the picture. The visits to India and also to the Blue Ridge Mountains are particularly vividly observed.

Despite the author’s gentle writing style, this is not always a gentle read. Hard hitting topics such as Huntington’s Disease, bereavement, suicide and murder are dealt with. And while the author strikes a skilful balance between frankness and sensitivity, he also steeps these topics in reflections of his personal Eastern beliefs.

So as Oliver travels throughout America, Europe and Asia, reading through his father’s journal, two things become increasingly apparent to him, as well as to the reader, 1/ that despite initially perceived differences between father and son, Oliver is hardly the conventional man either, and 2/ the roads upon which father and son journey may appear different, but are essentially the same, and will in due course lead to the same destinations.