‘Jewish is a way of seeing the world, a strong consistent background theme.’
Our book this month is Going Home by Tom Lamont 2024. It is set in the Jewish community in Enfield and centres on Joel, an articulate two-year-old whose mother dies leaving him in the care of her friend Teo. It is about the four adults who take on responsibility for him in their own way. Teo who has moved away from the community to a job in the police force and a flat in Aldgate is the responsible one who takes on the grieving youngster and learns to care for him and love him. Then there is Ben, the feckless rich boy, the opposite of Teo but also his best friend, and Vic, Teo’s father, dying of a degenerative condition and determined that Joel will not grow up in the care of the Social Services as he once did. Finally, Sybil, the only woman of the four and a progressive rabbi trying in vain to reform the intransigent members of her synagogue. All of them interact with Joel in their own way and find their lives challenged and enriched by him
It is rare to read a book about young men learning to be a father and their efforts are often funny, sometimes heartbreaking and always enlivened by their interchanges with Joel in all his moods: Lamont is clearly very familiar with two-year-olds. The characters are so real, they are muddled and inconsistent as people are, trying to do the right thing in their own way and not always getting it right but still making progress. The plot is not neatly structured, but it reflects real life with steps forward and back.
Lamont’s writing is economical with gaps in speech and events that give an impression of how modern young people live fast. It also enables us as readers to fill these gaps with our own meanings and the book evoked some very strong reactions as members’ responses reflected their own experiences. The writing is vivid with good imagery and turns of phrase eg , ‘a show-off sunset.’ This is an interesting and unusual debut novel and well-worth a try.
Next month: member’s free choice