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The first-person narrative is a big liability, though, since much of the plot is described to, rather than directly involves, the narrator. O'Connor had an ear for realistic dialogue and sharp insight into the political mind.

It's time his novels were rediscovered.īeautifully written if somewhat bloated followup to O'Connor's best-known novel, 'The Last Hurrah,' 'All in the Family' tells the story of a close-knit, Kennedy-like family, through the eyes of a cousin who watches their rapid political rise and eventual deterioration as a family. It was a great loss to American fiction when Edwin O'Connor died in 1968 at the age of 49. If the book has a drawback, it's that it's a fairly static novel: there isn't much in the way of action, and it's very talky, and sometimes the characters talk in rather long paragraphs.Īn idea hinted at in THE LAST HURRAH and examined again in this book is the use of television as a campaign tool for politicians, especially if they're good-looking.Īt the center of the novel is family unity - the patriarch, the three sons, and the cousin - a close-knit family unit which is ultimately splintered and then shattered by a rift between two of the brothers. O'Connor's characters, whether major or minor, are always well-drawn, often with their own little set of idiosyncrasies that render them either endearing or annoying. I can't remember the last time I really couldn't wait to get back to a novel and its inhabitants as I did with this book.

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(And no, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the famous TV series that bears the same name)!ģ/28: After a slow (but nonetheless enjoyable) first 100 or so pages, at which point the narrative vaults ahead 25 years or so to (what was then) the present day, ALL IN THE FAMILY becomes totally absorbing. Having enjoyed the other two books, I'm now reading his final novel, ALL IN THE FAMILY (published in 1966), which is about an Irish-American family with political aspirations named Kinsella (the Irish, politics and Catholicism were O'Connor's frequent themes). Like many a highly-regarded novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize, he's not very well-known today and his books are hard to find. The Kinsellas' answer is ruthless, brilliant, surprising - and tragic.Įdwin O'Connor (J– March 23, 1968) was a highly-regarded novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for 1961's THE EDGE OF SADNESS and whose most famous novel is THE LAST HURRAH. The earthquake threatens not Charles & Philip, but an entire clan, a family legend, and a rocketing political career. When she returns, their slow, tactful, tender reconciliation so preoccupies Jack that he is unaware of the rift that has opened among the Kinsellas, that happiest, that most triumphant of families. (The radiance of his early years is evoked in the first chapter, a flashback which was published to wide acclaim in the 'Atlantic'.) Now, as a novelist, Jack is a solitary man - so much so that his exquisite wife, in her loneliness, has drifted away from him.

Though their boyhood loyalty persists, it dates from the time when the warmth and spirit of his cousins' family life consoled Jack for the mysterious death of his mother & brother. And Jack, who once served as secretary to Frank Skeffington (of the 'Last Hurrah'), is asked to join in.

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Jack's Uncle Jimmy is a tough, irascible little tycoon whose pride in his sons is matched only by his determination to get them what he wants: high political office! Aided by old Jimmy Kinsella's full resources, not least his willingness to twist any arm in the nation, his sons erupt into politics: Charles is to take the mayoralty, then the governorship, Phil is to act as campaign manager. Set in Ireland, Italy and the corrupt old city of 'The Last Hurrah' and told by an observant and sympathetic narrator (Jack Kinsella), cousin to a conspicuous Irish-American family whose name means power, influence and fabulous riches.all these, the achievement of one man.

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