John Boyne on Family Politics by John O’Farrell: hilarious and highly relevant

The best comic novels are those that make the reader laugh out loud while using humour to say something interesting about the modern world.

Family Politics by John O’Farrell is a topical book for a British election year. Lifelong Labour supporters Eddie and Emma Hughes have spent decades convinced they’re on the right side of every argument. They boycott any business that puts a foot wrong. They march until their feet are blistered, protest until their voices are hoarse. One can almost hear Marlon Brando in The Wild One being asked what he’s rebelling against and replying: “What’ve you got?”

They save their greatest loathing, however, for the Tories and have brought up their son, Dylan, to do the same. So when he returns from university and declares his colours have switched from red to blue, they’re appalled, asking: where did we go wrong?

It’s a clever premise, particularly because a byelection is due in their hometown and Eddie is hoping to be the Labour candidate. While political arguments fill the pages, O’Farrell – the author of Things Can Only Get Better, the definitive account of Labour’s pre-Blair wilderness years – presents both sides in a measured way.

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Dylan is an entitled brat, utterly convinced of his moral rectitude, but his parents are just as bad. A lifetime spent wallowing in certainty has left them incapable of recognising that holding a different opinion does not necessarily make someone an enemy. When they refuse to debate him any further they do so in language that anyone who has had to deal with belligerent teenagers will relate to: “We do not negotiate with terrorists.”

Their fear of the truth being revealed leads to some hilarious moments as they try to keep Dylan away from the hustings. However, when his colleagues discover the boy’s new allegiance, Eddie employs the sort of language that he hopes will make them obliged to be forgiving. “Well, he currently identifies as a Tory,” he tells them. “He’s transitioning into a Tory.”

Family Politics is a joy to read but it’s also highly relevant to the contemporary culture, where political and social debates can grow so toxic that people on all sides, even those who love each other, can too easily forget each other’s basic humanity.