Father & I: A Memoir
"Father" is Ernest Gebler, Irish-born author of The Plymouth Adventure. "Mother" is Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, who was married to the elder Gebler from 1954 to 1964. Carlo (born Karl) Gebler, the elder of their two sons and a noted Irish writer himself, here delineates his combative relationship with his very difficult and demanding father, which ended with his father's protracted death from Alzheimer's in 1998. Although the book was inspired by a huge archive of Ernest's papers found by Carlo, at least the first two-thirds of the book is based entirely on Carlo's memories, and he leaves no slight unturned. Here is an almost Dickensian childhood in London, restricted by his father's rules on food (hideous even by British standards), toys (few), and verbal abuse (constant). Only in the final third of the story does Carlo begin to integrate this one-sided portrait of an ogre with some facts about Ernest's life, marriage, and mental health. Although meticulously written, this tale occasionally resembles the check-off list of a vengeful child. Since Ernest Gebler is now little read, this work may memorialize him as the "daddy dearest" of Ireland. Shelley Cox, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., CarbondaleCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.