Lamb [Paperback]

Bernard MacLavertys short novel LAMB is a great example of things going terribly wrong for someone who has the best of intentions. The writing is flowing but intense, drawing the reader inexorably into the story  it makes this a hard book to lay aside, even for the night. I was tempted to stay up too late to finish it.

Brother Sebastian (née Michael Lamb) is a member of the Christian Brothers, assigned to a bleak reformatory where parents bring boys they can no longer control  it is a way station on the road to troubled adult lives, although it is seen by the parents and the administration as a place of rehabilitation. Unfortunately for the boys, the rehabilitation practiced by the headmaster and his staff in mostly made up of beatings and other forms of cruelty. The headmaster  Brother Benedict  at one point refers to the institution as a finishing school for the Idle Poor, a telling remark that shows his contempt for those to which he supposedly ministers. Sometimes beatings are administered to boys the headmaster knows in innocent of the transgression at hand, simply as an example to the population in general. Its a depressing atmosphere, and it weighs heavily upon the already fragile character and emotions of Brother Sebastian.

There is one boy for whom Brother Sebastian feels a special, deep affinity  young Owen Kane, small for his age, quiet, and, as we learn, an epileptic. The boy is plagued by episodes of bedwetting, and his stubborn demeanor singles him out for especially violent lessons from the headmaster. Sebastian determines that the only way to save Owen is to take him away. He plots this action only skeletally, acting as he is on his emotions, with his intellectual abilities taking the back seat  and this comes back to haunt the two of them as they steal away from the school and take off on the road to London. Sebastian honestly loves and cares for the boy  this is not a story of sexual abuse by a church figure  but his increased depression, which he doesnt recognize as such causes them to be in increased danger of discovery, leading to the inevitable and very disturbing conclusion.

The lighter scenes, in which Brother Sebastian manages to bring some rare joy into the childhood of his young charge  and as a result into his own dark life as well  are very moving. They give the reader hope that somehow, in some way, the Brother is successful in starting a new life with the boy, living in peace somewhere with him, as father and son. His intentions, as I mentioned, are completely loving and honorable  the darkness in the book is not in those intentions. There is darkness in the system that allows such a place as the school depicted here to exist in the first place, and to be managed in the manner of a prison for incorrigible criminals rather than an institution that would truly give troubled boys a second chance.

Lamb is a book about a priest (Brother Sebastian aka. Michael Lamb)who runs away from a cold, uncaring children's Home in Ireland with a young boy whom he feels sorry for. They then try to start a new life in England and try to forget their bleak past. Lamb is trying to come to terms with his fading belief in his religion and is at conflict within himself throughout the book. Lamb's teacher - pupil relationship with the boy changes to a father - son relationship and this strengthens his actions at the end of the novel.

Lamb, by Bernard Mac Laverty, is, at 150 pages, a short read, but its brevity serves only to provide a perfectly told story without padding or exposition. It follows the story of a young priest, Michael Lamb (or Brother Sebastian), who runs away from the Irish Borstal that he works in, takes a deprived boy named Owen Kane with him. But, as his money dwindles, news of the kidnapping closes in on them, and Lamb finds himself running out of ideas on how to save the boy's life, leading to a dark climax borne of both necessity and love.

Beginning in the Borstal, aptly referred as "a finishing school for the sons of the Idle Poor" by its head, Brother Benedict, Lamb observes this to be an accurate statement as he believes it finishes their lives, providing them with little hope for the future. Upon inheriting money from his father's death Lamb resolves to rescue Owen, a misunderstood - and epileptic - boy, often made an example of due his stubborn nature, and give him the life he deserves. They break for London, and spend their time exploring the city and discovering each other, until the time comes when they have so few options that Lamb is required to make the decision that will affect their lives, but he believes to be right.

The characters, throughout, are developed sufficiently to create your own impression of them; although Owen's character could have done with further expansion with regards to his life before Borstal. Lamb, especially, as you would expect a title character, is well conceived and his decisions, at all times, appear believable. Brother Benedict, a sadist at heart, claims that he "was belted black and blue myself what harm did it do me?" without realising that it turned him into the one now administering beatings. Even the fringe characters: conmen, housekeepers, and perverts have enough splashes of colour to make them plausible.

The writing, while not being flowery, is engaging enough to spin the narrative on, making it a book you are not likely to put down until completion. It's a thrill to read as the escapes bond with each other, but watching as their world of opportunity caves in around them. The underlying meanings and symbols that make the book special, the many inferences of the book's title, for example, raise the scope of the novel, adding further richness to it.

Lamb, for its length, covers a number of topics, but the theme that stands out, for me, is love; that, and the things you would do for it. Sometimes, you don't even know you are doing it, Lamb discovers while trying to understand the fugues of Owen's epilepsy. But it's the grim denouement of the novel that questions how far one would really go, and it's this that adds the pièce de résistance to a wonderful and haunting tale.

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