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Family Politics

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Family Politics

By: John O'Farrell
Narrated by: Claudie Blakey
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

All across Britain, a generation of grown-up children are graduating from university, moving back in to their old bedrooms and showing their gratitude by berating their parents for their out-of-date politics.

But for proud and high-profile left-wingers Emma and Eddie Hughes, the return of their only child is a far greater challenge than they ever could have anticipated. Young Dylan had warned them there was something personal he needed to tell them, but nothing could have prepared his right-on parents for the shocking revelation he delivers. Their son is a Conservative.

With his customary warm-hearted wit and razor-sharp political satire, John O’Farrell delivers another hilarious and entertaining dissection of the zeitgeist and offers a funny and insightful antidote to our divided times.

©2024 John O'Farrell (P)2024 Penguin Audio Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Political Satire Comedy Funny Witty Heartfelt

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The narrative has some nice set pieces such as the Question Time episode but overall it’s laden with familiar cliched political figures from both the left and right with a plot that was ultimately unsatisfying.

Stereotypes and cliches ahoy!

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Such great fun. Maybe a little too self conscious at times, eg it actually includes a press report telling us that the central family is a metaphor for the divisions created by rancorous debate in our society (eg for Brexit), rather than letting us work it out for ourselves. However anyone who has ever been to a committee meeting, helped with a charity, or had any brush with political campaigning will find the narrative all too true to life. And beyond the many great comic situations and funny one liners, there is a serious message that maybe, just maybe there are more important things to life than politics.
Very enjoyable and great choice of narrator.

Laugh out loud expose of political activism

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I laughed out loud, especially at the beginning. But the story lagged and the humour flattened. The narration was superb however, and kept me going to the predictable ending.

Pitch perfect narration, slightly off-key story

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This is an extremely enjoyable book, due in large part to good writing and in no small part to great narrating. The humour rarely lets up, even, or especially, when it is making a serious insightful point, which it does on more than a few occasion. While some of the stereoryping may be occasionally jarring, it is difficult to work out whether this is because such stereotypes are useful for the effect of parodying the left, or god forbid, because there is more than a grain of truth to them.
The story is told through from the view of the wife and mother, a job which the male author appears to have managed to mostly pull off rather effortlessly, although not being a woman myself, this remains a mere presumption. But the effect is funny and thoughtful.

The humour

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A fun read that also encourages to think from other people’s perspectives, particularly those you judge to be immoral

A great read

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Very funny as usual from John and great narration from Claudie. How did she read it without laughing?!

listened to this painting fences...laughing like a drain

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I got off to a slow start and did not like the narrator until I was well into the book. Worth pursuing as it has some very funny episodes. In the end the narrator was a good choice for the book.

Better than expected

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Clever intellectual witt with amusing characters, read brilliantly which made me laugh out loud, loved it!

Hilarious

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I like O’Farrell’s books usually. But this one is his weakest. It’s not funny and it just doesn’t work.

Dull and not funny

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