Our Father Who Wasn't There by David Carlin


Our Father Who Wasn't There
Title : Our Father Who Wasn't There
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1921640251
ISBN-10 : 9781921640254
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 240
Publication : First published January 1, 2010

A masterfully rendered memoir, this account weaves bits of truth and fiction in an attempt to tell the life story of Brian Carlin, the author’s father. In 1960s conservative Western Australia, Carlin commits suicide, resulting in his son David’s yearning to conjure up his father and uncover the series of events that led to his death. Piecing together Carlin’s tale from medical records, faltering memories, and imagined scenarios—including bouts of undergraduate bohemia in late-1940s Perth, a damaging undertow of electric-shock therapy, insulin comas, and whispered wartime events—this narrative underscores issues associated with mental illness and family burdens.


Our Father Who Wasn't There Reviews


  • Tracey

    I really liked this book, written about the author's quest to uncover the man who was his father and who committed suicide when the author was just a baby. The book is part mystery, partly showing that we all can go down different paths depending the on the circumstances as the author tries to track down what happened during the war, and after, hypothesising on the number of routes his father could have taken.

  • McKinnon Catherine

    I loved this book! Tender, thoughtful and beautifully written. Carlin sets out to understand the father he lost to suicide and along the way explores what grief does to a family. Carlin has a deft way with words and though the story is one of loss there is hope and restoration here too. Absolutely recommend this book!

  • John Burbidge

    Having grown up in Western Australia in the 1950s and 60s, and later come out as a gay man in another country after I'd shed the shackles of my upbringing, I found much in this book I could relate to. Fortunately, I didn't suffer clinical depression and wasn't subject to treatments such as ECT and insulin comas.

    Without having memories of his father to draw on, David Carlin skillfully recreates the time and place in which his father grew up, married, worked and raised a family. Sadly, it also ultimately destroyed him. The author does move around a lot in time and space (a map of Western Australia for non-local readers may help) and periodically goes off on tangents of his own making, but he deftly weaves a compelling portrait -- from conversations and documents, tinged with a little imagination -- of what may have led his father to take his own life. It is both a moving personal tale and an important piece of social history.

    Also, as one who has just lost his stepson to suicide, I know how hard it is to piece together the reasons that drove a loved one to the point of such pain and desperation, even when that person was present. In Carlin's case, the picture he paints of his father's journey down this path is painfully clear, only adding to the tragedy of the final outcome.





  • Chelsea

    Carlin has really put himself and things personal to him out on the line. In this memoir, he investigates the circumstances around his father's death, a journey that takes him from Melbourne across the Nullabor and back, and provides insight into the mental health system in the 50s and 60s. There were times in this book that I found the writing a little self-conscious, the voice a little too 'creative writing tutorial.' I also felt that at times, Carlin put a bit too much of his own life story in there - I could understand his intent but didn't feel it necessarily added to the story. Overall though, a fairly touching read.