by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, 2018 (English translation from the Swedish by Alice Menzies, 2020)
This was one of the books Fredrik Backman, the author of Anxious People, recommended. The whole time I was reading it, I thought the title was ‘The Father Clause,’ but now see that it is called, ‘The Family Clause.’ It’s about a very dysfunctional family in Sweden. I believe they were immigrants from a Mideastern country, although that is never fully revealed. I did learn that Sweden brought in immigrants to work in the Volvo factory. The father who is a grandfather loves his family but doesn’t show it very well. He lives in the foreign country and comes back to Sweden every 5 months and 28 days in order to keep his Swedish citizenship. He was a philandering father and was thrown out because he was so undependable. He only came back sporadically to visit the children. The children are now adults: a son who is a father with a girlfriend who is a mother, and his sister who is a daughter who is a mother and is pregnant with a man who isn’t her boyfriend but who loves her dearly and is so excited to have a baby with her. The brother who is a father who is a son and his girlfriend who is a mother have a 4 year-old daughter and a one-year old son. The father who is a son is on paternity leave and is taking care of them. Taking care of these children stresses him to the max. It’s painful to read how difficult it is for him to take care of these two children.
There is another sister from a different mother who is dead. She was a heroin addict who died of an overdose.
He is an excellent writer, but I don’t like what happens in this book. There is only one good thing that happens in this book-the son forgives his father. There are some terrible things in this book:
- The dead sister is still around. She wasn’t given the choice to leave the earth that most dead people are given. So, she hangs out with her father and kind of talks to him and keeps him from committing suicide by getting him off the train tracks. This whole section was icky, icky, icky.
- The son who is a father tries stand-up, fails miserably, decides to do the “big shop” and leaves his wallet on top of the car and drives off afraid of a couple of guys in the parking lot. They are following him and trying to get him to realize that he lost his wallet – trying to give it back. But, the son who is a father is so afraid, he drives as fast as he can to get away from them, never looks over, and ends up away from his family with no phone (which was part of the wallet) and no money. I wish he would have just looked over and seen these two guys were trying to help him, not hurt him.
- The very worst part of the book, though, is when the pregnant sister who is a mother decides to have an abortion that destroys the boyfriend who is not a boyfriend, who really loved her and wanted this baby and her forever.
Very well-written but disappointing book. There is only one Perfect Son and one Perfect Father. He loves us and cares for us – we don’t have to be perfect. Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7.) Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28.)