To the Fourth Generation - Chick Yuill

In this novel, we meet Zander Bennings, a man with a secret which leads him to search through three previous generations of the first-born sons of his family.  We meet Zander’s great-grandfather Sandie Binnie whose simple and happy faith is broken by his experiences during WWI.  Suffering from PTSD, then known as ‘shell shock’, the effects impact his entire family.  

Despite Sandie’s disapproval his son Alec becomes a miner, a job Sandie felt didn’t live up to Alec’s potential.  A lifelong member of the Salvation Army, Alec’s faith was a solid but strict.  His son Ecky was a late born only child and the father-son bond was deep until Ecky’s passion for football became an issue which drove them apart.  When his father’s fears for him come to fruition, Ecky is even angrier and more determined to sever all ties with his family.  Yet despite Ecky’s fall-out with his father over his career hopes, he himself is not supportive of his own son Zander’s hopes to become a writer.  And Zander’s path to publication is long and rocky.

 

Although this is a story – or stories – of a family bloodline, there are important other characters too.  Key to events are the very wonderful Mr Potter and his wife  who show throughout that family is not necessarily only about blood ties.  Though this is a book about four generations of sons and fathers, the women in the book are significant too, strongly and sometimes surprisingly written.  

 

Chick has a wonderful ability to create characters who feel real and are multi-faceted.  His writing makes the reader think, and he also likes to drop some big and jarring surprises and twists into his books and does so in spectacular fashion in this one.

 

I found this book a little slow going at the beginning but as Zander’s own story develops it gathers pace briskly and keeps the momentum right up to the surprising end.  Another top novel from Chick, and the carefully woven in and not at all ‘in your face’ Christian elements make this especially good for anyone wary of too much Christian content in their novels.

9781912726264, Instant Apostle

For transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.