The Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amhert

This is a story about a boy – or The Boy – in that uncomfortable place between childhood and adulthood where he wants to be special and accepted as well as discovering where he stands on life’s great issues.  Such as, is John Constable a great artist?

The son of a headmaster receives some privileges, but this also leads to him being unpopular. He deserves to be treated better, he thinks. Then his father loses his job at the school and the boy’s homelife deteriorates, both his parents have psychological issues and he searches for acceptance and his place in the world elsewhere. He is drawn to a boy at his school who is special (talented in art) and also popular as well as being physically maturing. All things that The Boy wants for himself.

The complex story is told from The Boy’s perspective in the third person: a rather unusual style, which does work. The book covers the thought processes that many children of that age do, in an inferred manner with lots of reported speech, something that fits with the theme. Set in an unnamed small English town or village, the rural and parochial neighbours serve to add pathos. 

I considered the title and concluded that like the Biblical Cain, The Boy tries but never really becomes the chosen one. A well written coming of age tale, rather plotless and disjointed, but with plenty to think about.