Review: Jonathan Raban's last book, 'Father and Son'
Jonathan Raban suffered a massive stroke in 2001 but kept writing. 'Father and Son,' out months after his death, mines his struggles and his complicated father.
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Jonathan Raban suffered a massive stroke in 2001 but kept writing. 'Father and Son,' out months after his death, mines his struggles and his complicated father.
Jonathan Raban, who died earlier this year, left this memoir almost complete. It tells two stories, artfully braided. One concerns the first three years of the author’s parents’ marriage, when Peter Raban was abroad serving in the second world war. He rose to become a major in the Royal Artillery, fighting in France and Belgium,
Charles Mudede remembers his friend Johnathan Raban.
The late travel writer and novelist’s study of his dad – brave soldier, man of the cloth but also snob and antisemite – offers a beautifully written portrait rather than judgment