Irish Author John Boyne's "The Heart's Invisible Furies" - Irish Cruelty, Hypocrisy in a Saga Spanning Decades

John Boyne (b Ireland 1977) is a novelist for adults & young adults.  He also wrote the book "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" which was made into a film.  Boyne's latest novel "The Invisible Furies of the Heart" is an epic sage whose main character Cyril Avery was given up for adoption by his unwed mother Catherine Goggins in August of 1945.  Catherine is cruelly humiliated and tossed out of her local Catholic Church in a small Irish town when it becomes apparent that she is with child & unwed. Women were always the whores and priests always ran the country.  Homosexuality was illegal and reviled.  Ireland in the 20th C was a backward hole of a country run by vicious, evil minded, sadistic priests and a govt. led by the priesthood.  The general consensus was it would be far better if all the gays were rounded up and shot.  Cyril's peculiar upbringing was in a household where neither parent was paternal nor abusive other than to insist upon him as their adopted son; "not really one of them."  Cyril is a clever, precocious & likable young man whom we come to sympathize.  Circumstances seem to keep Catherine & Cyril crossing paths so it is no surprise when the circuitous epiphany arises they Catherine is his birth mother.  It's Cyril's school years that are most charming and where we see Cyril's infatuation with his roommate, the handsome & charismatic Julian as unrequited love.  But to act upon his sexual urges was a crime that included jail time.  There are Dickens twists to the plot; evil people and remarkable human beings.  Many flamboyant & intriguing characters enter Cyril's life but Julian is the one who possesses Cyril's heart's invisible furies.  The epic tale has plenty of humor & heart throughout this novel depicting gay bashing & female trashing.  Maude Avery, Cyril's adopted mother and burgeoning author wrote in one of her novels "Am I alone in thinking that the world becomes a more repulsive place every day?"  The journey is epic and harsh but not without its familial bondings which at times are too doltish to be endearing.  Boyne has written an overly long novel about how cruel, unkind, judgmental & ugly people can be towards others.  There is ridicule & retribution for the idiotic small minded bigots.  The fallible fable is simple - it would be a much healthier place if we allowed each other to love exactly as we desired without puritanical & punitive rules enforcing how to conduct our sex lives.  We should free to live & love as we choose.  The saga did grow overly tiresome & repetitive but the commendable & clear messages were furiously apparent.