Have you ever read the book: “My son, my son” by Howard Spring?

This is a fairly long book with an intriguing title (“O Absalom!” was the book’s original title). 

Even before reading the book, the title alone makes you think that the plot will be about a bad or spoilt son and his parents, or the society, etc. 

This initial impression about the plot is more or less true, since a big part of the novel refers to that “spoilt son” who finally makes life hard for all those surrounding him, and especially his own father. 

In addition to that, there are many more life themes covered in this long book, which refer to love relationships, friendship, honesty, hardship in life, etc. 

However, in my opinion, the title of this book is all wrong.  In fact, it shouldn’t have been “My son, my son”, but rather “My father, my father”. It is perhaps because the theme of a spoilt son has been so popular in literature over the ages that made the author decide to use this catchy title. 

Actually, it was the son’s father who was first one to betray his lowly family, and especially his mother who washed other people’s clothes to make a living, in search of a better, more luxurious life. 

Moreover, it was also the son’s father who married a woman on the grounds of pure economic self-interest; a marriage that was never based on true and mutual love from both sides… 

And then, that father, after having spoilt his only son, accused him of turning himself into a plain crook, and becoming a ruthless person with no respect to either his own life or the life of other people. 

Therefore, it should have been the father the one to take the blame in the first place. 

You can read this book on Internet Archive: My Son, My Son