Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya!

Despite my initial draw to the premise—a messy father-daughter relationship taking place across time, space and stage—I really struggled with the father character in this book. Perhaps this is projecting, but his emotional response to the central plot seemed outsized and unrealistic, bordering on the grotesque at times. The daughter, in turn, didn't feel entirely fleshed out, even though I would be naturally predisposed towards taking her side if asked.

I think I might have benefitted from reading a physical copy of this book—as it was I split my time between digital and audio, and I don't think I spent enough time to get the full experience. I do think this book would be an interesting read for fans of Elif Batuman or Alexandra Tanner—both authors I have read and enjoyed.

Thank you to Pantheon for the opportunity to read and review!

Thank you for access to this ARC. Unfortunately I will not be able to read this and give it a proper review. I apologize, and if I have time to properly review it I will return to it.

A slow start but a really clever story - the reveal was one of the better I remember reading recently. Oh those family dramas!

I actually loved this book so much more than i thought i would! the start was a little slow but it picked up and ended up captivating me in total.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book: a woman invites her father to see a play she has written. He is an aging novelist, once considered au courant, dashing, intelligent. But that was a few decades ago, & the literary world today is not so enamored of his particular brand of unexamined casual misogyny. Which the play lays bare for all to see.

I read Jo Hamya's previous book, Three Rooms, & I think this is an improvement. My issue with Three Rooms was its general plotlessness, though the writing was quite lovely & several images it evoked have stayed with me. I'm happy to say that the writing in The Hypocite is even BETTER, & the story stays tight on the father's experience of the play, flashbacks to the Sicilian vacation it was based upon, & Sophia's (the playwright) get-togethers with her parents after the play's debut.

I can't overstate how much I enjoyed the writing itself. It was lyrical & elegant, almost like reading a poem, but it was never showy. Every word worked in service of the story. This made the book an incredibly fast read, even though the action, such as it is, is not exactly pulse-punding or full of gotcha moments. This is very much a literary fiction book: a study of characters & their relationships. I personally would have preferred just a little more meat on the plot, but the writing was exquisite.

This trope has been done to death and then done again. This book just did not resonate with me at the end of the day. The writing was not terrible, however the book was exhausting. I am not sure how I finished this one, but I did. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

In essence, this is a novel about a play about a novel. But really, it’s about so much more than that: father-daughter relationships, misogyny, generational differences, feminism, and more. Hamya makes it work.

sharp and incisive. a modern literary masterpiece that lays bare the morality of a family in a strikingly witty way

A stirring, inventive novel by an author I was not familiar with before. It takes a bit for the cadence and rhythm to set in, but once it does, the writing files and the story jumps off the page in unexpected ways. A fantastic book.

This is a book that explores the relationship between a girl and her father. I enjoyed reading the writing style and prose of the author but certain parts fell flat for me as the pacing got weird and it was complex and didn't make sense in some parts. There are themes of gender, patriarchy, trauma (generational) and the power of perspective. Thank you Jo Hamya, NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon for this ARC!

First off, my belated thanks to Knopf/Pantheon and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book.
Literary fiction at its best. Yes, it is not an easy book to read, and it takes a bit to garner enough information to understand what is happening from the very beginning. Scenes change quickly, some times leaving the reader hanging from the last one. Dialog is play-like, fraught with hidden meanings, and non-linear.
Theatre, London, '90's Brit male writers, Gen Z, father issues, the family - they F you up, Sicily, COVID. And a nice twist on every Brit book ever written about the English love/hate relationship with Italians (they're the salt of the earth and imbued with soul, but also vulgar, uneducated and misogynist - think Forster). The coda from the POV of the housekeeper brings it all together so well. The first time we get a look at the family from outside the 3 members here. They are messy, inconsiderate people.
In the end no one is all right or all wrong - as in real life, we're each a mixture of both within all of us.
Looking forward to reading her first novel, although I think it is much different, and not as technically complex, as this one. Rather a break through for her - and looking forward to her next book.
5 out of 5. Odd that it is getting low ratings on Goodreads and Amazon - I suspect because it is not an easy read, and does not give broad all-inclusive answers. Also a bit odd that some celebrity chose this for their reading club - for the same reasons as I just mentioned in the sentence above.

I almost DNF'ed this one- but I'm so glad I didn't.

Admittedly, I had a hard time enjoying this in the beginning. The story is told as a play, with each character offering their own perspective. Sophia's dad - retrospective and regretful- observes from the audience. The format, at first, was difficult to absorb. I felt so distant from the story and kept getting distracted by all the perspective shifts.

The true story and impact hit me when the play ended. Each character is confronted by their vulnerabilities in very public ways, and the writing becomes much more raw and vivid. The title really should be called "The Hypocrites--" because no one is innocent in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.

Is this a novel? Or a screenplay or theatre script?
To me it seemed slight, repetitive, reductive and distinctly lacking in either charm or compulsion. Instead it seemed overworked and self conscious, an artful act but lacking much substance.
Not, then, my cup of tea.

The Hypocrite is a powerful novel about the generational divides between parents and children, with specific focus on the change in sexual attitudes from the sexual revolution of the 70s to the early 2020’s.

The Hypocrite features the story of Sophia and her father: she, a play write, and he, a novelist. In it, we dive into the 2010 summer Sophia spent with her father on the Aeolian islands, transcribing his novel. There she experiences her own first relationship while simultaneously hearing her father’s frustrations with the current sexual attitudes, such as that “although the sexual revolution had done away with puritanism and, in turn, enabled the plot they were writing, it had not been replaced with any significant moral framework…”

This summer becomes such a pivotal moment in forming Sophia’s own ideas, that, ten years later, she writes a play based on that very summer, with the main character a caricature of her father.

Much of the novel focuses on the father’s response to the unflattering play, which depicts him as a philandering womanizer. The father’s reflection on his own intentions as a younger man and current sexual attitudes are contrasted with Sophia’s experiences and ideas about her father, which she shares over dinner with her mother. Adding another layer of complexity is the father’s conversation with a woman in the audience who finds the play elitist and the epitome of white-middle class feminism.

There are so many ideas to reflect on while reading this novel, that I regret powering through the audiobook. I’d like to take the time to sit down, re-read, annotate, and ponder this book. It’s firmly rooted in modern times while looking back at the past, and I think there’s a lot to learn from analyzing the perspective of both the main characters. Hamya doesn’t let either character off the hook for their flaws, adding to the complexity and causing readers to evaluate their own biases.

If you’re looking for something a little high-brow, a little dark-academia (but more like, dark-theater), a little female revengy, I’d say pick this one up!

I really enjoyed the Hypocrite! I liked the author's switching from present day to the events that inspired Sophia's play. I loved the Italy setting as well as the moments a watcher goes through while watching a play. It had a great exploration of fatherhood, white privilege, and authorship.

Rating: 3.4 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 2.5/5
-Story: 2.5/5
-Writing: 4/5
Genre: BritLit, LitFic
-BritLit: 4/5
-LitFic: 4/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: Depends on the person

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

I don't know what went through my head when I requested this book. I don't normally read these kind of books and for a good reason. Though pretty short I felt like it dragged. I understand that what her father was doing was having a big impact on HER. That didn't extend to me. I didn't feel what she felt and honestly that's okay.

This might be the most thought-provoking, curious books I have ever experienced. Jo Hamya painted this piece of art and left it wide open to interpretation.

Sophia writes plays. Her Father writes books. Both are successful, but not without the other. Sophia and her Father took a vacation to Italy after her parents got divorced. Sophia typed her Father's book draft as he dictated it. She hated it. In fact, there were many things she couldn't stand about her Father. His book was crude; he brought in a different woman every night of this vacation; he wasn't there for her as much as she needed him; and he insisted she date a boy named Anto while she was in Italy for the summer. Anto was awful. Not really her type. Years later, when Sophia's play has its opening night on the West End, Sophia's Mother and Father come to see it. When the curtain rises, Sophia's Father recognizes the set as the same kitchen from their Italian vacation home. The actor on stage is wearing a shirt just like his. As the story continues to play out on stage, Sophia's Father is hit with memories and questions. What kind of Father was he? What kind of daughter is Sophia?

I had a love/hate relationship with this one. Jo Hamya is an incredible writer. The content was just slow moving. It was a relatively short read and I kept thinking how beneficial it would be to discuss the questions I think the author might be asking;
1. Who is the actual hypocrite in the story?
2. There is a woman with round glasses who is mentioned as an audience member. She points out several flaws in the play to Sophia's Father. She also knows he is a famous writer. When she launches into her explanation of why she doesn't like the play, does she reveal the author's heart message?
3. What does the final chapter with Elena cleaning the vacation house tell us about Sophia and her Father?

One major take away I had from this book was a statement made by the audience member with the round glasses (Most of the characters did not have names).

She says of the play, "The money she's using could have been spent on someone who needs it, with better things to say....it's style over substance...there's nothing new or meaningful about what she's done. "

Sophia's Father: Say a different kind of woman, one of colour, had written this exact play," he argues. "Would you suddenly find it magnificent?

Round glasses: A woman of colour wouldn't have written a play like this. Not everyone has the luxury of writing Hampstead sex romps via holidays in Italy.

Sophia's Father: You say you want more books about these people's sufferance. Why wouldn't you ask for their imagination, or their desire, or their filth, or their wrongs as well? Why wouldn't you believe in the possibility of a non-white Hampstead sex romp via Italian sands?

Round glasses: Because it's not an actualized possibility. I'd love them to have that freedom. But there are people who have to use what little voice they have teasing out the reality of their suffering until it engenders public sympathy.

This portion of the book had such an incredible impact on me. I've just never looked at art through this kind of lens. Now I will. Hamya should be proud of creating something that will live on in the readers' minds and hearts. Had I liked any of the characters, I would have enjoyed it more. But maybe that is part of the ruse.

Thank you NetGalley, Jo Hamya, and Pantheon for access to this thought-provoking ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I should have read this with a book club and not in audio, because I am sure there is much more in it than I got out of it.

The Hypocrite is about a middle-aged writer who visits a performance of his daughter's play, only to discover the play is about him and a holiday in Sicily they had together some ten years earlier. He is basically 'being Me Too'd' by her.

It's an intriguing premise about intergenerational conflict, about a men who is unwilling to admit his behavior and his parenting were not ok. But also about a privileged daughter writing about first world problems.

I found the surprising ending quite smart as it forced me to think the whole thing over again, think over the title again, and also see how I had been feeling sympathy where perhaps I shouldn't have. But overall I am left with the feeling that more could have been explored given the promising setting.

(Thanks to @PantheonBooks #gifted.) Taking place in August of 2020, 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗬𝗣𝗢𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗘 by Jo Hamya tells the story of a long ago summer Sophia spent with her father in Sicily. After her parents divorced, Sophia had few illusions about her misogynist father, but that particular summer made clear just how awful he truly was. Years later Sophia, now a playwright, has written a scathing drama based on her author father. A play that is lightly veiled at best. The story alternates between that summer, a fraught conversation between Sophia and her mother, and her father as he watches her play and is forced to take a hard look at himself and the life he’s led.⁣
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While I appreciate the originality of a daughter taking on her father’s deep flaws, his creepy attitudes, and passé sexual mores, this book was tough for me for one main reason. I’m tired of books about toxic men. No matter whose perspective the story comes from, be it wife, lover, employee, or daughter, the story is still focused on the man. This is the third book I’ve read this summer where I found myself frustrated in the same way. First was 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘧𝘦 by Meg Wolitzer, then 𝘓𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘴 by Sarah Manguso, and now 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘺𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦. Though I liked this book the most of the three, I’m just over these men getting so much attention. No matter who’s telling the story, even when he’s getting a long overdue comeuppance, it’s still about the man. Ugh! Enough! ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫