May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
Published 2013 · 659 pages · 164,750 words · about 18 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction
How hard is May We Be Forgiven to read?
May We Be Forgiven scores 54 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 52 out of 100
- Homes writes in sharp contemporary American prose, moving between registers—domestic, legal, sexual, political—as Harry's life spirals and reconstructs. The vocabulary is accessible but precisely chosen.
- Sentence structure: 55 out of 100
- The sentences are controlled and rhythmic, often building through accumulation of absurd details. Homes's style serves her dark comedy, delivering observations with deadpan timing.
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- Homes stays close to the chaos of Harry's life—the institutions he navigates, the relationships he stumbles into. Whatever larger meanings emerge come from the texture of American dysfunction.
- Information density: 52 out of 100
- The novel is packed with incident—nothing stays stable for long. Homes moves quickly through Harry's disasters and unexpected connections. The pacing is relentless.
- Narrative indirection: 52 out of 100
- Harry tells his own story, but his understanding lags behind events. You watch him fail to grasp what's happening to his life even as you see patterns he cannot.
- Symbolic density: 52 out of 100
- Nixon haunts the novel as Harry's scholarly obsession, becoming a symbol of American moral compromise. Homes develops this parallel without forcing it.
- Ironic distance: 60 out of 100
- Homes maintains devastating ironic distance, seeing through American institutions—the family, the justice system, suburban life—while caring for the damaged people caught within them.
- Resolution withholding: 55 out of 100
- Harry's chaotic life finds unexpected structure by the novel's end. Homes provides the satisfaction of rebuilt connections while acknowledging that forgiveness remains a question.
- Structural complexity: 52 out of 100
- The narrative follows Harry chronologically through disaster into reconstruction. The complexity lies in tracking the proliferating relationships and responsibilities, not in structural innovation.
How May We Be Forgiven is regarded
May We Be Forgiven holds a literary regard score of 62 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.