Amongst Women is the first John McGahern novel I managed to get through and only because I’d been commissioned to write a reading guide for it. I’d tried several others, including The Barracks, but found them just too bleak. You might wonder why I’m including it in this series, then, but the more I thought about it, the more I admired McGahern’s writing until I understood just what all the fuss was about.
Desperate to pull their dying father back from the brink, the Moran sisters decide to recreate Monaghan day, the day of his annual reunion with his old colleague McQuaid, the day when he always seemed at his best. An IRA veteran, so disenchanted that he now welcomes his Protestant neighbours, Moran has long exerted a powerful influence over his daughters, continually drawing them back to the family home despite their departures to Dublin and London and the beginnings of their own families. Not so their elder brother Luke who remains resolutely outside the family circle while their younger brother Michael struggles to free himself. This turbulent family is gently restrained by the presence of Rose, Moran’s second wife whose quiet forbearance has become the mainstay of the sisters’ lives. Written in spare yet sometimes lyrical prose, McGahern’s novel portrays a family tightly and painfully bound to a tyrannical patriarch.
Not my favourite McGahern – that would be That They May Face the Rising Sun – but it’s the one that converted me to his writing and that’s why I wanted to shout about it.
What about you, any blasts from the past you’d like to share?
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No blast from the past comes immediately to mind, but I did enjoy Amongst Women. It is, as you suggest, a little on the bleak side, but it’s a fascinating portrayal of the tensions caused in a family by an overbearing father.
As I remember, The Barracks is much more bleak, and I suspect that knowing it was based on his own experience didn’t help but I’m glad I persevered with his writing. It’s extraordinarily good.
This book…I loved it so much and can’t believe I hadn’t read it sooner than last year! Lovely review Susan.
Thank you, Cathy. His writing is wonderful, isn’t it.
Sounds like a n excellent portrait of a family and its tensions.
It’s such a powerful depiction, made all the more so for knowing about McGahern’s own overbearing father.
I’ve never read McGahern. Not sure he’ll be an author I’d enjoy, although I’m sure I’d appreciate the writing.
Might be worth thinking about That They May Face the Rising Sun if you’re put off by the bleakness.
I agree with you That They May Face the Rising Sun is his best – but in a sense you have to get through the bleakness of J McG’s early work such as The Barracks to appreciate the more benign view of his last novel (and his later short stories)
That’s true. That They May Face the Rising Sun felt like a novel written by a man finally at peace with himself, for me
I listened to an audio of this on Radio 4 fairly recently and really admired the writing – very reminiscent of Colm Toibin and Edna O’Brien, I felt, in terms of both style and substance. Thanks for the tip about That They May Face… I may well take a look at that.
Certainly the Tóibin is an apt comparison, Jacqui. That They May Face… is very different from Amongst Women and much of his earlier work. It’s quietly joyful, as if he’d finally faced down his demons.
I do like the sound of this. By the way, you can link up your Blasts from the Past to my monthly #ThrowbackThursday link party! Here’s my latest post https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2020/11/05/tcls-throwbackthursday-and-link-party-9-november-5-2020/ and here’s the link party that will be open until December 5, when I start a new one. https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/4bc8ab17bd6e4f0cb71165a75a5fb292
Many thanks for the links, Davida. I’ll drop by.
He’s my favourite writer. I even went in a pilgrimage to County Leitrim to track down places in his novels. There’s a small library dedicated to him at Lough Rynn Castle Hotel (where I stayed). The Barracks is actually my favourite of his books, but I highly recommend his Memoir, which is essentially a loveletter to his mother who died of breast cancer when he was a young boy.
Thanks for that, Kim. I read his memoir after becoming a fan. It helped explain much of his writing which seems to have acted as a cartharsis for him given That They May Face the Rising Sun.
I’ve never read this author, but from your review and the comments he sounds someone to seek out. He sounds very powerful, and uncompromising.
His writing can be quite bleak but also beautiful. If you admire Colm Tóibin’s work you might like to try McGahern.
His writing is a gap in my reading experience, so it’s good to know that one must be prepared for a tough haul. Where could one find the reading guide you wrote?
Faber are still listing my guides here: https://www.faber.co.uk/reading-groups but I’m not sure the l.inks are working. I must have written this lot well over fifteen years ago! If you wanted a less bleak read than Amongst Women, I’d suggest That They May Face the Rising Sun.,