The Collected Stories of John McGahern (1992, 408 pages)

John McGahern (1934 to 2006, Dublin, Ireland) is widely considered one of Ireland's greatest post World War Two writers.  In the 70 Q and A sessions I did with Irish writers during ISSM3 in 2013 I asked everyone who their favorite short story writers were.  Many named John McGahern.  (I have previously posted on his profound novel, Amongst Women.)  I almost feel like saying the stories in thus must read collection are rural West Ireland versions of Dubliners.  I have said it several times already this month but I see the themes of Patrick Kavanagh's incredible poem, "The Great Hunger" in these stories.    

McGahern creates a world in these stories.  A world of emotional constraint, old bachelors and spinsters on the family farm, a world of much misery and darkness.   Often the father in his stories is a near monstrous figure.   One of the considered consequences of Ireland's long colonial rule and the domination of rural society by the priest is the proliferation of men who take out the relative powerless of their place in society through abuse and harshly dictatorial family rule.   

The language is near magical.   It took me several months to work my way through this collection of thirty four stories.   

Amongst Women (by John McGahern (1991, 184 pages)

"Now it was as if each of them in their different ways had become Daddy".

Not to long ago I was speaking to the owner of a B and B in Dingle about what drew me to make a trip to Ireland.  I told her it was in part my love of Irish literature.   She at once went to her book shelves picked up a copy of Amongst Women by John McGahern and said she was deeply moved by this book and its depiction of an Irish family. She urged me to read it soon.   Many of my Irish Q and A subjects also strongly endorsed his work.  

I do see this as a modern masterpiece of Irish literature.   The depiction of the Irish family are so subtle and so brilliantly done with the smallest of touches that I do not see how anyone can approach or talk about this book with out a great sense of reference.  There are seven core characters in the story.  Moran, the father who we meet as a widower, his second wife Rose, his three daughters and his two 

Sons.   I have spoken a lot, maybe too much, about the role of the weak or missing Irish father as a dominant theme of modern Irish literature.  Moran is as unmissing a father as one could find, he is if anything too present in his children's lives.   His character is very complex under simplicity.  He can be brutal, especially on his sons.  One of them, Luke, was driven forever never to return or seek contact to London by the father''s brutal beatings.  I was repulsed when I learned he forced his sons to strip naked before he beat them.   It is hard to see why his daughters love him so much -is it guilt or gratitude?  The setting is rural Ireland on a farm and the bonding through shared labor is intertwined with the family love.  I came to feel something strong for everyone in the story.  I do not admire how Moran beat his boys but I know he was treated in the same way and I know he would have given his life for his family.  

The prose style, which I am pressed to describe, fits the story perfectly.  The story line was somehow very gripping as I wanted at all times to know what would happen next.  The close is deeply moving.   

This is not a long or complexly plotted work but because of the amazing emotional depth of the work and how it makes us ponder our own roles in our families, it is a difficult book.  I think it might make an excellent book for an honors English high school class.  

I have a copy of his collected short stories and I am slowly working my way through it. 

The next Irish novel I will post on will be Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe.

Please share your thoughts on the work of McGahern with us.

Mel u

"The Beginning of an Idea" by John McGahern

"The Beginning of an Idea" by John McGahern (1978, 14 pages)

The Irish Quarter:  Year Two

A Celebration of the Irish Short Story

March 11 to July 1

Please consider participating in The Irish Quarter.   If you are interested all you need do is to post on an Irish short story or related work and let me know about it.  Guest posts are very welcome.   

Ireland is a land of literary giants.   Lots of people who have spent decades reading Irish literature have tried to explain how one small country could produce so many great writers.   This is not ancient history, it is as true now as when Yeats and Joyce were with us.   I already know there are at least 50 authors that would be considered national treasures in much bigger countries that are just seen as another writer in Ireland.  

John McGerahern (1934 to 2006, County Leitrim, Ireland) is best known for his classic novels, The Barracks, The Dark, and Amongst Women.   In 1992 a complete collection of his short stories was published.   William Trevor included McGerahern's "The Beginning of An Idea" in his anthology The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories (a wonderful book).   "The Beginning of An Idea" is a magnificent story, in a way a tribute to the master short story author, Anton Chekhov.   This is  a very sophisticated story with a brilliant structure.   It is the story of  Eva  Lindberg, a well know theatrical actress.    I think she is probably from St Petersburg, Russia though she might be living in Stockholm.   As the story opens we are in Russia wondering at first what the opening line means.   The story seems to be about an poverty stricken man and his son who have begged for some oysters, set in Russia.   Then we realize this is a part of a short story Eva Lindberg is trying to write.   We sit in at dinner in a fancy restaurant with Eva and the man whose mistress she has been for a long time.  It is not totally clear where the restaurant is located but Stockholm is a good guess.  (I Googled the name of the restaurant they ate at but this did not give me a clear answer).  It is for sure set after the Russian Revolution but before airplanes became the normal way for people of any affluence to travel between European cities.   Part of the story is set among Russian emigres in Paris.   I do not  wish to relay the plot in any detail.  Basically Eva is tried of her relationship with a man who will never marry her and never give her more than stolen time (and a good bit of money).   She aborted his child and is now trying to get him to give her a bigger apartment.    When this does not seem to have any future she tells the manager of the theater that at the end of the season she is going to quit the theater to become a writer.   She will live in Spain in the empty house of wealthy friends.

I do not want to relay more of the plot.   This story is, just as Frank O'Connor taught us, about deep loneliness.   Eva is very alone, she encounters others who are alone.   The story is very much about the nature of  European culture between the wars.   She loves Chekhov and took with her a set of his complete works (wonder if she would have them on an Ipad now?) and accepts some work as a translator of The Sea Gull.   The concluding events of the story are shocking, as much for the calm way Eva deals with them as anything else.

This is a great story very worthy of serious study. "The Beginning of an Idea" is a superb work of art.  If there were a Kindle edition of McGahern's short stories I would buy it now.  

Please share your experience with McGahern with us.

Free Listens posted on "The Wine Breath" by John Mcgahern for The Irish Quarter and has provided us with great insigthts and a link to a podcast of one of McGaher's story on The New Yorker fiction podcast


Mel u