An ode to family - Rated 
This book was a gift from an Irish friend some years ago. I only picked it up two weeks ago and started reading it: I shouldn't have waited that long, this is a great book.
It's not an 'easy' story though: a former Irish war hero, Moran, lives in the Irish countryside with his four teenage children (one boy and three girls, the oldest son Luke moved away to London after a personal conflict with his father) and Rose, his second wife. We follow the life of the family: how Moran lives alone with the children, gets to know Rose and marries her, the often difficult relation with his children: his second son follows his brother's example and migrates to London. This book is a character sketch of a stubborn, dominant, but also loving father. At first sight, not the type of book where the reader easily identifies with one of the characters. Nevertheless, in a subtle way the story draws you into the life of this traditional catholic family. The underlying theme is universal: intergenerational troubles and difficult inter-human relations. Some things never change, no matter the time period or location.
The book is very well written. Despite the setting being extremely `uncool' in its setting (key words: rural, traditional, poor, hard-working...), I never lost interest in learning more about the characters and the dynamics of their relations. The book succeeds very well in describing the remote life on the farm with Moran dominating the other family members' lives. It creates an almost claustrophobic atmosphere. As a reader you understand why also Moran's second son runs away. The women - including Rose - react differently: equally irritated at times, but never questioning his authority and remaining loyal. Yet, and this is the major strength of the book, I developed a growing sympathy for Moran. It's not easy to be a father and a husband, especially if your EQ isn't too high. ;-)
Definitely not a feel-good story but one that made me understand more about human nature and with a surprising sad but nevertheless upbeat ending. An ode to family.
Revealing portrait of a man at war -- with his own family - Rated
Amongst Women opens with Michael Moran, a former solider in the Irish War of Independence, holed up at home in his dying days, surrounded by his three adult daughters who want him to "shape up" and "get better".
"Who cares? Who cares anyhow?" he says, when they fuss over him, willing him "not to slip away". This one statement -- the fourth sentence in the book -- reveals so much about Moran's character that it seems pointless to say much more about him, other than he is probably the most annoyingly cantankerous and gruff literary character I've had the pleasure of 'meeting' for a long time.
Angry, stubborn and strong-willed, he rules his family with an alarming and complicated mix of brutality and tenderness. A strong believer in the "family that prays together stays together", he fails to understand why all his children -- two sons and three daughters -- flee the family home at the first opportunity to live in Dublin or London. Even when they return to visit him on and off over the years his manner and inability to welcome them with open arms only serves to drive them further away.
Essentially this is a wonderfully realised portrait of an Irish Catholic family headed by a widowed father who marries a much younger woman (their non-traditional romance is beautifully written) and then sets about manipulating his children using violence, emotional blackmail and an obstinate refusal to do anything that is not on his own terms.
McGahern's writing, restrained and free from melodrama, depicts Moran as all-too human, someone who is so emotionally starved that you can feel nothing but pity for him. It treads a very careful line between cold fury and utter despair.
Despite the fact that not much happens plot-wise -- this is a character-driven story after all -- the tension that brims throughout makes you keep turning the pages. Amongst Women is a quick read, but it is also a profoundly moving one that lingers in the mind long after you reach the somewhat depressing conclusion.
Amongst Women won the 1990 Irish Times-Aer Lingus Irish Literature Prize for Fiction and was short-listed for the 1990 Booker Prize.
Not your ordinary, violent Da. - Rated
Set in rural Ireland, this uncompromising family drama revolves around Michael Moran, the father of five. A member of the IRA during the time of The Troubles, years ago, Michael has apparently repressed violent traumas which, we are led to believe, are responsible for his withdrawal from society and his current violence against his family--it is not the result of drink or the frustrations of poverty. Now the father of teenage children, he is disillusioned by what he sees as the fruits of this war, remarking, "Look at the country now. Run by a crowd of small-minded gangsters out for their own good." Within his own household, Michael upholds all the values he fought for years ago. He's a hard, independent man, beholden to no one, and his word is law. To his family, however, he is often a tyrant--obstinate, cruel, full of hatred, quick to anger, and reluctant to apologize-and his second wife Rose, his three daughters, and his two sons are "inordinately grateful for the slightest good will." Outwardly religious, Michael daily recites the Rosary, looking for religious help for his inner turmoil and the complications of his daily life. As he says, "the war was the best part of our lives. Things were never so simple and clear again." With a main character who is never endearing, McGahern challenges the reader to empathize with Michael and understand why the women in his family remain tied to him emotionally, even after they have successfully escaped his domination and established independent lives away from the farm. Gradually, the reader begins to understand the overpowering need to form connections with the past, even when it is not pleasant--to forgive one's parents for their limitations while remaining strong and faithful to oneself. In clear, straightforward prose of immense power, McGahern piles mundane detail upon detail, creating a sensitive family story of great universality, one which will give the reader much to ponder. Mary Whipple
Sublime Craft - Rated 
This book is a study of the faults and consolations of humanity: its irrational impulses and self-deceits, its capacity for forgiveness, and also its willingness sometimes not to forgive. Above all it is about the precious human ability to love and be loved. Indeed it shows how the lives of people are shaped by how they love and choose to be loved. It also shows how choosing not to love - the bitterness that can come from the slights, betrayals and humiliations that make up the retinue of human existence - is not a natural state, and that the grace to overcome it is always available. The deep satisfactions of this book derive from the exquisite skill of the author. His voice is gentle, yet his eye is merciless. He has deep understanding of the forces that bind men and women, and keep them apart. The most powerful after-effect of reading it, is to feel his own love, or at least his compassion, although it is never explicit. It is conveyed as if across a space. The distance is necessary so we don't lose focus, so the clarity of the picture does not blur. What we see - eventually, in the authors good time - is how we must be part of this story too. It is a short book, but no work of fiction published since it was published twelve years ago carries more weight.
|
