Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all three are by Irish author John McGahern. I’ve not read any McGahern but when I heard Claire Keegan speak at last year’s Melbourne Writers Festival, she said that he was her favourite author.
Summary: After years of freedom, and loneliness, Elizabeth Reegan marries into the enclosed Irish village of her upbringing. The children are not her own; her husband is straining to break free from the servile security of the police force; and her own life, threatened by illness, seems to be losing purpose.
I’m thinking: Yes.
Summary: Michael creates an ideal world of sex as a writer of pornographic fiction, while he bungles every phase of his entanglement with a woman who has the misfortune to fall in love with him. But his insensitivity to this love is in direct contrast to the tenderness with which he attempts to make his aunt’s slow death in a hospital tolerable.
I’m thinking: Yes.
Summary: Imaginative and introverted, a young boy is successful in school, but bitterly confused by the guilt-inducing questions he endures from the priests who should be his venerated guides. His relationship with his bullying, widowed father is similarly conflicted. When he must leave home to further his education, he and his father are forced to face truths about their relationship.
I’m thinking: Yes.
But which one should I start with? I’m leaning toward The Dark…
You know my love of McGahern, right? I mean, I even went on a literary pilgrimage to the Irish midlands to find his grave and visit places associated with his work. I recommend starting with The Barracks. (The Dark is challenging and very, well, dark; The Pornographer is the only one I haven’t read as I don’t want to be in a position where I have no more McGaherns to read 😫)
I was going to send a link to your recent blog celebration of him! That They May Face the Rising Sun is the one I own, and have heard most about, so that’s where I’m starting.
That’s another good place to start, I think, seeing as it was his last novel and has a beautiful tale to tell about small town communities and connections we make. It’s also got a touch of humour in it.
I was going to write yes, yes and yes too and refer you to Kim’s blog to read her reviews but *chuckle* she’s been here before me!
When I attended the workshops with Keegan last September in Ireland, part of our homework was to read The Barracks. I see why she loves him so!
I’d start with The Barracks, since Keegan believes it is the best introduction to his works.
The Dark is rough going and I haven’t read The Pornographer yet but The Barracks is wonderful.