Amongst Women - Softcover

McGahern, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571165400 ISBN 13: 9780571165407

Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

"Moran is an old Republican whose life was forever transformed by his days of glory as a guerilla leader in the War of Independence. Now, in old age, living out in the country, Moran is still fighting — with his family, his friends, even himself — in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past." Back cover comments.

About this title

About the Author

John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a primary school teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. The Observer once hailed him as 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangere Ecureuil, the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and, most recently, a South Bank Award for Literature. Amongst Women, which won both the GPA and the Irish Times Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1990 and made into a four-part BBC television series. His work has appeared in anthologies and has been translated into many languages. John McGahern died in March 2006, aged 71.

From Publishers Weekly

A lyric lament for Ireland, McGahern's lovingly observed family drama is dominated by an almost pathetic paterfamilias. Gruff, blustering Michael Moran, former guerrilla hero in the Irish War of Independence, is a man "in permanent opposition." Now a farmer, he vents his compulsion to dominate, his cold fury and sense of betrayal on his three teenage daughters. Yearning for approval but fearing his flare-ups, they periodically beat a path back to the farmhouse from London and Dublin, then take flight again, both proud and dependent. Moran's second wife, Rose, much younger than he, displays saintly patience in her attempts to heal this splintering family. Moran also claims a renegade son in London who is "turning himself into a sort of Englishman," and another son driven away by Moran's threats of beatings. McGahern ( The Dark ; The Pornographer ) has crafted a wise and tender novel whose brooding hero seems emblematic of an Ireland that drives away its sons and daughters.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571165400
• ISBN 13: 9780571165407
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184