The Dark

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Such acts went largely undetected and unpunished, mainly as a result of the dominant position of the father in Irish society, as can be gauged from the fact that the adolescent never mentions them in Confession or in any other forum. Hm, maybe so Gary – not because you’re a builder, but because I enjoyed The Blue Fox but couldn’t really think of anything to say about it (which is why I didn’t review it here). He was also a farmer, although he liked to joke that it was the writing that kept the farm rather than the farming revenue allowing him to write.

John McGahern - Wikipedia

He was first published by the London literary and arts review, X, [7] which published in 1961 an extract from his first – abandoned – novel, The End or Beginning of Love. Michael McLaverty captured the essence of the novel in a letter he wrote to the under-siege writer around the time of its publication: “The book rings with truth at every turn and it must have been a heartbreaking and exhausting book to write.” All this talk and struggle to get to terms or understanding that’d last for no more than the sleep of this night. It was always changed by the morning: shame and embarrassment and loathing, the dirty rags of intimacy. [42]Obituary:John McGahern". Archived from the original on 3 December 2017 . Retrieved 3 December 2017. It is the story of a clever young man, who is repressed by both the society he lives in ( ruled by an iron fist by a country where church and Caesar operated hand in glove) and by his sadistic, authoritarian widowed Dad. They live in rural Ireland in the late 1950s. It contains an element of parental sex abuse. Sadly the dad is based on the relationship McGahern had with his own Dad.

John McGahern | Faber John McGahern | Faber

So began the infamous “McGahern Affair”, which would have far-reaching consequences for Irish public life and the book’s author.Es ist keine schöne Kindheit, die der Protagonist auf der kleinen Farm der Familie erlebt. Die Mutter ist gestorben und der Vater wir immer mehr zum Tyrann. Ob er es erst durch den Tod der Mutter wurde, oder schon immer so war, erzählt der Autor nicht. Die Familie wird mit eiserner Hand geführt. Furcht und Gewalt, körperlich und seelisch, bestimmen den Alltag. Damit scheinen die Kinder aber besser damit zurecht zu kommen, als wenn sich der Vater wie ein normaler Vater benimmt. Wenn das passiert, ziehen alle die Köpfe ein und warten auf Ausbruch, der unweigerlich kommt.