The Dark

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This same theory can be applied to other types of cultural formations; in this case, the nuclear family as an organizing unit of the population, one which is premised on an assumption of stable male-female heterosexual gendering and sexuality. The author exposes a human situation, superficially very ordinary, but inwardly an agony of longing and despair. Known for the detailed dissection of Irish life found in works such as The Barracks, The Dark and Amongst Women, he was hailed by The Observer as "the greatest living Irish novelist" [2] and in its obituary The Guardian described him as "arguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett". Its main focus, and the most compelling part of its narrative, concentrates on the smaller-scale agonies and ecstasies of family life. The boy’s obsessive internalization of that loss, however, is far from the only crisis caused by his mother’s absence.

The Guardian A family touched with madness | Fiction | The Guardian

The main character, young Mahoney, while maintaining his academic prowess experiences a strained relationship with his father, old Mahoney – who beats him and the other children – as well as indecision about what to do with his life after secondary school.Affects of societal malady and personal isolation pervade McGahern’s writing in The Dark, staunchly refuting the mythos of rural Ireland as a place secure in its cultural virtue and its ascendant historical narrative of progress. To the young McGahern, "the delicate social shadings of the place", combined with a passionate sense of belonging to a particular region, rather than to Ireland as a whole, made home as intricate and marvellous as Helpstone was to John Clare 150-odd years earlier.

The Dark by John McGahern | Waterstones

He moved to London to continue writing and met his future wife, Madeline Green, in 1967, with whom he remained until his death in 2006. This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. Born in Knockanroe about half a mile from Ballinamore, County Leitrim, John McGahern was the eldest child of seven.And a universe, moreover, with the potential to become ideal: McGahern's relationship with his devout schoolteacher mother was exceptionally close, and they both mingled their ideas about heaven above with their sense of heaven on Earth. The Dark (1965) was McGahern’s second novel and, true to the title, it’s as black as you like, at least to begin with. Yes, we’re in ‘miserable bloody Ireland’ territory, a place well explored in literature, but rarely so compellingly as in McGahern’s fiction. Lippard comments on the ways that domestic space, coded as the place of femininity, has long borne a bevy of idealizing clichés: “‘home sweet home,’ ‘a house is not a home’ […] and of course, a more telling pair—‘a woman’s place is in the home,’ and ‘a man’s home is his castle.