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The Dark
The Dark, widely acclaimed, yet infamously banned, is John McGahern’s sensitive, perceptive, and beautifully written portrayal of a young man’s coming-of-age in rural Ireland. Imaginative and introverted, the 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 wi
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Paperback, 192 pages
Published
February 26th 2002
by Penguin Books
(first published 1965)
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Bristling with the threat of violence from the outset, the opening chapter is one of the most disturbing and claustrophobic I have read. The father in the book is a bitter man, his moods uneven and extreme, and as a consequence his children live in fear of him and punish him the only way they can- by shutting him out of their lives as much as possible. His feeling of isolation is something that compounds the misery within the farmhouse walls; it begets isolation in each of his kids, although the
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This is probably the most intense and sad book I ever read.
From the very first page you are drawn into a really nasty
and uncomfortable scene which really sets the mood in a very
hard and upsetting way.
At this point you realise the title of the book is just perfect.
This book is not an easy book to read as it mostly tells of
the relationship between a tough,hard and abusive father and
his adolescent son.
But it is absolutely brilliant!!!!!
I have never read anything so powerful that left you with a lum ...more
From the very first page you are drawn into a really nasty
and uncomfortable scene which really sets the mood in a very
hard and upsetting way.
At this point you realise the title of the book is just perfect.
This book is not an easy book to read as it mostly tells of
the relationship between a tough,hard and abusive father and
his adolescent son.
But it is absolutely brilliant!!!!!
I have never read anything so powerful that left you with a lum ...more
I began reading The Dark for banned book week as it had been banned in Ireland and it is easy to see why the book made them uneasy. It is a bleak window into the world of the Irish adolescent male in the middle of the century in rural Ireland, its a story about a young man who in spite of the many things he has going for him, ends up crushed under the wheel of the society that bore him. It deals frankly with many controversial subjects, adolescent sexuality, parental abuse (it contains possibly
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Like reading an Irish Yates
En esta bildungsroman poco al uso, McGahern expone con una crudeza explícita pero encubierta por la perspectiva de la narrativa, la evolución del maltrato hasta el perdón. Mención aparte merece la acusación nada encubierta de connivencia y voyeurismo de la Iglesia Católica, dejando claro que la connivencia con los casos de abuso infantil no han sido algo anecdótico. Será cosa del perdón.
Impresionante la utilización de las perspectivas del narrador, que cambia de persona y posición, e incluso des ...more
Impresionante la utilización de las perspectivas del narrador, que cambia de persona y posición, e incluso des ...more
The Dark is one of the most emotionally complex and deeply affecting novels I've ever read. In a very short but economical space McGahern masterfully handles the themes of religion, sexuality, education, and most importantly, the relationship between a father and son. None of these themes is treated with anything but the greatest care and sophistication, none of them handled simply or in a one sided manner, all of them rung through with nuance and extreme detail. As the protagonist, the young Ma
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A boy struggles through life, as most do; but through an angry, abusive father and his own wayward journey along the precipitous ledge of adolescent. Taking care of his sister, deciding on being a priest or not, many turns and many consequences. A very sad little novel where father and son grow together. At one point the son exclaims that he, the father, is older and unable to do the work he used to, which shocks the poor son. Through the stress of getting a scholarship and leaving that cursed f
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Sep 21, 2014
Booklovinglady
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
irish,
challenges-former
For a review in Dutch, see message 111 of the Summer Challenge 2014 of the Netherlands & Flanders group.
Disturbing and extremely claustrophobic this isn't a comfortable read but it's brilliantly written with a shifting narrative structure that feels completely uncontrived.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Finally finished this. Not amazing, but enjoyable and very Mcgahern.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This was the first book which I reviewed and received a cheque for from a newspaper. McGahern was a schoolteacher in priest ridden Ireland of the past and The Dark is indeed a dark tale with drink and incest and the unforgiveness of society and environment. he got sacked from his teaching position as a result of publishing this book and went on to fame and brilliant work till his death. I read it a million years ago and do not have sufficient recall to say more except that it is a powerful read
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When starting this I thought the title of the book actually represented the book, that was so and too easy to do. But persist. Its not so dark, in fact hope and light unravel. What it really is, is deep and packed full of feeling.. A brave, course and in your face depiction of a life and time, hopefully now gone. This is my first McGahern and I will read more, it's wonderfully written. Don't be put off by the sombre and uncomfortable opening, go for it, is this an 'enjoyable' read? No way! It is
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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The Dark certainly lives up to its title. An unnamed boy is the only son of the widower Mahoney who ekes out a subsistance living on a small farm of land in the County Leitrim of 1950s Ireland. One can only speculate that the father's rage and hair-trigger temper spring from frustration and misdirected grief over the loss of his wife. But this is the son's story, though hardly your typical bildungsroman: McGahern's protagonist is tortured by his sexuality and the uniquely Irish-Catholic guilt it
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I finished the acclaimed Irish novel, The Dark, by John McGahern, while on a vacation to Waikiki, Hawaii. And, yes, ‘tis (dark). The book begins with an enraged father forcing his young son to strip, then bend over a chair to await the sting of the belt, while his younger siblings watch in terror. It goes on a few chapters later to show the boy and father in bed together. Family members sharing a bed was not uncommon in the early part of the last century (nor is it today in economically-challeng
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"Yet the surface of it was that I had cycled past them hundreds of evenings without paying the slightest attention. I knew them only now when they were lost, I'd loved them without knowing, and only learned of the love in the leaving."
My third McGahern book, moving back in time with the writing, this being one of his earlier works. Insights like the one above slip easily into his writing, making you pause and think not only how in life you find this to be true but also in the reading of a book.. ...more
My third McGahern book, moving back in time with the writing, this being one of his earlier works. Insights like the one above slip easily into his writing, making you pause and think not only how in life you find this to be true but also in the reading of a book.. ...more
This is a coming-of-age story, starting out with a monster of a widowed father disciplining his son (a chilling first chapter), and ending with some reconciliation. Getting from the beginning to the end is fairly short in number of pages but long in torturous developments centered around the father, the protagonist’s sexual arousal (directed mostly inward), confession and contrition, followed by more sin, and competition for a scholarship to Galway University. It is wonderfully written and very
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This book was aptly titled! It was dark indeed, at times oppressively so. I had a hard time sticking with it and probably would have abandoned it entirely except for the fact that it was set in Ireland - one of my favorite places to go in a book. In this case most of the action took place in a rural Irish village sometime in the middle of the 20th century (I think!)and centered around the plight of a young boy and the decisions he was trying to make about his future. It was especially complicate
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John McGahern, The Dark (Panther, 1965)
John McGahern would seem to be another of those authors whose talent is lionized in his native land, but who never quite had Americans get the hang of his work (q.v. Margaret Laurence). The Dark, McGahern's second novel, is a fascinating portrait of adolescence that deserves far, far wider appreciation than it seems to have ever received.
McGahern's homeland of Ireland may have something to do with that. The Dark was banned not long after its release for its ...more
John McGahern would seem to be another of those authors whose talent is lionized in his native land, but who never quite had Americans get the hang of his work (q.v. Margaret Laurence). The Dark, McGahern's second novel, is a fascinating portrait of adolescence that deserves far, far wider appreciation than it seems to have ever received.
McGahern's homeland of Ireland may have something to do with that. The Dark was banned not long after its release for its ...more
It KILLS me not to be able to give this 5 stars. I thought until about halfway through that I'd be giving it 5. But then it started to get sloppy. The writing, I mean. I felt an editor should have intervened. Weren't these the glory days of editing still, when editors were making writers the men and women they were? Well. It's a good thing McGahern was so talented on his own.
One of the interesting things about this book, as others have said, is the way he shifts POV from 3rd to 1st to 2nd, whil ...more
One of the interesting things about this book, as others have said, is the way he shifts POV from 3rd to 1st to 2nd, whil ...more
In this novel, McGahern shows a motherless family ruled by a violent narcissist. There is no counter to his demands, and the children are almost completely cowed. Mahoney's relationship with his son is disturbing, and the boy's development is a terrible slog. He studies to the exclusion of all else except his ordinary adolescent lusts, and is torn between his desire for a sensual life and his possible vocation in the priesthood. Everything is done with the goal of ending his dependence on his fa
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The least of McGahern's novels, and the shortest. McGahern himself felt embarrassed by it ('written too quickly'), and was amused rather than outraged when the Irish Censor Board banned it. Less amusing was the Church's response, costing McGahern his job. When McGahern protested, officials were unsympathetic. The book alone might have been forgiven, but after marrying a woman in a registry office; worse, a foreign woman...
The novel is interesting, viewed on a purely technical level. It's largely ...more
The novel is interesting, viewed on a purely technical level. It's largely ...more
Promising start, all intensely atmospheric and stifling, the family such together in the home, each knowing the mods of the others....and what was coming next.
It must done of its edge for me, as soon as we ventured into the wider world.... still good, but had hints of better.
It must done of its edge for me, as soon as we ventured into the wider world.... still good, but had hints of better.
For those of us who love Ireland, John McGahern’s second novel is not always an easy read. The Ireland he writes about – old Ireland – can be an ignorant and violent place, a rural backwater where sex is a dark and sinful thing. But do not be put off. This book is outstanding; a beautiful and powerful story of a country boy’s struggle to grow out of the darkness of his childhood and into the light of happy adulthood. The Dark was banned in Ireland in the Sixties. Now McGahern is considered one o
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Aptly named, this novel was an intense look at the relationship between a father and son, and all the hatred and love that can coexist in our familial relationships. I find it almost unbearably poignant and sad in parts, but a beautiful book. Stylistically, it was interesting as well. The book shifted between first person, second person and third person perspective, and that sounds like it would be a nightmare to wade through, but in fact, McGahern managed to pull it off and use the shifts most
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Oct 09, 2009
Joeji
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Ambivalent Eire-o-philes
Shelves:
fiction
Read the first half in a coffee shop and the second half after lunch.
An incredible novel about a rural Irish boy growing up filled with intense ambivalence (emabarassnment, empathy, fear, hatred, love) about his manic-depressive father. Boy also filled with intense ambivalence about the priesthood; feels he should enter if only if he could kick that masturbation habit. Ambivalent about education; scores well enough to make it into school in Dublin but doesn't know if it is what he wants. Ambiva ...more
An incredible novel about a rural Irish boy growing up filled with intense ambivalence (emabarassnment, empathy, fear, hatred, love) about his manic-depressive father. Boy also filled with intense ambivalence about the priesthood; feels he should enter if only if he could kick that masturbation habit. Ambivalent about education; scores well enough to make it into school in Dublin but doesn't know if it is what he wants. Ambiva ...more
This is the story of a young man growing up in a family without a mother where the father, not always (or rather very rarely) the kindest person for his children, struggles to get all the work done in his house on the Irish countryside. The young man is a brilliant student, but how to make it acceptable for his father to let him study? What to study for? Should he become a priest? The book describes the worries of the young man and the life of him and his family, and does that really well : one
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McGahern began his career as a schoolteacher at Scoil Eoin Báiste (Belgrove) primary school in Clontarf, Ireland, where, for a period, he taught the eminent academic Declan Kiberd before turning to writing full-time. McGahern's second novel 'The Dark' was banned in Ireland for its alleged pornographic content and implied clerical sexual abuse. In the controversy over this he was forced to resign h
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“They'd listen silenty, with grave faces: but once they'd turn to each other they'd smile cruelly. He couldn't have it both ways. He'd put himself outside and outside they'd make him stay. Neither brutality nor complaining could force a way in.”
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