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Reading in the Dark

3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 · rating details · 1,283 ratings · 111 reviews

A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize
Winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award and International Award

"A swift and masterful transformation of family griefs and political violence into something at once rhapsodic and heartbreaking. If Issac Babel had been born in Derry, he might have written this sudden, brilliant book."
--Seamus Heaney

Hugely accla...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published February 24th 1998 by Vintage (first published 1996)

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Sep 30, 2010 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, europe-and-british-isles, four-star-fiction

The book begins with an epigraph from "She Moved Through the Fair":

The people were saying no two were e'er wed
But one had a sorrow that never was said.

Those two lines carry the essence of the story. The long-term consequences of keeping secrets are at the heart of Reading in the Dark.

The unnamed narrator describes his Catholic boyhood in Derry in the 40s and 50s. Both his parents' families have secrets held since the time of the Troubles in the 1920s.
As the protagonist moves from boyhood into...more

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Aug 03, 2008 Mel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, irish

Deane presents Reading in the Dark as a “novel” and I am unclear as to how much is fact and how much is fiction. Much of what he wrote about the dynamic of the Irish family situation rings very true in my own reality. Irish families are a topic close to my heart. His discussion of the things left unsaid in Irish family life rings true and is echoed in many other books about Irish and Irish-American culture, ranging from Alice Carey’s I’ll Know it When I See it, to Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes,...more Deane presents Reading in the Dark as a “novel” and I am unclear as to how much is fact and how much is fiction. Much of what he wrote about the dynamic of the Irish family situation rings very true in my own reality. Irish families are a topic close to my heart. His discussion of the things left unsaid in Irish family life rings true and is echoed in many other books about Irish and Irish-American culture, ranging from Alice Carey’s I’ll Know it When I See it, to Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, to Tom Hayden’s Irish on the Inside. Much of what he writes about the continuing violence, prejudice and trouble in Northern Ireland is factual—even if his characters are fictitious. And I don’t know that they are.
Deane presents a compelling look at life in embattled Northern Ireland. He presents to the reader an intimate portrait of an Irish-Catholic family. He offers the superstitions surrounding this family. He allows the reader to accept that a ghost can be a spirit or a memory—that both are haunting and can be frightening enough to devastate lives.
The story is presented in a first person child’s view, albeit it an omniscient view. Dean walks us through the confusion of growing up an outcast in his community—which is itself outcast from the society in which it is enmeshed. We, as readers, are presented with several different perspectives of the outsider. Deane’s mother keeps herself just beyond the intimacy of her family, specifically her husband and sister, by keeping her secrets. Secrets that eventually drive her insane. Her husband, Dean’s father, remains outside because of what he does not know, as well as what he does. Each of the children in this family is left on the outside because none of them knows the whole truth.
For Irish-Americans (like Dean) reaching back to untangle the things unsaid can be a healing process. To write about it offers others a door into the silences in their own families. I have read many books about Irish and Irish-American families and the recurring theme of prevailing silence—and how families function, or don’t, around that. Dean’s direct insertion of the larger socio-political picture into the dynamic speaks more directly to the issue and perhaps can offer, at least for Deane, a way to find definition to who he is—and why.
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Apr 16, 2009 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: irish-writing

This is the story of a young Catholic boy (unnamed) growing up in Derry in Northern Ireland during the post war period in the 40's through the Northern Ireland "Troubles" in 1968. Deane considers this a fictional work but states that it is based on his own experience growing up during that time. The title comes from this boy's propensity for reading at bedtime and is symbolic of his whole childhood being part of a family and community defined by political, economic and religious oppression, a v...more This is the story of a young Catholic boy (unnamed) growing up in Derry in Northern Ireland during the post war period in the 40's through the Northern Ireland "Troubles" in 1968. Deane considers this a fictional work but states that it is based on his own experience growing up during that time. The title comes from this boy's propensity for reading at bedtime and is symbolic of his whole childhood being part of a family and community defined by political, economic and religious oppression, a victimized community of secrets and lies. How can one read what he cannot see?
This is an Irish work. It is full of superstitions and ghosts and changeling children/women. There are exorcisms, executions and government sanctioned brutalities. Some characters are driven to madness by it all. Eccentricity is commonplace and accepted.
And where does this all lead? Tragedy. Loss. Joylessness. With a sense of fatalism, Deane makes the valid point that violence begets violence. Secrets kept from loved ones and the lies told to keep those secrets destroys trust and prevents true intimacy. Whether it be a relationship between a woman and her sister, or with her father, or with her husband, or with her son... and consequently they become emotionally impaired and it affects their relationships with each other...and so on and so on... Resentments based on mistruths evolve into hatred, the mistruths are embellished and become outright lies, the lies are told and retold, each time a bit differently and a new generation full of resentment is born.

I think "Reading in the Dark" would have been more effective if it had been written in a short story format. The chapters don't always flow together and there is a disjointedness....and sometimes a repetition of phrase/and or explanation of plot that is superfluous.
Yet there are characters and scenes that are haunting and memorable...a young man having his first sexual experience with a stranger in a field, only to have her disappear beneath him and then change into a fox ultimately driving him into madness....reinforcing the theme of this work, people may not be what they appear to be...things are not what they seem...we must have unconditional Faith, we must not question, but accept and be willing to sacrifice ourselves to sustain the secrets and the lies...
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Feb 12, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

this novel is supposedly fiction but reviews I've read (one by a neighbor of Seamus Deane's family in Ireland) claim that the story is probably a memoir in fictional form. Either way, it is a novel in which the main character (unnamed, by the way; another clue that it might be a memoir) looks for truth but is continually kept in the dark. The story also looks at how one goes about finding and piecing together truth; the narrator picks up little smidgens of stories here and there, from family mem...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: whats-all-the-fuss-about, novels

Well, the blurbs on the back say: "Marvellous...almost impossible to put down" (Independent on Sunday) and "A profoundly emotive and seamlessly structured exploration of loss and regret. It is also funny and authentic. What more could one ask of a book?" My boorish response, however, is

BAH!

So it's all about this boy growing up in Northern Ireland with his mother going round the twist and some great big family secret hanging over them like a dentist's drill, all about the grandfather and the unc...more

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Aug 18, 2007 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who is feeling nostalgic.

I'd been working on a book based in Ireland where the protagonists were two brothers so this looked liked the perfect reference material for me. I think my memory of the book has suffered because I was reading the book with a purpose in mind rather than enjoying it in its own right. The political edge to the book annoyed me because politics in general annoys me but in order to be accurate it needed to be there.

When I first picked it up to add to my bookshelf I thought I'd remembered nothing abou...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Patrick O'Neil rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you’re Irish, then you’ve probably got a crazy uncle who occasionally comes home from the pub singing “The Boys of 98” at the top of his lungs at three in the morning or your grandmother, after she slipped a little whiskey in your milk to help you sleep, tells you tales of Old Eire that make the Grimm Brother’s Fairy Tales look like gobshite. If you’re not, well, then you have to read Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark to truly get a glimpse of the Irish experience – notably the Northern Iris...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Philip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading In The Dark is a first person account of an extraordinary childhood. On the surface, the family seems to be stable enough. They are Catholics and the novel’s narrator is about half way along his parents´ progeny. Nothing special there...

They are not rich, and apparently not poor. They get by. The lad explores the neighbourhood, makes friends, starts school. Eventually he proves to be quite academic and he clearly goes from personal success to further personal success.

But all the time the...more Reading In The Dark is a first person account of an extraordinary childhood. On the surface, the family seems to be stable enough. They are Catholics and the novel’s narrator is about half way along his parents´ progeny. Nothing special there...

They are not rich, and apparently not poor. They get by. The lad explores the neighbourhood, makes friends, starts school. Eventually he proves to be quite academic and he clearly goes from personal success to further personal success.

But all the time there’s something in the past that labels him. There are people who call him strange names, accuse him of things he hasn’t done. He does not understand, but feels the consequences. Life can be complicated when you’re born to a Catholic family in Northern Ireland.

The boy grows up in the 1950s and 1960s. Via short, dated chapters, arranged chronologically and starting in February 1945, we able to build and perhaps experience the lad’s world. We share the boy’s new experience, feel the changes in his life and body as he does. But there is always something unsaid, intangible, but undoubtedly real and of consequence. Everyone seems to know something, but he has little idea what it all means.

Mother and father remain reticent. Relatives and acquaintances allude to Eddie, the boy’s uncle, who is not around any more. Clearly Eddie died in strange circumstances. But in the Northern Ireland of the 1950s, you have to be careful what you say, when you speak and whom you mix with. Just being seen talking to Sergeant Burke, the policeman, can result in your being labelled a traitor, a collaborator, or worse.

The boy’s relationship with the Church and its clergy is both fascinating and surreal. There are moments of humour, times of fear, often juxtaposed. There’s a maths teacher whose class rules are so complex that any response seems punishable. Serves them right… It seems that whatever contribution an individual might make has the potential to render that person in need of strokes, but the ground rules demand that no-one may opt out.

It’s the same in the wider society. When you’re a Catholic in Northern Ireland – and perhaps if you are not! – there are no fences you can sit on. Whatever you do it will be wrong. There are enemies on both sides of every fence, so wherever you climb down, beware. Tread carefully, know your place, stay on your guard. But what if, like our young lad, you don’t know what to beware of?

Slowly, however, the real truth behind Uncle Eddie’s fate emerges. It’s only then that the growing boy, and indeed the reader, realises just how complicated – and vindictive – life can be.

Reading In The Dark is a highly poetic novel. The scenes are vivid, beautifully portrayed. They are short, but each adds its own new detail to the bigger story of how a family has learned to cope with its own chequered past. Those who don’t know the mistakes of history are perhaps doomed to repeat them. Those misled by untruth are not necessarily liars when they restate it. But complicating the past probably confuses the present and disturbs the future. Seamus Deane’s novel, Reading In The Dark, is a vivid and moving portrait of a family troubled by a past it dare not admit.
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Jul 27, 2011 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book rather strikes me as a 'marmite' book, you will either love or hate it depending on your taste. However, it could also be desribed as an onion as it peels back differing layers revealing the conflicts that there are in all families, although in this case these are exasapated by the fact that the boy is a Catholic growing up in Northern Ireland with all it's sectarian divides. You see religious, political, familial,social and parent-child divides throughout but you also see that the dec...more

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Nov 05, 2008 Janet rated it 2 of 5 stars

Couldn't finish this one...which is very rare for me. The quality of the writing was good, however there was no connection between each chapter leaving me disconnected from the book. There were no consistent characters to bond with and no story to lose oneself in. And, having just visited Ireland, I was looking forward to this read.

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May 30, 2007 Caoileann rated it 5 of 5 stars

tis is very special. Making me feel all colloquial-like, man dear, boys'o, it's a queer bit o writtin...

This is marvellous. Moving, sensitive but not at all slushy or saccharin. It is tender, haunting, and left me feeling quite emotionally fragile after finish it. Ah, Seamus Deane

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Feb 17, 2013 Alex Mckenzie rated it 4 of 5 stars

While it's a bit slow to start and the disconnection between the (sub)chapters can certainly put some people off, the trek is worth it. Very well written and descriptive without having to explain it all to the reader which allows this "memoir" of sorts to mystify. However the within the last few chapters as the mystery is unveiled, it starts to become a bit repetitive, so perhaps it could have been edited down just a little. The chapters where story and prose were told were exceptionally enjoyab...more

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Aug 28, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of my favorite books; I've probably given away 15 copies of this book. Much like Graham Swift's Waterland, this is an impeccably written, elegantly crafted novel. Much prefer this treatment of Irish family life to Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.

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Dec 29, 2007 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

I've read this book three times now. I'm not certain I'll ever perfectly understand it. What I know is that the author has me in his hold; I will follow him wherever this story goes.

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Feb 21, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel came out about the time of Angela's Ashes and so was overshadowed by the wit and sadness of McCourt, and yet, I think this novel is more honest and more powerful than McCourt's. I don't often recommend Irish novels to anyone who isn't Irish because there is a lyrical quality about them that is sometimes difficult to get used to. Sometimes nothing happens in the story but there is beauty. This story is sad and when I got to the end of the novel I knew what it meant when they say the Ir...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading in the Dark features an episodic and fragmented narrative, one that is alternatingly tender and haunting; it's propelled by the wonder of a young boy's vision but also populated by ghosts, and often imbued with the magic of Irish folk culture and legend. The novel's story and preoccupations work well as a kind of precursor to the events, divisions, and literature of the contemporary Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the novel also has much to suggest about the elisions and mysteries of f...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of those books that I might never have known existed, except that it was assigned in an Irish lit class in college that I ended up dropping. I'm so glad I kept the book, because it was an engrossing tale rendered beautifully. It's a detective story of sorts layered with 20th century Irish history and cultural life. There is plenty of sadness, but the writing is warm and full of curiosity even when dealing with cruel secrets and tragedy. And always: refrains of knowing, and not knowing, and w...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Gwendolyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

A quiet, contemplative coming of age novel that takes place in Dublin in the 1940s and 50s. I liked the structure. The story is told in discrete scenes that are arranged chronologically but that often include large gaps in time between the scenes, leaving the reader to fill in the gaps. The past secrets of the family dominate the action as the young narrator attempts to learn the complicated history of conflict and betrayal that still haunts the family decades afterwards. I'm only giving this on...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Sharon rated it 2 of 5 stars

I thought it was well written but hard to follow though the story's plot was a good one. If you were to read one chapter that can stand alone on it's own, it's worth it. A few sentences "We begin with Johnson, the strange looking creature in the left-hand corner of the front row. He gives the answer to number one ....McDaid, the object next to Johnson, takes number two, and so on throughout the whole zoo-like assemblage we, in our politeness call a class.... so by the time we reach the evolution...more

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Apr 12, 2013 angie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I would like to give this book 4 stars as I truly appreciated many of its qualities. But I found it choppy and confusing at times, as well as downright depressing. Some parts were better than others, like a book of short stories, some of which are more enjoyable and easier to get than others. It did pick up over time, bit I still don't think the author depicted the essence of the Irish 'troubles' as much as he could have. Maybe I should have been more educated about Irish history beforehand.

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Nov 30, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, irish

I'm not sure how this book got into my personal library. But there it was, and I felt the need to read it, as I feel about all the books on my shelves. It was ok, but I can definitely tell that this was not something I would have picked out for myself.

A young boy grows up in Ireland. At this time there is much talk about informers and war and other things that are a family secret. A secret he is determined to figure out although it will take him years and he'll only get it in snippets. With a mo...more I'm not sure how this book got into my personal library. But there it was, and I felt the need to read it, as I feel about all the books on my shelves. It was ok, but I can definitely tell that this was not something I would have picked out for myself.

A young boy grows up in Ireland. At this time there is much talk about informers and war and other things that are a family secret. A secret he is determined to figure out although it will take him years and he'll only get it in snippets. With a mother who is a little bit crazy he also has a troubled homelife as well. But really, the essence of this book is what life was like in Ireland in the 1940's and beyond. It shows one boy's childhood amidst the troubling time.

Our narrator is ok. He speaks a little old for his age but he's also supposed to be quite smart, so that is forgiveable. He really wants to know secrets and has that childlike curiosity that makes you feel as if he is a worthy character. His poor mother, I just found her a bit odd and crazy and couldn't really understand her. I got the impression that she was supposed to be normal at least part of the time, but I never really felt that way about her. And his father, while silent and strong, isn't given as much time in this book and I thought that he could have really been an important character and used much better. There are several brothers and sisters as well, but they also only play minor roles.

The plot had a definite theme, rooting out the family secret. But it was quite broken up into chunks of months or years, with no real set timeline or consistency. It made it hard to really absorb yourself in the book because you were reading one story when you were immediately thrown into the next. That being said, the actual language of the book was terrific. Very descriptive and almost poetic really. I liked the tone it set. And there are some hard themes in this book. It talks a little bit about war and execution and dark secrets. Nothing is greatly described in detail, but it is implied.

This was just a hard book for me to really sink in to and appreciate. I can't say that I'd seek other books out by Deane, but if they magically appear on my bookshelf again I'll probably read them.

Reading in the Dark
Copyright 1996
246 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2012

More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com (less)

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Jul 10, 2011 Kris McCracken rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading in the Dark is Irish poet Seamus Deane’s first. The novel is set in Derry, Northern Ireland and explores the fractured nature of identity, religion, memory and family. Indeed, a working title could well have been Secrets and Lies…

Narrated from the point of view of a young Catholic boy, the novel is constructed from a series of vignettes that are dated and run in chronological order. However, the heart of the plot includes a number of unspoken family secret events dating back to the Irish...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Michael Johnston rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm not sure I could say anything about this book other than that it is, in a word, brilliant. Written about a place Deane knew quite well, the book has that rare gift of making the reader feel intimately familiar with a place and a people he has never seen. Questions of truth, family history and the often-messy result of keeping it hidden, as well as vendetta and guilt by association, riddle the book. There are questions as to how much of the book is fiction and how much is fictionalized fact;...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction

This short novel is told from the point of view of a boy growing up in post-war Ireland, discovering painful family secrets as he matures. The prose is quite beautiful and really captures the feel of memory and of the way a child's understanding of the adults closest to him slowly changes. The book masterfully explores the way family relationships can change because of secrets revealed, even when those secrets are never discussed openly. Deane also uses folklore and myth to great effect.

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Feb 25, 2013 Raelene rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-books-of-2013

Beautiful. This almost-a-memoir novel takes the reader into post-civil war Ireland and into the hearts of the Irish nationalist movement. Part coming-of-age, and part unearthing of family secrets, the story is told from the eyes of a young boy in bits and pieces: an image here, an anecdote there, and by the end the story and its secrets are carefully woven into a touching tribute to the Irish spirit. The prose is magical, the descriptions precise, and the experience deeply moving.

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Apr 04, 2011 P.J. Sullivan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This book is about growing up Catholic in Northern Ireland, a very complicated place! About a child caught up in a violent history and a mysterious feud, haunted by superstition and family secrets, terrorized by the police, browbeaten by priests. It is also a mystery story—what secret is his mother hiding? What really happened to Uncle Eddie? And it has barbed humor worthy of Frank McCourt.

The writing is elegant, but this is not an easy read. The subplots are complicated. Some chapters have lit...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Matti Karjalainen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: aikuiset, 1970-1999, growin-up, irl-kans, pohjois-irlanti, troubles

Nuori poika varttuu katolisten ja protestanttien välisen vihanpidon keskellä Derryssä, Pohjois-Irlannissa. Elämä on kaikkea muuta helppoa, ja ihmisten harteita painaa myös synkkä perhesalaisuus, joka juontaa parikymmentä vuotta tapahtuneeseen tulitaisteluun palavan viskitehtaan varjossa.

Kauniisti kirjoittavan Seamus Deanen "Lukuhetkiä pimeässä" (Gummerus, 1998) on hieno kasvukertomus, johon omia sävyjään luovat niin vihreän saaren historia kuin sen tarustokin.

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Sep 20, 2009 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub

Just finished this for bookclub. Beautiful writing. Bleak themes. Has the feeling of "Angela's Ashes". A bildungsroman about an boy of working class Derry in Northern Ireland unravelling the dark secrets of his family. The violence of "The Troubles" colors everything. The Catholic shame and family betrayals are multilayered and confusing as hell, but the poetic words and the mystery kept me reading. I loved the weird superstitions and legends woven in.

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Apr 15, 2011 Marty rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a surprise.....bought this at one of the "dog" sales here....the title sounded interesting. What a powerful story.....short, but so tightly written, actually a very slow, heavy, involved story. Brilliant story on a subject I know so little about, the Irish wars! Shortlisted for the Booker.....a reason why one should check these out....so far all Booker nominations I read have turned out to be very good.

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Dec 12, 2012 Frances Sawaya rated it 5 of 5 stars

This would get my top rating if it contained only the superb story "Maths Class" which ranks, in my opinion, just below "The Lottery" as the greatest of all time. Funny yet painful look at the jesuitical mind, the need/uselessness of math and teen awkwardness. Loved every word.Other stories here are rich in Irish life so the entire collection makes for a very satisfying read.

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