A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize
Winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award and Internati... read full description
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize
Winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award and Internati... read full description
reviews
Sep 18, 2011
Jeanette
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
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Aug 03, 2008
Mel
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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,
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Apr 16, 2009
Suzanne
rated it:
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 op
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Feb 12, 2008
Nancy
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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
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Mar 08, 2011
Paul
rated it: 
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' More...
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' More...
Aug 18, 2007
Jim
rated it: 
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 More...
When I first picked it up to add to my bookshelf I thought I'd remembered More...
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Sep 01, 2008
Patrick
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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
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Nov 19, 2011
Philip
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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.
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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.
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Jul 27, 2011
4evagreen
rated it:
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
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Nov 05, 2008
Janet
rated it:
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:
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
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
Aug 28, 2008
Elizabeth
rated it:
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:
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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Jul 10, 2011
Kris
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Jan 27, 2011
Michael
rated it:
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 fac
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Apr 04, 2011
P.J.
rated it:
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 chapt More...
The writing is elegant, but this is not an easy read. The subplots are complicated. Some chapt More...
Sep 20, 2009
Jen
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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.
Apr 15, 2011
Marty
rated it:
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.
Sep 08, 2010
Maura
rated it:
If you're the type of reader who's into novels written like memoirs in a pseudo-stream of consciousness way, then this is the book for you. The setting in post-war Northern Ireland is rather depressing, but it's the narrator's approach to and observations of his complicated surroundings - religion, politics, and family secrets - that are most compelling in this novel.
Nov 28, 2011
Susie
rated it:
I can't wait to discuss this with the book club because I didn't know what to make of it. It was interesting in some respects (the political environment of 20th century Northern Ireland, the ghost stories, the effect of the family secrets and how the people were all interrelated in a small town), but in others I just found it a little long and labourious. There was a lot in this book that I didn't understand, or appreciate the significance of, and there was a lot that was very creepy and eerie
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Mar 20, 2011
hope
rated it:
Column McCann called Deane’s novel one of the best of the decade, so in an effort to contrast the two, I settled in to read it. Reminded me of being eight and hearing the whisperings of family secrets that I desperately wanted to know. As you get older you understand why no one wants you to know them.
Jun 13, 2010
Molly
rated it:
The book itself starts off strong--seemingly disparate stories of haunting, whirling around each other--and it builds to the family skeletons. The play of narrative is nice, and I'd hoped it would build to something stronger, but the repetition at the end reverses the subtlety of the earlier storytelling.
Jan 09, 2011
Margaret
rated it:
I couldn't quite give it 3 stars.. it's a coming of age story, a compilation of family secrets, harsh authority figures, anger and unforgiveness. The Irish in these stories seem to be deeply superstitious and afraid. Quite different than the book I just finished, An Irish Country Christmas.
Feb 02, 2012
A. Mary
rated it:
A family full of secrets, nobody knowing all the pieces, lives in Derry soon after partition. One of the children begins to collect the bits, and finds he has to keep the secrets in order to keep his family from fracturing.
Feb 01, 2012
Clare
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A partly autobiographical novel, Reading in the Dark is a lushly written mystery that takes shape once the unnamed narrator decides to investigate the story of his missing uncle Eddie, the IRA gunman. Worth a read.
Mar 15, 2010
Beth
rated it:
This is another book I read for my Northern Ireland class at Notre Dame, which is where Seamus Deane teaches part of the time. He came to visit my class after we'd finished reading it, and I think the entire class mostly gazed at him in awe while he sat with us to discuss it. It is a haunting book, a beautiful book, and ultimately a very tragic book. About the power of secrets, the value of keeping them and not keeping them. It's a very complicated book as well. I remember the class having a who
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Oct 11, 2009
I thought I could find this book at the library, but no luck. I just ordered it today and will probably not have time to read it before my Book Club discusses it in 2 weeks.
Aug 07, 2011
Dorothy
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Growing up in Ireland childhood memories from 1945-1971. Politics and family history are the framework for this novel. A Booker prize finalist which reads like memoir.
Mar 10, 2011
RUSA
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This was one of the 1998 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/a...
Feb 06, 2009
Cari
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A collection of vignettes that gradually coalesce to form a complete narrative revolving around family, death, loyalty, and love. Short, sweet, and stunning, with beautiful, simple writing.
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