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108th out of 212 books
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273 voters
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The Collected Stories
These 34 funny, tragic, bracing, and acerbic stories represent the complete short fiction of one of Ireland's finest living writers. On struggling farms, in Dublin's rain-drenched streets, or in parched exile in Franco's Spain, McGahern's characters wage a confused but touching war against the facts of life.
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
March 15th 1994
by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
(first published 1992)
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One might be excused for thinking that the "Swinging Sixties" never made across the Irish Sea, but McGahern's slow and quiet stories puts paid to that idea. One is reminded of the title (if not the content) of Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate as McGahern's protagonists muddle their way through sex and romance on the rain-slicked footpaths of 1960s, '70s and '80s Dublin. Not that all the settings are urban though; even when the crux of the story takes place in "the heart of t...more
If John McGahern had written nothing more than the stories from the first half of this collection, he would still be regarded as one of the Irish masters of the short story. As it is, something very nearly miraculous occurs after this halfway mark. The stories first collected in 1985's High Ground are even better than the early ones. It would be a dull mind that returned to the likes of Gold Watch, Parachutes, A Ballad, and The Conversion of William Kirkwood without each time discovering somethi...more
nathan
added it
Quality. Not leaving the bedside anytime soon.
USA Today quote on the front:
"The best Irish short-story writer since James Joyce."
If you have an alternate nominations, drop them in the comments for my benefit. I'm none to up-to-date on the Irish short story, but what I assumed was a car-salesman-esque blurb seems plausible half way through. . . .
On to the novels, probably sooner than later
USA Today quote on the front:
"The best Irish short-story writer since James Joyce."
If you have an alternate nominations, drop them in the comments for my benefit. I'm none to up-to-date on the Irish short story, but what I assumed was a car-salesman-esque blurb seems plausible half way through. . . .
On to the novels, probably sooner than later
This is the first set of short stories I've read by McGahern. Most were excellent. One dragged ("Peaches"), one was extremely disturbing ("Lavin") but many others left you wanting more, like a good short story should.
While McGahern was a great writer in general, I love the way the guy wrote about sex; that is to say, without stepping one foot into Harlequin novel territory, he still made the most abstract notions of erotica seem somehow familiar:
"Still, at ei...more
While McGahern was a great writer in general, I love the way the guy wrote about sex; that is to say, without stepping one foot into Harlequin novel territory, he still made the most abstract notions of erotica seem somehow familiar:
"Still, at ei...more
I'm not usually a short story reader, but I'm really enjoying this book. I've read other John McGahern ("By the Lake") is one of my all time favorite books). These stories remind me so much of Ireland, where they all take place. Bleak yet understated and also beautiful. Just like me. :)
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Bettie
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completed my first of his short stories: THE WINE BREATH 8/17/2010
Fraility of people
I have read 3 of these for a course so far and I liked them a lot! Would like to read some more.
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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 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 his...more
More about John McGahern...
McGahern's 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 his...more
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