false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170974921m/79930.jpg 79930 7 Irish writer John McGahern's first new novel in 12 years, <I>That They May Face the Rising Sun</I>, is a work of delicately forged beauty, the nearest he has yet come to writing of happiness. The plot remains defiantly not the thing for McGahern, with little of consequence happening beyond life's natural syncopations, yet the nuances of language and relationship soar as gracefully as the abundant wildfowl that crowd the book's pages. News is the old currency, carried in the dialogue which remains McGahern's most discernible talent. Set in rural County Leitrim, the inhabitants of the houses around the lake and the local town, heady on the whiskey elixir that loosens tongues or seals deals, watch as their insular community is gently pummelled by the creeping advance of modern life. While they share the year's natural cycle, the unfolding months reveal their personal differences: Joe and Kate Ruttledge, returned after a long spell in London; Mary and Jamesie, their whole life lived there; John Quinn, the charming, brutal womaniser, who marries and loses as quickly the bride he finds at the Knock Marriage Bureau; The Shah, Kate's uncle, who wordlessly sells his business to his cripplingly honest assistant, Frank; and Jimmy Joe Kiernan, auctioneer and undertaker, a veteran IRA man still on the lookout for stray souls. And then there is Jamesie's brother Joseph, the best shot in the district, who went to England after a woman, and stayed there, his soul sold for the "alphabetical" order of English life. <p> There is little alphabetical to McGahern's view of life, though there is consummate poetry. His narrative quietly rumbles out its melody through gentle variance, undulating conversations over the restless scars of violent pasts and fractured presents, the Troubles only ever across the nearby border. Stories are for the re-telling, yet the intrusion of telephone wires and <I>Blind Date</I> merely formalises the inevitable, the secularisation of ritual, and the dying of belief, if not yet habit. Already acclaimed as one of Ireland's leading writers for works such as <I>High Ground</I> and <I>Amongst Women</I>, to read this offering is to appreciate the unique beauty of the novel form, and the rare, bewitching talent of John McGahern. --<I>David Vincent</I> 1252866 2002 That They May Face the Rising Sun total:154|5:56|4:55|3:26|2:9|1:8| 154 604 372 32 5 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 11 08:39:30 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 16 19:24:37 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Nov 17 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 08:03:05 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 17 14:08:39 -0800 2008 That They May Face the Rising Sun less as a novel without a plot and more as a fictionalised anthropological study of rural Ireland. It's a lucid, serene rendering of the kind of place where I grew up: one governed by the rhythms of the landscape and circumscribed by so...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Mar 03 18:59:56 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 19:11:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 11:51:45 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 11:52:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 06 16:13:49 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 06 16:36:47 -0800 2007 The book moves slo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 04 11:01:11 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 11:03:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Mar 27 08:56:43 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 09:00:28 -0700 2009 This book is under a different title here in the States, something with "Lake" in the title. It's a quiet, compelling human novel set in Ireland. I loved it, much in the way I loved reading "Elegance of the Hedge...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 08 20:20:25 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 20:20:41 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Aug 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 19:29:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 19:31:15 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 07 07:11:29 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 20 05:35:21 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 27 02:48:46 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 11:26:26 -0800 2008 I liked this, it was a pleasant relaxing read, but that was all I got from it.
I think an ex-pat would get loads, I'm sure it would cause a bottle of Powers to be broken out in New York or Sydney, a moist eye and a whistling of Field...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 12 04:49:49 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 04:50:14 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 22 11:00:52 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 22 11:03:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 18:52:08 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 19:34:40 -0800 2009 5 0 true false Wed Sep 05 11:06:58 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 05 11:07:20 -0700 2007 1 0 false false Sat Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 13 19:46:10 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 20 12:27:47 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Jun 20 10:46:36 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 20 10:49:35 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Sat Sep 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 22 15:33:14 -0800 2008 Sat Sep 13 03:27:19 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Feb 12 14:05:09 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 14:05:09 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 18 14:20:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 18 14:26:01 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=79930