What do you think?
Rate this book
Close to the sun Again
Book by Callaghan, Morley
Paperback
Published January 1, 1978
About the author
Morley Callaghan
70 books50 followersEdward Morley Callaghan was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and TV and radio personality.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 20, 2017
This novel is written by a well-known Canadian and is one of his later efforts published in 1977. It is clearly neither as well known nor as celebrated as some of his earlier work which includes “Such is My Beloved”, “They Shall Inherit the Earth” and “More Joy in Heaven”, but it is a book which still has something important to say.
Ira Groome was an archeology student who joined the navy after he had an altercation with his superior at a dig site in the Yucatan and was subsequently dismissed. He was wounded early in the war and lay in a coma close to death, but recovered and returned to the war. On his first crossing after his hospital stay, his vessel was sunk and following that horrific incident Ira underwent a remarkable change. He had always been a very human man, someone who hung out and joked with his men. But now he no longer had time for them. He became much stricter and more impersonal and showed little patience for sentiment. As the youngest commander doing convoy work in the North Atlantic, Ira won several decorations and was quickly promoted, but his men worried that because his personality had changed so much, his future would not be as bright after the war. However, things turned out well for Ira. He married a beautiful woman named Julia, had a son and embarked on a very successful business career that made him wealthy. Contrary to predictions, the qualities that had made him successful in the navy also brought him success in the business world.
Ira has just resigned from the Brazilian Power Company and returned to Canada. He has been shaken by the death of his alcoholic wife and the question she posed to him on her deathbed. It was a simple question: “Where did you go Ira?” He has been thinking about her parting words and they bother him. He wonders what answer he could have given her, uncertain what it should be. He has everything a man could want -- money, power, influence, a lovely home and as many women as he can handle. But he feels that in some ways, life has passed him by and with no personal involvement with anyone, he is bored. He has decided that on returning to his home country, he will try to gain some understanding of himself and find out what has made him so cold and closed from people these last thirty years. His new position as a municipal Police Commissioner, although well below his capabilities, will give him the time and opportunity to reconsider his life. But Ira finds he has trouble remembering much of it, as if he had blanked it out because it was too painful to remember.
Ira’s perplexity and unrest has led to a steady increase in his alcohol consumption and what started out as a way to change his demeanor and make him more cheerful, has quickly become a habit. He requires a number of short stays at Maplewood, a private rest home where he spends time drying out and then quickly returns to work. But on his last trip he had a bad automobile accident and he now lies recovering from his wounds. As he convalesces, he experiences a series of flashbacks from his experience on the Atlantic, when his ship picked up two survivors from a vessel hit by a torpedo. The man and woman were suffering badly from hypothermia as they sat marooned out on the water waiting for rescue. As the couple gradually recovered on Ira’s ship, they made friends with those on board and soon became part of the ship’s family.
They were an unusual couple. Gina Bixby was twenty, the pretty daughter of a flashy mobster. Jethro Chone was a tall, beefy, muscular man who was her father’s bodyguard. He had watchful eyes and always kept Gina close. The two were running from gang members determined to collect on her father’s gambling debt and were always watching for those pursuing them. They had been on the run since they left New York and were headed to London to meet up with Gina’s father.
Ira developed a protective relationship with Gina who told him she was frightened of Chone and wanted to get away from him. As the long days on the ship pass, Ira and Gina shared stories of their past lives and began to feel closer to one another. Ira shared with Gina his love of poetry and his experience as an archeologist. She described her life at Smith College, her love of writing and her desire to be a sportswriter. She told Ira about the corrupt world of boxing, the world in which her father was immersed and she also shared the disturbing incident that had tied her to Chone. Ira spent time fantasizing about Gina and how she would fit into the new life they would create together as they made plans to meet in London when the ship docked.
But Ira’s ship was attacked by a U-boat and as the crew gathered on a lifeboat, Gina chose to go off with Chone despite Ira’s pleas for her to stay with him. Both Ira and Clone subsequently drowned in the icy waters.
Ira is devastated by the trauma and puzzled by the love-hate relationship between Gina and Chone. He simply could not understand it.
Ira reacted to this difficult experience by distancing himself from those around him, deliberately avoiding close involvement with anyone. He wanted to protect himself from experiencing such hurt again but became a man ruled by his head and never by his heart. This way of working and living brought him success in the business world. But it also meant he had turned his back on the perplexity and mystery of people, the thing that made life an interesting and meaningful adventure.
This sentimental offering from Callaghan is less well known among his many works, but is still written in his understated and direct prose. He has always had an ability to present ordinary characters with human flaws and describe their struggles with relationships and complex issues. His characters often reach a point in their lives when they believe there is something more than the humdrum existence they have experienced and so set out on a quest for meaning. This novel is built on a similar theme as Ira realizes his life has lacked passion and joy. The epiphany he receives as he lies recovering is enough to give him peace and he dies shortly thereafter.
This is not my favorite Callaghan novel, but it was worth the journey to explore the author’s other work. For those interested in his large body of writing, the novels mentioned at the top of this review more successfully reveal the talent of this great Canadian writer.
Ira Groome was an archeology student who joined the navy after he had an altercation with his superior at a dig site in the Yucatan and was subsequently dismissed. He was wounded early in the war and lay in a coma close to death, but recovered and returned to the war. On his first crossing after his hospital stay, his vessel was sunk and following that horrific incident Ira underwent a remarkable change. He had always been a very human man, someone who hung out and joked with his men. But now he no longer had time for them. He became much stricter and more impersonal and showed little patience for sentiment. As the youngest commander doing convoy work in the North Atlantic, Ira won several decorations and was quickly promoted, but his men worried that because his personality had changed so much, his future would not be as bright after the war. However, things turned out well for Ira. He married a beautiful woman named Julia, had a son and embarked on a very successful business career that made him wealthy. Contrary to predictions, the qualities that had made him successful in the navy also brought him success in the business world.
Ira has just resigned from the Brazilian Power Company and returned to Canada. He has been shaken by the death of his alcoholic wife and the question she posed to him on her deathbed. It was a simple question: “Where did you go Ira?” He has been thinking about her parting words and they bother him. He wonders what answer he could have given her, uncertain what it should be. He has everything a man could want -- money, power, influence, a lovely home and as many women as he can handle. But he feels that in some ways, life has passed him by and with no personal involvement with anyone, he is bored. He has decided that on returning to his home country, he will try to gain some understanding of himself and find out what has made him so cold and closed from people these last thirty years. His new position as a municipal Police Commissioner, although well below his capabilities, will give him the time and opportunity to reconsider his life. But Ira finds he has trouble remembering much of it, as if he had blanked it out because it was too painful to remember.
Ira’s perplexity and unrest has led to a steady increase in his alcohol consumption and what started out as a way to change his demeanor and make him more cheerful, has quickly become a habit. He requires a number of short stays at Maplewood, a private rest home where he spends time drying out and then quickly returns to work. But on his last trip he had a bad automobile accident and he now lies recovering from his wounds. As he convalesces, he experiences a series of flashbacks from his experience on the Atlantic, when his ship picked up two survivors from a vessel hit by a torpedo. The man and woman were suffering badly from hypothermia as they sat marooned out on the water waiting for rescue. As the couple gradually recovered on Ira’s ship, they made friends with those on board and soon became part of the ship’s family.
They were an unusual couple. Gina Bixby was twenty, the pretty daughter of a flashy mobster. Jethro Chone was a tall, beefy, muscular man who was her father’s bodyguard. He had watchful eyes and always kept Gina close. The two were running from gang members determined to collect on her father’s gambling debt and were always watching for those pursuing them. They had been on the run since they left New York and were headed to London to meet up with Gina’s father.
Ira developed a protective relationship with Gina who told him she was frightened of Chone and wanted to get away from him. As the long days on the ship pass, Ira and Gina shared stories of their past lives and began to feel closer to one another. Ira shared with Gina his love of poetry and his experience as an archeologist. She described her life at Smith College, her love of writing and her desire to be a sportswriter. She told Ira about the corrupt world of boxing, the world in which her father was immersed and she also shared the disturbing incident that had tied her to Chone. Ira spent time fantasizing about Gina and how she would fit into the new life they would create together as they made plans to meet in London when the ship docked.
But Ira’s ship was attacked by a U-boat and as the crew gathered on a lifeboat, Gina chose to go off with Chone despite Ira’s pleas for her to stay with him. Both Ira and Clone subsequently drowned in the icy waters.
Ira is devastated by the trauma and puzzled by the love-hate relationship between Gina and Chone. He simply could not understand it.
Ira reacted to this difficult experience by distancing himself from those around him, deliberately avoiding close involvement with anyone. He wanted to protect himself from experiencing such hurt again but became a man ruled by his head and never by his heart. This way of working and living brought him success in the business world. But it also meant he had turned his back on the perplexity and mystery of people, the thing that made life an interesting and meaningful adventure.
This sentimental offering from Callaghan is less well known among his many works, but is still written in his understated and direct prose. He has always had an ability to present ordinary characters with human flaws and describe their struggles with relationships and complex issues. His characters often reach a point in their lives when they believe there is something more than the humdrum existence they have experienced and so set out on a quest for meaning. This novel is built on a similar theme as Ira realizes his life has lacked passion and joy. The epiphany he receives as he lies recovering is enough to give him peace and he dies shortly thereafter.
This is not my favorite Callaghan novel, but it was worth the journey to explore the author’s other work. For those interested in his large body of writing, the novels mentioned at the top of this review more successfully reveal the talent of this great Canadian writer.
August 9, 2017
Ira Groome, decorated naval officer, highly successful business executive, and remote personality given to freezing out anyone close to him rather than allowing emotional connections, begins to wonder why he changed and suddenly begins to rediscover what happened. The story begins in a recognizable upper-class 1970s Toronto and plunges back in time into the wartime North Atlantic.
Callaghan wrote this with marvellous economy of language. All the characters are credible although Groome himself is portrayed in broad, even extreme strokes. The descriptions of physical settings are brief but powerful. The dialogue is full of off-centre, unexpected responses that mirror the imprecise exchanges of real life yet somehow convey rich meaning. The story gathers intensity as it develops, tinged all the way by forebodings of fate and human mystery.
The omniscient narrator may be a bit too omniscient for modern tastes and there's a whiff of Hemingway in some of the prose (and possibly Hugh Hood). But anyone who wants to write novels, and write them about real people, should read this book. It's a shame that in 40 years it has been so forgotten that Goodreads does not even list the 1977 Macmillan Signet Book paperback edition that I picked up shortly after reading the initial highly positive reviews. Remember liking it back then; was probably more impressed this time around than at first reading, which is a sign of quality.
Callaghan wrote this with marvellous economy of language. All the characters are credible although Groome himself is portrayed in broad, even extreme strokes. The descriptions of physical settings are brief but powerful. The dialogue is full of off-centre, unexpected responses that mirror the imprecise exchanges of real life yet somehow convey rich meaning. The story gathers intensity as it develops, tinged all the way by forebodings of fate and human mystery.
The omniscient narrator may be a bit too omniscient for modern tastes and there's a whiff of Hemingway in some of the prose (and possibly Hugh Hood). But anyone who wants to write novels, and write them about real people, should read this book. It's a shame that in 40 years it has been so forgotten that Goodreads does not even list the 1977 Macmillan Signet Book paperback edition that I picked up shortly after reading the initial highly positive reviews. Remember liking it back then; was probably more impressed this time around than at first reading, which is a sign of quality.
September 23, 2025
While on vacation in the Bruce Peninsula I came across this book in a road side "Little Library". I have long wanted to read a book by Morley Callaghan as he is often mentioned in the canon of Canadian Literature. In the novel the main character Ira Groome, after a long and successful career, contemplates his choices and the reader is left wondering how those choices affected him. The story of Ira Groome is engaging and reminds us that the choices we make are significant and and the outcomes substantial.
P.S. And after reading the book I deposited in another roadside little library in the Bruce Peninsula.
P.S. And after reading the book I deposited in another roadside little library in the Bruce Peninsula.
November 12, 2012
This beautifully written story provided a great read for Remembrance Day 2012.2012.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews