Comments on: John McGahern dies

By: Garreth

Garreth — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 04:59:59 +0000

Can’t help you on Stembridge, as I’ve only seen one urban play of his in The Peacock (forget the title), and his TV movie about news of the impending arrival of asylum seekers in a locality and its impact on the villagers. I also saw a play by Bolger in The Peacock (forget that title too), which has an urban setting. Bolger’s two novels, The Journey Home, and Father’s Music, were interesting reads. I think Bolger is the urban Irish writer to watch. Thanks for your comments on McGahern’s other writings. Banville is probably our most accomplished living novelist, but I have hopes for future greatness from Colm Toibin and Joseph O’Connor, both of whom have written well so far.

By: empirestateview

empirestateview — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:18:34 +0000

I see Garreth’s point on this. McGahern did not approach contemporary urban society in his writing - the short stories and the Pornographer dealt with Dubin of the 1960s and 1970s in a memorable way, but only with a small sliver of that society, and they didn’t try to do more than that. I admire Bolger’s writing, but I have a lot of difficulty seeing anything other than novelty value in Stembridge. His plays have been dreadful. Apart from the novel published as a serial in The Dubliner, could you recommend any other examples of his fiction that I might have a look at, Gareth? I did admire him hugely as a satirist in the early 90s (and his work in the 80s was superb and sharp also) but I think he has sold out at this stage.
By the way, I would argue that The Barracks, The Leavetaking and a number of the short stories (particularly Gold Watch) also occupy a place of prominence in McGahern’s oeuvre. While we’re talking quality, importance, etc, that is.

By: Garreth

Garreth — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 06:42:17 +0000

I’m not comparing like with like. I’m simply saying that McGahern is responding to the social realities of rural society; whereas Bolger and Stembridge are responding to the grim dysfunctional realities of contemporary Irish urban society. I agree that in his final two novels, McGahern achieves “another order of both quality and importance”. Bolger and Stembridge still have many years in which to aspire towards a higher level in their themes. Literary commentators have often remarked that a lot of twentieth century Irish writing is concerned with rural themes. The urban dimension to Irish society has been increasing in importance and we can expect literature to reflect this.