Customer Reviews

Amongst Women

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in rural Ireland, this uncompromising family drama revolves around Michael Moran, the father of five. A member of the IRA during the time of The Troubles, years ago, Michael has apparently repressed violent traumas which, we are led to believe, are responsible for his withdrawal from society and his current violence against his family--it is not the result of drink or the frustrations of poverty. Now the father of teenage children, he is disillusioned by what he sees as the fruits of this war, remarking, "Look at the country now. Run by a crowd of small-minded gangsters out for their own good."

Within his own household, Michael upholds all the values he fought for years ago. He's a hard, independent man, beholden to no one, and his word is law. To his family, however, he is often a tyrant--obstinate, cruel, full of hatred, quick to anger, and reluctant to apologize-and his second wife Rose his three daughters, and his two sons are "inordinately grateful for the slightest good will." Outwardly religious, Michael daily recites the Rosary, looking for religious help for his inner turmoil and the complications of his daily life. As he says, "the war was the best part of our lives. Things were never so simple and clear again."

With a main character who is never endearing, McGahern challenges the reader to empathize with Michael and understand why the women in his family remain tied to him emotionally, even after they have successfully escaped his domination and established independent lives away from the farm. Gradually, the reader begins to understand the overpowering need to form connections with the past, even when it is not pleasant--to forgive one's parents for their limitations while remaining strong and faithful to oneself. In clear, straightforward prose of immense power, McGahern piles mundane detail upon detail, creating a sensitive family story of great universality, one which will give the reader much to ponder. Mary Whipple

This story of the proud Morans is an excellent portrayal of the power of the patriarch who, although dysfunctional, manages to exert a strong influence on all of his children whether it be the girls - who continue to return home regularly, or the boys - who cope through exiling themselves either physically or by taking refuge in the garden. Although it starts off slowly, it doesn't take long for each character to assert him/herself and for Moran Sr. to exercise his particular power over not only all members of the family but the reader too. The simplest but best written novel I have read in a long time and I'm a voracious reader.

John McGahern's "Amongst Women" is a novel I readily identify with. The truths it reveals about family ties and the needless pain and suffering they sometimes engender are universal, cutting across all cultures. The story may be set in Ireland and specifically about the Morans, but all through the book, I was keenly aware of some home truths which McGahern deftly delivers and gives the novel its special poignance. Humanity is presented in all its ordinariness and with stark realism. The patriach may seem a tyrant in Great Meadows. The state of his family's emotional wellbeing fluctuates according to his mood swings. His second wife is a saint. She bears with and makes excuses for him. With mutual moral support, his daughters help hold the family together. The boys rebel to different degrees, leading to different outcomes. Is old man Moran to blame ? Yes and no. There are always reasons for everything. It's the way life is. McGahern's novel hints at Irish/English hostilities and we understand that this has played its part in Moran's character development. There are few dramatic highs and lows. Events march to the normal tempo of life. McGahern's prose is plain, straightforward and true. As in real life, the novel is not neatly segmented into chapters. The storytelling is seamless and timeless. The setting is fairly modern but the attitude strangely conservative. Maybe that's intentional. Maybe not. "Amongst Women" isn't going to grab you by the collar but it will grow on you. It's a Booker Prize nominee and a Irish Literary Award winner. A worthy read.

Although Moran keeps high opinion of family he seems to keep distance even from the people he loves. He is almost unable to express love he feels either to his children or to his second wife Rose. There is one of the images of his complete loneliness and of his inability to move out from his shell, which is also partly caused by his superiority: `Moran ate alone in front of the big sideboard mirror, waited on apprehensively by the girls. After he had eaten, they had their own dinner at the side table.' (p. 35)
Rose accepts the role of mother for Moran' s children winning them over completely. She often stands between Moran and his children and works as a negotiator, alleviates their mutual disputes and discrepancies. We can also see both sides of Moran's personality through her eyes. She observes his peculiar nature and negative influence of his bad mood on his children: `For her there was always a strange excitement in his presence of something about to happen. Nothing was ever still. She felt inordinately grateful when he behaved normally.' (p. 58) She balances Moran's changeable behaviour with equable and calm nature and keep the family together.
It is important to realize how substantial the sense of togetherness is in the novel. Despite Moran's bitterness and unpredictable reactions he realizes that family is the most important thing in his life. He always highlights the necessity of mutual help under one roof: `Alone we might be nothing. Together we can do anything.' (p. 84) For Moran and subsequently for the whole family religious rituals represent a very important substance of their cohesiveness. The reader must also notice Moran's painful awareness of Luke's absence and the fragility of the relationship between him and his children. Ironically, Rose, a new member of the family, cements the Morans and becomes an integral part of their family. Moran's children always have the place where they can return to and find someone who loves them.

If you have any interest in contemporary Irish literature, John McGahern will not disappoint. I have read all of his books and they are fabulous. This one especially.

John McGahern's "Amongst Women" begins slowly, but after a certain point, I really became caught up in it. The book is very well-written; it's lyrical and much of what's going on happens below the surface.

"Amongst Women" reads like an unflinching memoir. And in many ways, it is. The main character, Michael Moran, is for all intents and purposes McGahern's father, an ex-Republican, separated from the rest of the community, and known for being harsh to his children. And McGahern is essentially Luke. (Though, unlike that gentleman, McGahern did come home from time-to-time on short visits and did wind up moving back to Ireland as he got older.) Quite a bit seems to have been drawn from the author's real life.

However, at times, it's hard to feel sympathy for Moran. Yes, he has PTSD, but the way he treats his children drives them away, especially keeping Sheila from going to university. That action and both of the times he snaps at Rose really makes Moran hard to like. Also, not much happens. It's lyrical and floats along, but there's very little plot.

The story of a proud, charismatic, but occasionally brutal Irish war hero and his three daughters, two sons, and second wife, written with a purity of voice and clarity of conviction as spell-binding as the invisible bonds around their family.

This book is an eyes-wide-open look at the dynamic relationships in a family. A farmer makes a mid-life marriage to a younger woman. He is stunningly self-absorbed; she is the "old maid" of the town and very anxious to please. His motherless and intimidated children see the new wife as an ally. The story, which goes to his death, tracks power and allegiances as they shift among husband, wife, and children. The author outlines these relationships with hard-eyed realism--yet the characters are drawn with passion and intensity. The reader often stops and says, "Yes that is how it is." A lot of family linen is aired in this short book. The family is Irish, but it is a very old and universal story.

John McGahern. Probably the most distinguished of that heady band of potato laureates that include the likes of William Trevor. Amongst Women is a fine novel centering around Moran, a curmudgeonly old Irish Republican who dominates his family by sheer force of will despite being superannuated in his strength and his convictions, and his accomplishments are long behind him. In return, his daughters and saintly wife both love and are maddened by him in equal measure. The novel circulates around various members of Moran's family, especially his feisty daughters, with their loves, their rural rituals and their quintessentially rural stifling love that clasps them to their close, limited, family communities yet also drives them away to seek furtherance of their hearts desires.

McGahern is an accomplished stylist. The novel is full of perceptual triumphs that capture the small epiphanies, observations and sadnesses of quotidian lives. Food plays a big part, there are many spare yet sublimely elegant descriptions of white tablecloths being stretched out and food being brought forth for family reunions.

Despite much to acclaim in this novel, I didn't find it a masterpiece, as claimed on the blurb of my edition by John Banville (who I suspect of having pot laureate aspirations himself). The prose purrs beautifully and efficiently, without ever soaring to the heights of those very brilliant and very rare masterpieces of gentle understated literature. A novel that will satisfy rather than enthrall.

This extremely well written book carefully crafts the relationship between an aging Irish father and his daughters. This book is a real treat.