Amazon.com: The Leavetaking (9780704331259): John McGahern: Books

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5.0 out of 5 stars In his Irish mind, December 23, 2011

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nonpareil (rural New England, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leavetaking (Mass Market Paperback)

There is little question that McGahern's highly-touted writing is autobiographical. That bothers me only because he so belabors what's in his mind; it is not creative but ruminative. To me the value is that he has some special ability to ponder then express his thoughts in a particularly lucid manner, and that he chronicles Irish life of his time - not just physical and social details, but the overall emotional climate. In those regards he is a great craftsman.

In "The Leavetaking" he deals primarily with teaching in Catholic Ireland where the state is paying but allowing the clergy to make all their Rome-directed, hate-filled, hide-bound decisions that in no way follow the teachings of Christ. The other theme, of course, is the lingering, never resolved aftermath of McGahern's mother's death, woven into the mindcloth of the protagonist. The scene is set: you, the reader, are in the Ireland of the time, then in London with the leavetaker, then flowing into the rest of your life.

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I watch a gull's shadow float among feet on the concrete as I walk in a day of my life with a bell, its brass tongue in my hand, and think after all that the first constant was water. Read the first page

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New York, Father Curry, Stag's Head, Mother Mary Martin, Sacred Heart, Dress Dance, Holland Park, James Sharkey

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