Customer Reviews

That They May Face the Rising Sun (Great Irish Writers)

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

 

 

As someone who was growing up in rural Ireland in the same period the novel is set I keep getting this feeling that McGahern was there with me at the time. Each carachter contains traits and elements of people I personally knew.Joe and Kate are left to remamin in the background as though they are the stage on which the others play . If you really want to know what life is like, and was like 10-20 years ago in rural Ireland this is the book. As someone who normally does not like novels without a fast moving plot or excitement I was amazed at how I was so drawn into the simple little plots. If you want to understand how people in rural Ireland think... this is the one... What Tarry Flynn was to its era this is to ours.

First the book, then the author.
this book is a description of ordinary, Irish rural life, set in the 1980s. There is very little by way of plot, it reflects the effect of the changing seasons on rural life and is interspersed with random events that do not form `plot points' but more resemble the happenings in real life. The beautiful descriptions of the changing face of the countryside, through the seasons, is the main draw of the book for me (but what is sedge?). The characters range from the strange yet endearing to the the hostile and repulsive. I think that both the central characters - Joe and Kate, and some of the more peripheral characters lack depth and credibility. Joe and Kate, are the perfect couple, accepting, living the rural `good life', having withdrawn from the sophisticated urban lifestyle.
The book itself has a curious emptiness, a passage describes Joe as believing his current contentment and absence of pain is what he will remember as happiness in the future, if and when, things take a turn for the worse. With the
core emptiness, comes a foreboding about the future. The character best drawn, in my view, in a simpleton - Bill Evans - who calls to Joe and Kate each day on his way to the well. Bill lives in the eternal present, neither reflective nor judgemental. I believe he is the metaphor for the book as a whole.

John MaGahern, is the last of the Greats. His early work, featuring clear eyed
descriptions of the abuses which were a hidden part of Irish life, were banned
in Ireland in the 1950s. Such was the power of the banning that MaGahern lost his teaching job and spent many years in hardship. His early work has been described (in retrospect) as the clarion call to honesty in the face of the unacceptable, which is the basic function of literature (think Solzhenitsyn).
Through the ordeal of his life - relative poverty, official rejection - he has maintained
a lack of bitterness towards official Ireland (church and state) which can either be
regarded as the product of brain-washing or magnanimity of a Mandela. This book has been described as his attempt to indicate how Irish society may work out a
reconciliation between its tradition and its reality, i.e. the traumas of modernisation and the revelation of official corruption have dethroned officially-defined church and state, and yet nothing has replaced the need for community spirituality. It has been said that this book is MaGahern's proposal in this regard.

This wonderful book is a delicate and honest snapshot of rural Irish community life on the brink of extinction. The young have moved on and the countryside is home to the ageing remnants of a people that survived hardship and poverty only to find that the modern world has no place for them. This is not a bitter book, but rather a requiem for a way of life that McGahern knew intimately. His prose style is understated and beautifully lyrical and its apparent lack of plot perfectly catches the circular nature of life. A haunting and beautiful read, I loved it.

I was so sad to hear of the death of this gentleman last year. I read this book, and his earlier books too. wrt:/'That they may face the rising sun', I agree with other reviews that now't happens in this book that you could recount to anyone, but the prose, the mood, etc makes it one of my favourites. Life affirming, gentle, genuine. Being irish myself I think I can relate to that disappearing world of decent, friendly humble and genuine people who built our country, like my own parents. For me, this book was an absolute joy to read, and profoundly moving, although I don't know why. It's on my favourites list, but once again I was genuinely gutted that the author passed on suddenly last year. May you rest with the angels Mr McGahern.

I was given this book as a present and not sure what to expect. As I read it I could relate to many of the images and idiosyncracies of the people. I initially was disappointed with the book but as I reflected on it, I thought in fact that I was the problem and not the book. In this age of fast living and hustle and bustle, this book is a superb gentle reminder of easy living and what life is all about. It captures rural living exactly as it is and was many years ago, and all in all an enjoyable reflective read. Life will not pass you by reading it.

A great writer. A great book. Through lovely language McGahern leads you into his world, with his people. Not a lot happens in the plot, but your feelings and caring expand and you become enhthralled. The American publishers made the unfortunate choice to rename the book with the prosaic "By the Lake." "That They May Face the Rising Sun" is the original and truer title.

There is no doubting this book is slow, not much actually happens but this is not to say it is a bad read. Slowly but surely the book progresses until you feel like a real local within the small rural Irish town.

The reader,like the newbies in the town - the Ruttledges who have moved to the small Irish town from London; is made to feel welcome but there are undercurrents in the relationships and histories between the charactors of the town that you can really only grapple as you spend time with them, so by the end of the book you feel apart of the community yourself and fully appreciate the ebbs and flows, the innocence and good nature of the place. It is a written record of a small local Irish town, of a moment in time about to end.

This book will not be for everybody. I must admit that I stopped and started the book many times, but I am glad in the end that I persevered and finished it.

I have enjoyed every page of That They May Face the Rising Sun after discovering John McGahern a few weeks ago and scouring Pattaya, Thailand's used-book stores. The Barracks, The Pornographer, and the stories in High Ground are remarkable and worth rereading, but That They May Face the Rising Sun is pure reading pleasure. I don't know when I have enjoyed the flow of words on a page in the way this novel pleases. I tried to hold off, but I am rereading it after only a week.

These characters are real grownups, living their lives and caring for each other. Joe and Kate Ruttledge love and accept their neighbors the way they are. The author reveals what he thinks about some of the less illustrious neighbors and their politics.

Great deal so I could get a few copies for our book club. Thank you