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The Dark

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John McGahern, The Dark (Panther, 1965)

John McGahern would seem to be another of those authors whose talent is lionized in his native land, but who never quite had Americans get the hang of his work (q.v. Margaret Laurence). The Dark, McGahern's second novel, is a fascinating portrait of adolescence that deserves far, far wider appreciation than it seems to have ever received.

McGahern's homeland of Ireland may have something to do with that. The Dark was banned not long after its release for its rather cavalier treatments of both sex and religion, and so a novel published almost forty years ago has actually had something less than that to make a name for itself. Someday, Oprah will discover this book and feature it in her book club, and well, McGahern will have it made.

Oprah couldn't not love this book. It's dysfunction central. The home depicted here won't be found in the bucolic emerald landscapes on sees in movies of the time. Here, we have the poor Depression-era Ireland, where the family burns peat and straw because it can't afford coal, instead. The nameless protagonist's mother is dead, presumably in childbirth. The father is both verbally and sexually abusive to his (uncounted, in the novel) children; explicitly to his son, implicitly to his daughters (though whether there is anything to this forms the crux of a scene much later on in the novel). There is much here to lay the groundwork for the main character of this novel to hate his father, but McGahern isn't going to take the easy way out, building a complex love/hate relationship between the main character and his father, complicated by both their feelings for Joan, the oldest daughter.

The book has rightly been compared to Joyce's Portrait of the Artist, though McGahern's prose is far clearer and less florid, almost minimal. His characters are beautifully drawn, real in every sense of the word, and it is impossible not to at least empathize with them. McGahern takes on the daunting task of telling a story with one main character and many different points of view, while keeping all those points of view sympathetic, as if he were telling the story from everyone's perspectives simultaneously. He pulls it off with great flair.

This is an uncomfortable book, to be sure, but it is a very good one, perhaps even a great one. Certainly one of the finer coming-of-age novels I've run across. ****

A poetically written story of a boy's coming of age in rural Ireland, "The Dark" is a journey through teenage years full of self doubt, sexual frustration and religious fear. The protagonist, whose name we're never actually told, is an intelligent boy who excels academically, though he doubts and fears his own future. He wonders if he should become a priest, go to the university to be a scientist, join the civil service or end up a potato farmer like his father. Through the years of indecision and study, the boy endures his widowed father's physical and verbal abuse. But as he grows older and learns more about the truth of the world, the past, present and future take on new perspectives and his relationship with his father changes from one of fear and hate to a subdued respect and love.

"The Dark" is lusciously written with a poetic grace hard to find in most contemporary novels. McGahern gently pulls the reader in, not only to the boy's psychological world, but also into the physical: the rural Irish landscape, the dark fearful Catholic confessional box and the squalid Irish farmhouse dominated by an abusive father. McGahern pulls you in, but does not need to hold you there; you'll stay of your own free will in this simultaneously simple and complex world, and find yourself haunted by it after you leave.

To some extent, banned books have a special place in my heart. I recall a local bookstore chain had a sign in its window that advertised a banned book sale. All of the titles on sale were banned at one time or another. One of the titles was THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. I decided to buy it, hoping my parents would take a fit and I could be a bit of a rebel. Both probably read the book and didn't even flinch an eye at their maverick son reading a forbidden book. Of course it was 1980, so it was hardly controversial anymore. A few days later, I had the book in school, and one of my favorite teachers complimented me on selecting a good book to read. She also suggested other titles which moved me past childhood books to more mature literature. In effect, her complimenting my reading selection was a significant step in my becoming an adult reader. Now when I see a banned book display, I often remember her, take a second look, and see what the banned books have to offer. More often than not only hype (the banning of some mediocre books made them instant best sellers).It is by taking a second look at a banned book display I discovered John McGahern's THE DARK.

I had heard of McGahern before, and actually own BY THE LAKE. When I learned that the book was banned in Ireland, I immediately thought it had to either offend Church leaders or mention sex. I also expected it to be somewhat shallow. Poking fun at the Church and Irish attitudes toward sex is so commonplace it is cliché. McGahern avoids this trap and writes a powerful coming of age tale that is both riveting and disturbing. The unnamed protagonist lives in an Ireland similar to the Ireland of ANGELA'S ASHES but unlike Frank McCourt, McGahern paints a portrait using sparse words to give vivid images of a country far behind the modern world. The young man's single father is abusive, yet also tender and loving, which leads to a rather complex and at times twisted love/hate relationship between father and son. While the portrait of the Church is hardly better than that of the overall picture of Ireland, the young man's place in the Church is unsettled as well. The priests and religious of THE DARK are more conflicted than the anti-sex clerics that populate so many books, usually by American authors trying to show their interpretation of Ireland and often do so in a one dimensional manner. Coming to terms with sexuality and attraction also plays a major role in this work, and we find a young man who is confused about normal adolescent feelings, but these confused feelings can at one moment be brutal, but also can be endearingly innocent, especially when he develops his first crushes on girls. We may wonder if the young man will eventually be a priest where he seems headed at times, or the university where he dreams of majoring in science. Readers hope he does not follow in the dead end footsteps of his father whose love and put downs both seem to motivate this determined young man. In order to discover which road he takes, read the book.

The pacing of this book is slow, but intentionally so. Readers get to savor McGahern's images and also enter into the mind of the character. The point of view can at time be confusing, but again this is more the intention of the author rather than a literary flaw. Some believe McGahern creates a picture of Ireland rarely seen. I am not sure that this is accurate. He is in keeping with the Ireland we find in the writings of James Joyce, and to a lesser extent Frank O'Connor, and shares their literary gifts.

"The Dark" is an interesting novel in that it starts out very dark and then works its way gradually toward the light. This very short novel can be completed in several hours of reading.

The novel starts with the young protagonist being abused both physically and sexually by his father. We are not told exactly how the sexual molestation takes place or the specific acts but we know that the father lifts his son's nightshirt and rubs his son's thighs and that the sheets in the morning are 'dirty with intimacy'. The father, Mahoney, is a violent tempered man, threatened by all about him, and capable of taking out all his frustrations and inadequacies out on his children.

The protagonist is lifted from this horrible situation by his cousin who is a Roman Catholic Priest and Father Benedict, the teacher in his school. Yet the cousin, an odd fellow, verges on the edge of seduction of the young protagonist also - though nothing is allowed to happen since our young protagonist gives every sign that he is not interested in being seduced.

The major thrust of the novel is upward as the protagonist grows up, strives for excellence in his studies, receives a scholarship, and then gives up the scholarship to go to Dublin for a job.

Yet, it is not the decision to give up a scholarship for work that brings this novel from the dark into the light; it is the act of forgiveness that the protagonist feels for his father for the violence and molestation he experienced in his youth. We don't have a lot of deep psychology here in this book, the forgiveness emerges gradually and concretely and we breathe a sign of release when father and son express that they both acknowledge and feel familial love for each other.

The book has not frills, no poetic language or philosophical diversions. The text is as straight forward as a Hemingway novel, with few adjectives and minimal concrete descriptors. Character is revealed by minimal actions of the players.

It is sometimes a real treat to be able to finish a short novel in a few hours, such is the case with "The Dark".

McGahern is a difficult author to read and takes time to deeply appreciate. The Dark explores the choices one makes in determining one's course in life. The hero of the novel struggles with the the Church's teachings and his lustful desires, which creates a very real tension. Reading the book will make you understand why it was widely banned for many years, and also appreciate McGahern's ability to capture pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Every time I read McGahern I feel as if Ireland has come alive before me. McGahern is a wonderful author and this book is vital to his body of literature.

Magnificent and truly dark. Yes, it is somewhat grim, but not every book and not every life has a happy ending.

I was looking forward to reading this based on the reviews but was quite disappointed. The books takes a lot for granted and makes jumps in the story that are not supported. If this represents John McGahern then I doubt I will be reading anything else from the author.

A short, ugly, sad account of a young Irish boy's progress through adolescence. Written in the Irish idiom, its meanings are difficult to understand especially to one speaking American English. A long struggle of a read ending in disappointment. I am of Irish descent and had hoped to learn something of the Irish culture. Unfortunately with that endeavor in mind I purchased three of his novels, I hope "The Dark" is not an indication of the content of the other two.