Book review: Amongst Women by John McGahern

By Philippa Tracy

On a recent trip to Dublin I picked up a copy of Amongst Women by John McGahern, considered his finest novel and described by some as a ‘masterpiece’. Written in 1990 but set in an unspecified time during the 20th century, it is a study of family life on a farm in rural Ireland. In particular, it is about Michael Moran, the patriarch.

Amongst Women became a local bestseller, was short-listed for the Booker Prize, made into a BBC mini-series and has been taught on the curriculum of the Irish Leaving Certificate.

In the opening few sentences, we learn that Moran, a “once powerful man,” is now weakened. He struggles with his role as a father. And as a husband to his second wife, Rose. He is blind to his own faults and humiliates Rose in any number of ways. He loves his children but also dominates, suffocates and hurts them; he is a tyrant who veers between passive aggression and actual violence. At his daughter’s wedding, Moran makes a long speech, “stressing the importance of the family.” Yet, his eldest son, Luke, escapes to England at a young age and ignores his father’s letters for years. He returns only once, for the wedding, but they do not reconcile.

Moran is a man of contradictions. He loves his family but crosses a line between boundaries and control. In trying to guide them, he hurts them and drives them away. He fought in the Irish War of Independence but is now cynical and refuses to take his IRA pension. ‘Some of our own johnnies in the top jobs instead of a few Englishmen. More than half of my own family work in England. What was it all for?’ By his own admission, Moran was ‘never any good at getting on with people.’ Rose stays with him and mitigates against the violence in the house. ‘Rose changed everything.’ But one by one the children move away to Dublin or London.

The novel explores the role of the father in Irish society, dealing explicitly with violence in families, through oppression, coercion and emotional abuse. Moran says at Sheila’s wedding that, ‘No one is ever lost to the family unless they want to be’. His second son, Michael, remarks, ‘I’m afraid we might all die in Ireland if we don’t get out fast.’ They all leave, and yet, strangely, ‘In London or Dublin the girls would look back to the house for healing.’

Moran is not the kind of male character I would normally have much sympathy for. However, there is something about the way McGahern writes that encourages empathy without judgement. It allows the reader to warm to Moran, to feel the poignancy of his difficult and painful relationships, without necessarily liking him. The female characters are relatable. This short novel is remarkably memorable and makes me wonder why it has taken me so long to discover this great Irish writer.