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keepingupwiththepenguins's review against another edition
3.0
My full review of Amongst Women is available on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
I kept waiting for the “clang” that never really came. Amongst Women was, in short, the story of a traumatised veteran abusing and manipulating his whole family until the day he died. All the women he was amongst just made excuses for him and cleaned up after him, keeping the peace instead of calling him out. It’s a heart-breakingly familiar and relatable narrative, but in that sense it’s also really frustrating. Amongst Women is well written but it's not a satisfactory story: it’s a depressing window into a dysfunctional family in a small Irish town.
I kept waiting for the “clang” that never really came. Amongst Women was, in short, the story of a traumatised veteran abusing and manipulating his whole family until the day he died. All the women he was amongst just made excuses for him and cleaned up after him, keeping the peace instead of calling him out. It’s a heart-breakingly familiar and relatable narrative, but in that sense it’s also really frustrating. Amongst Women is well written but it's not a satisfactory story: it’s a depressing window into a dysfunctional family in a small Irish town.
agusyesbean's review against another edition
5.0
"Time should have stopped with the clocks but instead it moved in a glazed dream of tiredness without their ticking insistence."
———
'Amongst Women' is about family, home, tradition, regret, mistakes, loss, love, the passage of time, anger and bitter consequences. In each character I saw people from my own life, and I saw myself. In many ways nothing has changed between my childhood on an Irish farm, and the characters so many decades before. My own family experience and stories that were passed down to me, together, *was* 'Amongst Women'. Somehow it is both an incredibly niche and specific story, and a universal one all at once. Every word McGahern used was so carefully and expertly placed, the setting so vivid even while vague. There were moments to laugh at or be shocked by, moments of the most tender domesticity and moments that brought me to tears.
For some reason I cannot quite put into words expactky how I feel now that I've finished it, there is so much to say and yet so little that could really be added. So I offer a quote from the back of my edition which I find especially true;
"A book that can be read in two hours, but will linger in the mind for decades." (Sunday Telegraph)
———
'Amongst Women' is about family, home, tradition, regret, mistakes, loss, love, the passage of time, anger and bitter consequences. In each character I saw people from my own life, and I saw myself. In many ways nothing has changed between my childhood on an Irish farm, and the characters so many decades before. My own family experience and stories that were passed down to me, together, *was* 'Amongst Women'. Somehow it is both an incredibly niche and specific story, and a universal one all at once. Every word McGahern used was so carefully and expertly placed, the setting so vivid even while vague. There were moments to laugh at or be shocked by, moments of the most tender domesticity and moments that brought me to tears.
For some reason I cannot quite put into words expactky how I feel now that I've finished it, there is so much to say and yet so little that could really be added. So I offer a quote from the back of my edition which I find especially true;
"A book that can be read in two hours, but will linger in the mind for decades." (Sunday Telegraph)
staceghost's review against another edition
4.0
In comparison to what I have read of John McGahern up to this point, I think this novel in particular emphasizes the importance of space and time. By that, I mean that Mr. McGahern is masterful at expressing mortality, the tension and love involved in family, and the ways in which a place can hold all the complexities and power of an idea, philosophy, whatever you want to call it. I liked this book less than By the Lake, but only because I can more completely put myself in the place of outsiders than natives. In any case, Mr. McGahern once again inspires me to live the deceptively simple and emotionally fraught life he imbues his characters with in each of his novels.
ptrmsschrs's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ameliaminamikoji's review
3.5
'He had never realised when he was in the midst of confident life what an amazing glory he was part of.'
littlesophie's review against another edition
3.0
Well written and accomplished, but really didn't knock me out.
tonnypetrova's review
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
comradegodzilla's review against another edition
2.0
I can appreciate the simple prose in this novel, but overall I wasn't taken in by the plot. The novel seemed to be another story of a patriarchal family being overshadowed by the head of the household. While many other books have done this before, amongst women does this in a unique way by showing confrontation between the male and female children with the father. However, despite its different approach in reconciling a patriarchal family, I couldn't help but be bored throughout the novel. I was hoping for more reflection of how being Irish would shape the family. Though, I suppose the point of the novel is that families in Ireland have become isolated and broken after the Irish revolution. The author does this very subtly, and maybe that's the brilliance of it, but overall it did not enthrall me.