Reviews

The Barracks by John McGahern

ronanmcd's review

emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoy McGahern's writing usually. But not so much this. It's a seminal work, but I feel it's one that set the template for what followed. As in his books, nothing much happens other than all of life. It's evocative, a lost time that looks back on other lost times. But ultimately it felt a little flat compared to the rich communities he went on to build in books like That They May Face the Rising Sun.

roisin_prendergast's review against another edition

5.0

Really intimate view into a family home; the ritual of domesticity - the way in which it is at times a saving grace - the threat of sickness and the shadow that looms when it is found out. A simple story full of so much basic human emotion that it lends layers to the darkest depths.

rwalsh04's review

4.0

A simple story of a dying middle aged woman. Sentimental, but also frightening. And it ends with uncomfortable uncertainty.

finbarros_33's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

avethehuman's review

4.0

Dismal, and a funnyish. Mostly just sad though.