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A review by inspiredbygrass
Amongst Women by John McGahern
4.0
There's so much in this book , really no more on the surface than an undramatic portrait of a family living in rural Ireland in the 1960s and the decades before . Little plot either as nothing has happened to the family's patriarch since his Republican fighting days, which is the whole point . Here is a man whose actions in the conflicts remain unsaid and unexamined , who forbids discussion of the past and dominates his five children and his second patient and calm wife .
Themes of trauma , inarticulately , fear and control are explored as we see how the children react to his rule and quick temper . There is estrangement , anger and submission but the step mother's constancy allows 4 of the 5 children to understand the need for compassion despite being victims of his obstinacy and dominance .
The apparent passivity of the women is not an easy read for a contemporary reader but in witnessing their submissiveness we understand that, as a group, they have managed to tame the father whist still keeping love at the centre of their actions . It's a portrait of resistance and patience in a context where women had few options. Inevitably we conclude that they are ambivalent to acts of rebellion as the new nation state , which is above question given their fathers role , has given them few options except to be dutiful , obedient and respectful .
Above all the book is about stagnation and the dangers of closed thinking . The farm on which they live is unmodernised and the rural society unchanging . The children leave to find work either in Dublin or England and one daughter is prevented from achieving her full potential by her father's passive aggression . One daughter falls for a fellow Irishman in London who is not of the right sort which is bad enough but but when one son marries an English woman the family close ranks against her as the inchoate grief of the past determines present actions.
Themes of trauma , inarticulately , fear and control are explored as we see how the children react to his rule and quick temper . There is estrangement , anger and submission but the step mother's constancy allows 4 of the 5 children to understand the need for compassion despite being victims of his obstinacy and dominance .
The apparent passivity of the women is not an easy read for a contemporary reader but in witnessing their submissiveness we understand that, as a group, they have managed to tame the father whist still keeping love at the centre of their actions . It's a portrait of resistance and patience in a context where women had few options. Inevitably we conclude that they are ambivalent to acts of rebellion as the new nation state , which is above question given their fathers role , has given them few options except to be dutiful , obedient and respectful .
Above all the book is about stagnation and the dangers of closed thinking . The farm on which they live is unmodernised and the rural society unchanging . The children leave to find work either in Dublin or England and one daughter is prevented from achieving her full potential by her father's passive aggression . One daughter falls for a fellow Irishman in London who is not of the right sort which is bad enough but but when one son marries an English woman the family close ranks against her as the inchoate grief of the past determines present actions.