Memoir

Rural Ireland during and after the Second World War is well-documented, not least in the novels and short stories of John McGahern, but this memoir of his childhood in County Leitrim is both moving and quietly devastating.

McGahern was the oldest child in a large family. His mother was a teacher, his father a police sergeant who often lived apart from the rest of the family in barracks. John (Sean) idolised his mother, enjoying their walks to school down country lanes and going to town together. 'Everywhere people stopped her, and she'd smile and listen and give words of sympathy or congratulation or encouragement, and people looked happier when they left us.'

Such happiness was short-lived. McGahern's mother died after a protracted fight with cancer when Sean was 10, leaving the children to the mercies of their father. It is clear from the correspondence between his parents that Sean's mother went to great diplomatic lengths to appease her husband, protect her children or get her own way. Without her intervention to depend on, the children were prey to the wrath of their father.

McGahern is fascinating about his father. At times a loving and charming man, he was nevertheless a violent bully who would turn against his family with the least provocation. At other times he would try to wheedle his way into their affections. As a result, a climate of fear existed in the barracks, which had the effect of drawing the older children together into a supportive alliance against their father.

As Sean grew older, and stronger, he was able to defy his father on his own behalf and the behalf of his brothers and sisters. One by one the children left home to escape their father, many of them bound for England.

McGahern's subsequent career, first as a teacher, then a navvy on London's building sites, and later as a writer, is treated briefly in the book, but he is as scathing about the establishment and the Church as he is about his father. He describes Ireland as a childish country back then, but in spite of this he chose to return to the country of his childhood to live and write until his death in 2006.

This wonderful book, which recounts his story in an unimpassioned but beautifully moving voice, is as fine an evocation of a life as you will ever read.