This story of a retired Irish guerrilla leader from the War of Independence could be a story from almost any home. The elderly farmer is a moody, embittered and difficult man, but on some level a caring father and husband, as well. His three daughters, second wife, and two sons revolve in orbit around his gravitational force, and the product is a complex, often sad picture of family life. In this subtle character study, there is much to consider about the social roles of women and men, about dutiful family membership, about what it means to grow up and establish an identity as an adult. These people, with all their flaws, will stay with me a long time. ( )

Irish family story about forgiveness and how hard that can be to accept. ( )

It's been some time since I've read 'The leavetaking' my only other foray into McGahern territory. This novel revolves around Michael Moran an ex-irish guerilla fighter in Ireland's war for independence from British rule. The somewhat embittered Moran has retired to a farm to raise his family on his own--his first wife having died. Eventually he meets Rose who he marries but she soon finds that Moran is a man of somewhat abrupt and violent mood changes--more psychologically violent than physically violent but sometimes both. Rose and Moran eventually come to an understanding but much of the book also focuses on Moran's children--the oldest boy Luke after having quarreled violently with his father has gone off to London to never return, his three daughters, Maggie, Sheila and Mona and his youngest son Michael. Moran is perhaps too proud in it a go it your own way and for the most part keeps his neighbors at a distance. Rose's introduction into the family however becomes a way for the girls to break free of the tight rein Moran holds over them. Rose encourages them to look after their futures in a world beyond the farm--something that Moran struggles with but submits to finally because logically (and Moran is logical) it's for their best and eventually off they go to lives in Dublin and in London to start careers and families. The younger son Michael left on his own with his father and stepmother then becomes their sole focus and Michael missing his sisters and bored to death alone on the farm with his parents surreptitiously drops out of school and starts drinking and chasing after women. This eventually leads to a blow-up and Michael's departure from the scene to London too. As much though as Moran has the household much of the time on edge he cares deeply for his wife and children and those feelings are reciprocated in kind. He is a difficult man mired in the past and not always very easy for his family to understand. They cope with him almost as if with somebody very ill and eventually he does become ill and dies from a series of small strokes.

Sometimes it is small themes that make a good novel--sometimes it's the subtle touches the writer uses that gives a story its strength. For instance every night the Moran family sit down to say their rosary--Moran is traditional in just about everything he does. Rejecting the new ways--compromising only when he has to to hold together his family--the children looking to the new ways and trying to hold on to some of the old. A family in flux you might say. This is very believable and is well told. ( )