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For THE FREE LANCE-STAR
In award-winning John McGahern's newest book, "All Will Be Well," he writes a memoir of his own life in rural Ireland as the oldest of seven children.
As a master of the written word, McGahern paints a picture of the landscape so vivid that you can almost smell the grasses and pick the flowers. His description of his life and family seems to place the reader at the scene, almost a part of this large and dysfunctional family.
He describes his life with his mother, Sue, who died of breast cancer when he was 9 years old. She was a driving force in his life, and his memory of her and her goodness sustained him throughout his life. She was a schoolteacher and balanced her time raising her children, running a household alone and teaching. Together, they planned that he should become a priest when he grew up and they would live together. He would say Masses in her honor to ensure her place in heaven.
His father, Frankie, was with the guards, the local police force in that part of Ireland. As such, he stayed in the barracks and rarely made it home to his family. Besides being extremely handsome, he had a violent and unstable nature that manifested itself in many cruel and humiliating ways toward his wife and children. In today's world, Frankie might be considered bipolar.
Frankie was selfish and self-centered and when his wife became ill with cancer, he worried more about the expense of the treatment than he did about Sue's health. He did not come to visit her prior to her death but spent time and expense on a monument in the cemetery after her passing.
The seven children then spent the rest of their childhood living with their father in the barracks. Their father vacillated between great charm and extreme cruelty toward his children. In addition to attending school, the children all had jobs like cutting peat, working in the garden, picking potatoes and performing various household chores. Their father thought nothing of taking his oldest son out of school on a regular basis to work on these various chores to earn money. He was so concerned about money that he forced the children to wear their boots even when they had outgrown them. He cut up old rubber tires and nailed them to the bottoms of their boots to make them last longer. The rubber made it very difficult to walk so the children tried to hide their boots as the rubber wore off. If caught, they were beaten and new rubber was nailed onto the old boots.
McGahern describes how he escaped the domination of his father and became a writer. He traveled to many countries along the way and married twice. His books about Ireland are well-loved although some were banned by the Catholic Church and pulled off bookshelves in rural Ireland.
His brother and sisters all managed to leave their father behind, but not without many recriminations from him. Although he expected and demanded loyalty from his children, he declined to attend the weddings of all but one of his children and often sent letters demanding their affection and attention.
Kathy Habel is Germanna Community College dean of workforce and community education and an avid reader.
'All Will Be Well' By John McGahern (Knopf, 304 pages, $25) |
