John McGahern, "The Dark: A Critical Edition" (Syracuse UP, 2025)
An episode of the New Books in Irish Studies podcast, hosted by New Books Network, titled "John McGahern, "The Dark: A Critical Edition" (Syracuse UP, 2025)" was published on July 14, 2025 and runs 83 minutes.
July 14, 2025 ·83m · New Books in Irish Studies
Summary
Bringing John McGahern's 1965 masterpiece back into print in the United States after years of inaccessibility, this new sixtieth-anniversary critical edition includes an introduction aimed at first-time readers, explanatory footnotes, McGahern's own glossary, and four scholarly essays aimed at guiding readers through the novel's famously controversial history. While the text was initially banned in Ireland for obscenity, this edition demonstrates that McGahern's novel of adolescence is not obscene, but revelatory, exposing the corruption underlying authority structures in mid-century Ireland--from the family to the church, to the government's willingness to ignore national and communal trauma. The Dark follows a promising young boy's struggles to break free from the economic and social forces trapping him in a lifestyle that is both familiar and suffocating. At the heart of the novel is the boy's complex and stormy relationship with his abusive, widowed father, who is left to raise a family with little outside aid. The Dark is a story of alarming brutality, surprising tenderness, and poetic lyricism; a reflection of Irish society that maintains historical significance as contemporary Ireland continues to build its national identity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices