Getting Through

by John McGahern

Stories by one of the outstanding Irish writers of today, author of Nightlines, The Barracks, The Dark, The Leavetaking, The Pornographer, High Ground, Amongst Women (nominated for the Booker Prize in 1990) and That They May Face the Rising Sun.

Genres: Short Stories, Irish Literature, Fiction, Novels, Ireland

151 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

McGahern began his career as a schoolteacher at Scoil Eoin Báiste (Belgrove) primary school in Clontarf, Ireland, where, for a period, he taught the eminent academic Declan Kiberd before turning to writing full-time. McGahern's second novel 'The Dark' was banned in Ireland for its alleged pornographic content and implied clerical sexual abuse. In the controversy over this he was forced to resign his teaching post. He subsequently moved to England where he worked in a variety of jobs before returning to Ireland to live and work on a small farm in Fenagh in County Leitrim, located halfway between Ballinamore and Mohill. His third novel 'Amongst Women' was shortlisted for the 1990 Man Booker Prize.
He died from cancer in Dublin on March 30, 2006.

Reviews

[E. G.]

--The Beginning of an Idea
--A Slip-up
--All Sorts of Impossible Things
--Faith, Hope and Charity
--The Stoat
--Doorways
--The Wine Breath
--Along the Edges
--Swallows
--Sierra Leone

[David Crowe]

I liked all of these stories, but Doorways stayed with me longest. It’s a love story told quietly, through waiting, missed connections, and the slow realisation that life is lived mostly in the expectation. McGahern writes with such calm that lines like “minute replicas of the expectation that we call the rest of our life” and the closing thought, “were we not all waiting in the doorway?”, arrive without emphasis and land all the harder. Plain, exact writing, and deeply felt.

[Russell George]

I’d not heard of John McGahern before, which feels a little embarrassing after reading that he was seen as ‘the Irish Chekhov’. And that’s not faint praise. This collection of short stories is brilliant – a whole world is captured in a few pages of lyrical yet very precise prose, with characters you feel as well as see. Fantastic to find a new writer whose works I’m now going to explore. Highly recommended.

[Ben Graham]

4.5

Very strong start to 2023! None of these stories are less than a 4 for me and ‘Doorways’ is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read.

[Hester]

Sierra Leone .

Nearly perfect . You can almost feel weight of the family , the land , the inevitable cycle of life and death , pulling the narrator back to its tragic heart . It's a story about an affair where the narrator cannot love and doesn't know how to resist the long shadow of fear .

[Sarah]

I was half high and then on a crazy comedown reading this so can't remember a lot except vague recollections of depressing stories set within rural Ireland. But the general feeling is still one of deep love for mcgahern, and that's good enough for me

[Maiya Peterson]

2.5 ⭐️ listened to “Sierra Leone” on the New Yorker Fiction podcast

[Lauren Taylor]

Super easy read. Loved the writing, it kept me wanting more. Will definitely be reading more McGahern.

[Orlaith]

There is nothing better than ending the year with McGahern!

[Andy Hart]

I love McGahern's novels, but this was my first dip into his short stories. While the first of this small collection was confusing and disappointing, his return to Ireland and the Irish for the remainder was utterly fulfilling.

[Nic]

"At their best, exquisitely captured sensations."

[Holly]

Read 1/10/15 - review only for The Stoat

(AS English Literature)

[Amber]

(Rating only for The Stoat.)