The Dead School

by Patrick McCabe

From the award-winning author of "The Butcher Boy" comes a new novel of extraordinary power that, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "confirm[s] McCabe's standing as one of the most brilliant writers to ever come out of Ireland".In "The Dead School", Patrick McCabe returns to the emotionally dense landscape of small-town Ireland to explore the inner lives of two men: a headmaster and a schoolteacher, each man the product of a soul-stifling culture, each battling his own demons of loss and betrayal. Tension coils--until tragedy strikes a young student in their charge, and the latent despair and rage that has festered in their hearts explodes onto the page. As in "The Butcher Boy", McCabe demonstrates his remarkable command of the vernacular and an uncanny ability to pinpoint the exact moment when ordinary minds take flight into madness. Equally compelling, equally heartbreaking in its impact", The Dead School" has established McCabe as one of the most celebrated writers of literary fiction today.

"A spellbinding story of betrayal and broken dreams narrated to a wonderfully menacing effect...the sheer force of his language...positively thrums with life".-- "Los Angeles Times"

" "The Dead School" makes compelling literature....The writing is seamless, the effect shocking: Imagine "Apocalypse Now" cheerfully narrated by Jimmy Stewart".-- "The Seattle Times"

"McCabe [is] as skilled and significant a novelist as Ireland has produced in decades".-- "Kirkus Reviews" (starred review)

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Ireland, Literary Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary, Novels

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Patrick McCabe came to prominence with the publication of his third adult novel, The Butcher Boy, in 1992; the book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in Britain and won the Irish Times-Aer Lingus Prize for fiction. McCabe's strength as an author lies in his ability to probe behind the veneer of respectability and conformity to reveal the brutality and the cloying and corrupting stagnation of Irish small-town life, but he is able to find compassion for the subjects of his fiction. His prose has a vitality and an anti-authoritarian bent, using everyday language to deconstruct the ideologies at work in Ireland between the early 1960s and the late 1970s. His books can be read as a plea for a pluralistic Irish culture that can encompass the past without being dominated by it.

McCabe is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. His novels include The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written a children's book (The Adventures of Shay Mouse) and several radio plays broadcast by the RTÉ and the BBC Radio 4. The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto have both been adapted into films by Irish director Neil Jordan.

McCabe lives in Clones, Co. Monaghan with his wife and two daughters.

Pat McCabe is also credited with having invented the "Bog Gothic" genre.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it ever too late to forgive?

Two men, a generation or so apart, begin to plumment, in Dublin in the 1970s. Their descents are oddly parallel, notwithstanding the age difference; and yet they intersect, once, twice. One is a headmaster; the other a teacher. Events from their childhoods gestate, percolate and perhaps ultimately destroy. Their histories make them both time bombs.

So too the stories of these two men are written parallel to each other, but intersecting from time to time. Their lives are told in the third person, semi-omniscent. Oddly, the voice seems the same regardless of which of the two of them is on stage.

But, as to the question first posed:

The headmaster, at a barman's urging, brings flowers to his wife of many years. The younger man returns to his first love, a music record in his coatpocket. The mother cheats on her husband, caught in the act by the son. In each instance it is not clear who is the injured and who needs to forgive.

This was a compelling read, as in it was a page turner. It demands to be read quickly. I wonder if I was seduced by the Irish voice and rated it higher as a result.

In any event, I will be reading more of McCabe, and soon.

[kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that haunts and resonates long after you read it. It speaks alot to the inevitability of change and the fear of becoming professional, intellectually, and personally obsolete. It is sad and painful, a story that makes you hurt but one that also makes you smile. It is one of the many books that I read at least once a year.

[Rachel d. · Rating 2 out of 5]

i kept waiting for something to happen. It kept almost happening.

[Girish · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a title called Dead School, one does not really expect sunshine and rainbows. But you don't expect a complete gutting of lives of the magnitude of Greek tragedies either. The book is a work of disconcerting pessimistic art, not palatable when you were looking for 'life'.

We have two protagonists who are worlds apart but strangely similar tales. Both of them teachers of different generations - a study in contrasts with the value system and beliefs. Raphael Bell is the principal of St.Andrews and a paragon of old school (no pun intended) values and Irish discipline. Malachy is the bumbling teacher whose acting skills gets him the role of a teacher in the same school.

The classroom is almost a metaphor for 'control' and the downward spirals start setting in soon. While progress happens in Ireland both of them lose a lot more than they bargained for.

The lives of the two characters bear painful symmetry - as if the author is taunting you to find more common ground. But the book then becomes a deconstruction of loss, fidelity, sanity and drug-induced stupor. There are dreams that resemble haunting. The dead become more prominent even in life in the second half.

Sort of had to stumble to the finish - as if the book resembled it's characters which starts out ok but ends up a total mess towards the end.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems you either really love this book or really hate it, there is no in-between. I first read it when it came out in the late '90's and it has lost none of its punch in the intervening years. A few reader reviews complain that "nothing happens", but isn't that life? Some complain about the technique McCabe uses employing phrases like "If only he hadn't been old Skittery Doodle Half-Wit Bollocks afraid of his own shadow, running around the town thinking about love being in the grave, and all that stupid old rubbish that used to come into his head - how different my little tale might have been then, boys and girls!" Certainly McCabe's style isn't for everyone and if seriously depressing, dark topic juxtaposed with silly, childlike observations, utterances, and thoughts aren't your thing then you should skip this one, because the flipness of the writing only serves to deepen the darkness of the novel.

You know from the get-go that nothing good is going to come to any either Malachy or Raphael, McCabe pretty much tells us that on the first page, but the intrigue is in the unfolding and the telling. The plot, such as it is, is pretty basic. Two men are born decades apart and are raised in very different manners; however, they follow similar trajectories: both attend college, become teachers, and fall in love despite eschewing such relationships. Their lives intersect and seemingly trigger a series of unfortunate events (forgive me for that one), although it's pretty evident to this reader that their trajectories in life were pre-set, determined by significant episodes in their youths, and not much could have changed the ultimate ending for each character.

[Grateful · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I didn't like it couldn't get into it. After I was about a third of the way through I started to want to know what would befall the two main characters. I didn't really like the way the book was laid out or the style of the narrative and I found it hard to have any sympathy for the characters maybe it was because they where teachers and I found teachers in Primary school where often people who where often unkind to they're pupils and so myself have a little bit of a thing against the type of teachers Malachy and Raphael where. It is sad there lives took that turn but I don't believe that everything that happens in you in your childhood no matter how tragic has a direct effect on how your life turns out I think you ultimately make the decision to fight or else self destruct. That being said the book was very intriguing and it did make me want to find out more and so keep reading. I thought there would be a comical element with it being Pat Mc Cabe who wrote it but anything funny about it was overshadowed by the depression of it all. I do however feel that it would appeal to a reader of certain age that people who grew up in the time of Malachy would enjoy the nostalgic elements of the book.

[Dianna Shimizu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the best book I've ever read, unfortunately.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When I am at my work each day
In the fields so fresh and green
I often think of riches and the way things might have been
But believe me when I tell you when I get home each day
I'm as happy as a sandboy with my wee cup of tay”

This novel centres on two Irish men who are trapped in the culture of their past. Malachy Dudgeon's childhood, despite being the victim of bullying from older boys, was initially happy and secure until it changes one day he catches his mum having extra-marital sex with a local man and his dad commits suicide shortly afterwards. Despite this break-up of the family unit he still manages to go to teacher training college and falls in love with a fellow student. Almost by accident he is hired to work in a Dublin private boys' school. There he comes across Headmaster Raphael Bell.

Despite his father being killed as an insurgent by British troops Raphael has an almost idyllic childhood, he has great success as a student before going on to have an equally successful early career as teacher then as Headmaster in boys' schools. He is scared women but eventually finds love and marries. However Raphael is deeply conservative Catholic and moralistic in his approaches to life and education. In contrast Malachy is much more liberal in his outlook on life which leads to conflict between the two men as he struggles to control the boys in his class. Malachy is struggling under the pressures of being teacher whilst Raphael is struggling to come to terms with the prevailing changes and attitudes ongoing within the Irish education. When there is a fatal accident with one of the students the fabric of both men's lives is torn to shreds.

Despite the exaggerated situations that both men finds themselves in McCabe creates two well-rounded believable main characters and it is relatively easy for the reader to feel some sympathy for them as they struggle with rude, surly students and demanding parents against a backdrop of conflicts between strict standards and flexible, creative learning. All of these issues are touched upon here. In contrast I found the female characters less believable. Overall an interesting read but not a great one.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times touchingly poetic, accurate, painful, uplifting and very very funny. But, Jeez, it's a horrible book. McCabe is a true student of twentieth century Irish literature. There's Joyce and Beckett and Flann O'Brien all running through these pages. But its an original too. I like books that come from the middle and lower reaches of the heirarchy and tell us something the privileged don't know. A book that knows how to swear as well as how to bless.

Like a good country song, it's extraordinarily sad and extraordinarily beautiful in that sadness. This one is something like Townes Van Zandt's Waiting Around to Die. Dangerously sad. Forbiddingly bleak. And worth four stars of anybody's money.

[Matt Wesolowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite books of all time. Like Ketchum's 'The Girl Next Door', The Dead School leaves a permanent brand on your emotions. I am yet to read a book that fills me with such a haunting melancholy as this one.
Magnificent work by an author whose work has provided unlimited joy to me throughout my life.

[Maltheus Broman · Rating 5 out of 5]

People often think ‘breaking a heart’ is a manner of speech. Truth of the matter is hearts, being muscles, are very well able to tear, become infected, or being cut and stitched. What McCabe does with his reader’s heart is far more refined than any work of surgeons. With his colloquial tone he gently rips out your heart, rolls it into a flat sheet, folds it a bunch of times, and artistically cuts out some patterns with a sharp pair of scissors; when he unfolds said heart again, you get a garland of two people holding hands, namely Bell and Dudgeon, the two main characters. They’ll stay with you for the rest of your life, and your heart will need a cardiac rest after this one, so you might as well hang up that garland.

Patrick McCabe’s The Dead School reflects Irish history of the 20th century by portraying the lives of two teachers who were born into two unalike generations. Already after the first page, I was bound to finish it, and the only thing that stopped me from time to time was to ask myself whether or not I would be ready to go on. McCabe is such a gifted master of story-telling that discovering his book feels like a bliss! Instantly The Dead School has become one of my favourite books. Its vulnerable romances, biting wit, and existential tragedies are penned in an unique way, but all in all evoke comparisons to John Williams’ Stoner or Steinbeck’s East Of Eden.

A heartfelt read. Incredibly captivating!

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harrowing

[Kasandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

McCabe has the haunting ability to immerse you in interior monologue that deftly describes fits of anxiety, bouts of unbelievable joy, philosophical pondering, suicidality, and madness, all with seeming ease and in a completely believable vernacular. You spend most of your time in this novel inside the head of one of two protagonists, both of them completely drawn and intriguing in nearly opposite ways. I particularly enjoyed both the humor and the natural self-centeredness in both mens' internalized personal home movies, if you will, but found the treatment of their respective wives to be a bit too similar for comfort. The men are clearly drawn, but the women are unfortunately not so much and end up falling into stereotypical behavior in nearly all scenes; that's a huge weakness for me and the reason I couldn't give this 5 stars, much as I thought it was masterfully written in all other respects.

[P · Rating 1 out of 5]

So lousy I am amazed it got published! The contrived plot, the unsympathetic protagonists, the one-dimensional women, the super annoying caricatured Irish tone. What precisely was McCabe's point? Irish women should never be in charge of their own destinies because they will either cheat on their husbands and traumatize their sons, walk out on the guy who will never be able to love again, or have abortions and ruin a school along with the life of its dedicated principal? Was this a warning to any man who plans to take up a career in teaching--watch out, it will drive you crazy? Postal service, ok but teaching third grade: don't even think about it. Or maybe it was a dirge for a Catholic boy's school filled with Irish nationalism and severe discipline? The author bio says McCabe has a wife and two daughters. If this novel is an accurate reflection of his views, I feel sorry for them.

[C.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great lyrical bits of prose, a propulsive story told by a compelling omniscient narrator (you’ll either love or hate the narrative voice), some darkly comic scenes of death and destruction and a handful of others that are genuinely moving…all that being said, this book is so similar to “The Butcher Boy” (to which this novel is inferior) that you really don’t need to read both. Some of the tragedy in this one gets a little repetitive, and there are some scenes of 70s youth counterculture Dublin that fall a little flat in the 2020s — really hard to write subcultures well, they’re so quickly dated.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to give up after 60 pages, I found this a highly frustrating reading experience. The narrative seems really forced, falling into a stilted 'bog irish' voice, it was only missing an occasional 'begosh & begorrah'!
The elements of the story I did read before giving up, was dark and the female character were almost caricatures.

It probably didn't help me that early on I felt that the narrative was like Dougal (a character from the TV show Father Ted) stream of consciousness, and couldn't get that out of my mind while reading!

[Becka · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely the most depressing book i have read so far this year, e.g. 'dead babies and children' actually became a motif by the end of the book. in the hands of a lesser author this would have been piling on the heartache/tragedy etc. for the sake of it but i think McCabe's real achievement is that it doesn't feel like that at all - it genuinely does read like a modern tragedy.

[Hannah Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent book.
Do not read this book. Please. Spare yourself. If you do read this book, do not read the end before bed.
This is a profoundly, existentially horrifying book. It's also very funny, because that's how the Irish sort of are, but this book is not a book to read if you want to feel mildly pleasant about the act of being alive.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that I finished must mean there is something in this. I think its very much a "state of mind book" and fact that I am mostly angry at the moment meant I found the two main characters really infuriating, There is humour in this book especially at the start but its dark and I found it quite depressing.

[Tyler Hickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of two men, a generation apart, who though live very different lives, and have very different moral outlooks on life, are also very similar through their history of loss. Loss of family, loss of love, loss of power, and from these, a loss of sanity.

The older, a man of past principles: leading through firmness, the importance of the church and its values, and the hatred of the newer, more progressive generations outlooks on life. The younger, a timid, easygoing man, who takes life less seriously and would rather party and enjoy life with his sweetheart. The two lives intersect in a prestigious Irish school, and the two begin to have a shared hatred for one another. Over time, the older begins to loose his grip of control over the school, and the younger, through being less firm, cannot gain the respect of his students, the way the older one previously could, and was revered for.

Ultimately both men’s worlds are turned upside down, and though both yearn for the good old days, when everything seemed normal, those days will never return. The past is the past, and life, and the universe carry on, with or without you.

The imagery is at times hallucinogenic (metaphorically, and at one point literally) and describes beautifully the feelings that arise, through loss, and descending into madness.

This book is both hilarious, and depressing, with parts causing you to re-read, asking yourself “wait, did that really just happen?”, and at times sending shivers down your spine. Not for the faint of heart, but would absolutely recommend.

[Brian James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the tale of two men of two generations who experience similar trauma as children, but whose lives take very different paths. One becomes a celebrated Headmaster of a boy's school in Ireland. The other becomes a not-so-dedicated teacher at that school years later. Their lives intersect and from their very first meeting, both are thrown onto different courses than each had planned. Though very different in regards to morality, views on life and culture, and societal values, Raphael Bell and Malachy Dudgeon's lives mirror each others in many ways. Neither ends up turning out too great.

This is a portrait of struggle, the struggle to remain in the present as the world moves on without you. The struggle to reconcile mistakes, and achievements, of the past with the present. It is a story about the rippling effects of tragedy on the individual and those around him. It's also a historical look at a changing society in a notoriously stifling culture that was Ireland in the 20th Century.

This is one of those books that started off slow, but begins to dig into your thoughts until it eventually consumes your attention.

[Lucynell · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I know about art is that it can make the sad beautiful. When that happens, Edward Hopper and The Blue Nile, Pet Sounds and Gummo, the result is often almost religious in its intensity. It makes one feel strong enough to say that this one is even better than The Butcher Boy. The Dead School is rollicking storytelling with a bleak bleak heart, a delicious descent into private hell starting from the young going all the way to the old and missing none of the sights of a fast-changing world which include a heroic sense of Irish nationalism, sexual insecurity and many other treats. McGabe's genius is in presenting the machine working these thoughts in a cool natural style. Like the best of pop music it's fun and deadly serious.

[Hugh O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a toss up between The Dead School and Breakfast on Pluto. The music references may have just swayed it. Being the same age as the reader may have something to do with it. Having read all of his books this one was the first and had the greatest impact. Being Irish and of similar age I was reliving so much of my life and experiences again in this book. First time around it was no day trip but this was a trip.

[Tom Houlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Making his wife cry wasn't the only bad thing Raphael did around that time. Once he put their cat Sentanta halfway across the room with a kick. Almost as soon as he had done it he said he was sorry.'

A high 3 stars. A little convoluted at times with too many characters and side points.
McCabe's paralleling of two very different characters, on similar slow downfalls is ingenious and very entertaining.

[Ella Kenyon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kept waiting for something to happen and then when the ‘bigger moments’ did come around they were so briefly touched upon and written in such a dull way, with no enthusiasm that it felt like nothing happened. I think the only reason that I didn’t give up on this book is because I hate not finishing books in general

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A black comedy with an elevated body count (6, by my reckoning). Underlying layers of past Irish literature peep through.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike his other books which I have loved, this was just dull

[Helinä · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the light holiday reading I was looking for initially but even in the sunshine and poolside the haunting, amazingly detailed story of two generations took my breath away.

[Paddy C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Depressing

What started as a very good story became just two depressing for words. This was just disappointing in the extreme

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I wanted it to be! Teachers in Irish school.