The Collected Stories

by John McGahern

These 34 funny, tragic, bracing, and acerbic stories represent the complete short fiction of one of Ireland's finest living writers. On struggling farms, in Dublin's rain-drenched streets, or in parched exile in Franco's Spain, McGahern's characters wage a confused but touching war against the facts of life.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Ireland, Irish Literature, Literary Fiction, Literature, Short Story Collection

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Conor Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has always puzzled me (though I have my theories) why McGahern has never reached the levels of domestic popularity that many of his less talented contemporaries have and endure in doing so. Even very literate friends of mine (and certainly more well-read than me) admit to having only scant knowledge of him and his work. It saddens me because his writing is so poignant and so stirring and brings one into the immediacy of the natural world of landscape and people with a tenderness of style. These shorts stories are remarkable in their ability to parse rural life and the order of Irish culture - our culture which is at once unspeakable and yet unspoken.
I would love to see more people reading McGahern. I don't believe he has ever featured on the school syllabus, which might be a good start to introducing students to his work. I would love to have read his novels in school.

[Кремена Михайлова · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Само в Ирландия имаме навреме и ненавреме, в другите страни си имат само време и толкоз.“

За любителите на разказите – класически, майсторски; от онзи вид „скучни“, дето се чете и между редовете – понякога няма кой знае каква случка (понякога има), просто атмосфера – в градчето, в селцето, в сърцето… Дори да са от 20-и век, усещането е и за 19-и век (но именно с почукване на новите времена на вратата).

„Баща ми така и не ми прости, че съм се възползвал от възможността да постъпя в университет. Той искаше да остана у дома и да се занимавам със земята.“

Първото, което ме зарадва, беше, че срещнах Слайгоу и тук, както в книгите на ирландеца Джак Харт, този път невинаги с акцент на религията. (Разходих се в района чрез google street view; не ми се иска да живея там, не само защото са с якета през юни).

„… дълбоката провинция, дето го натириха уж като повишение.“

Много на брой са разказите в сборника и за да не ми омръзнат, разделих четенето на две. Сякаш в началото са в малко по-далечни времена, а после малко по-близо до нашето време. Но наистина настроението се запазва – приглушена светлина, бавност, валеж, несигурност, търсене. Малки градчета и навлизащи в живота младежи; селца и консервативни родители. Точно младежите ги мислех най-много – ще станат ли като бащите си, колкото и да искат да са различни сега… Кой знае какви трагедии не видях, кой знае какви радости не усетих. Нещо средно, и може би именно това е леко тъжно. Ако става дума за любов, по-скоро бих казала „нещо като любов.“

„Потайността беше нещо типично за повечето ирландски мъже, когато се изправят лице в лице с млада жена.“

Редовните спътници на острова са следните:
„– Едно уиски „Пауърс“ – прозвуча дрезгавият му, напевен глас. – Голямо и халба „Бас“.“

Климатът го знаем:
„И при най-големите горещини морето в Ирландия е студено.“

Не зная дали ще запомня някои от заглавията, може би не. Но това няма значение. Ще остане споменът от майсторството на Макгахърн и странното съчетание на живост и застиналост.

Благодаря отново и на Иглика Василева – чрез преводачи като нея си припомняме думи като „отривисто“, изрази като „Но не би.“; „Като че ще се годявам.“ И изобщо – лесно се пренасяме на това особено място чрез думите.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bittersweet stories of everyday life, typically in rural Ireland. ‘The Country Funeral’ is the stand-out masterpiece. ‘High Ground’, ‘Lavin’, ‘The Beginning of an Idea’ and ‘Korea’ are enduring favourites of mine.

[A. Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of things simmer in a McGahern story, and he never mistrusts the reader, never spells it out. The reader knows it because the reader has experienced it all. Everything human, written with a slight ache. The dialogue makes efficient use of vernacular, which opens up the characters--class, station, education, region, all strong and clear. McGahern has a profound depth of familiarity with everything his stories touch, and there is never anything tentative in his handling of a person or situation. The metaphor he creates in "The Stoat" almost leaves me speechless. There is no wondering about what comes next. The story ends with a full stop. "Eddie Mac" is a situation that happened many times in many places, probably still does, but it's an old and bitter story because Eddie gets his way. Swine. "Bank Holiday" develops a romantic relationship and includes an exchange that reveals a truth about the culture: "The standing army of poets never falls below ten thousand in this unfortunate country." Why unfortunate? "They create no wealth." And when the woman asks if these poets can be seen, the man tells her, "They can't even be hidden." It's tremendous.

[Toño Piñeiro]

♦️Reina de diamantes♦️

gwreiddiau dwfn

En sus Cuentos completos John McGahern propone un acercamiento muy íntimo a las vidas de los irlandeses de a pie en el siglo pasado. Evita conscientemente ubicar con precisión histórico-social a los personajes o sucesos que narra, y en lugar los ilumina con luz fresca otorgándoles una nueva dimensión, tan trascendental y profunda como conmovedora; el lenguaje es, por supuesto, una extensión de la propuesta: es directo, casi periodístico, con descripciones sobrias -donde intercala muy bien imagenes evocadoras- y diálogos sencillos y mordaces que perfilan muy bien a sus personajes.

En suma, considero que McGahern creó una serie de instantáneas sobre la vida en Irlanda, que parecen entrelazarse y sugerir una Historia que sobrepasa los límites de las dos cubiertas de cartoné, la cola y el papel en que estos Cuentos completos están impresos.

Y ya está.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first set of short stories I've read by McGahern. Most were excellent. One dragged ("Peaches"), one was extremely disturbing ("Lavin") but many others left you wanting more, like a good short story should.
While McGahern was a great writer in general, I love the way the guy wrote about sex; that is to say, without stepping one foot into Harlequin novel territory, he still made the most abstract notions of erotica seem somehow familiar:
"Still, at eight o'clock she would come to him, out of the milling crowds about the Metropole, her long limbs burning nakedly beneath the swinging folds of the brown dress, the face that came towards him and then drew back as she laughed, and he would begin to live again. He had all that forgetting to go towards, the losing of the day in all the sweetness of her night." (from "Along the Edges")

[Селина Йонкова · Rating 4 out of 5]

дума да няма, 2018 наистина се оказа година на разказите. а, тези са като ирладндския пейзаж- неуверено, колебливо слънце, в което е трудно да припознаем голямата любов, мрачна дъждовност и обширни зелени поля с отдалечени, печални къщички... море в което дори лятото, може само да потопиш крак, за кратко.

[Àlvar · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourites: Lavin, Doorways, Coming Into His Kingdom, The Stoat, Korea, The Wine Breath, Oldfashioned, Like All Other Men, Bank Holiday.

The objective best: The Country Funeral.

I would have adored this had I not viscerally despised a single one of these; something I initially attributed to its plot alone only to later discover myself having to plough through the bore that McGahern’s blessed penmanship bestowed some of the lengthier, particular stories in a way that felt dragged - (I am talking about Peaches). Unrelated names and topics are repeated throughout the book which does not make the reading of individual stories swift. (Admittedly, this might’ve been my own fault however. Don’t let the naturalism of the dialogues fool you, these stories require steeping. This was a beautiful example of prose nonetheless).

There are a few recurring themes drawing directly from McGahern’s own life experiences: divorce mostly, tangles with the moral presence of the Catholic Church, as do romantic relationships, sexual relationships, death, childhood, questions on the Irish intellect, the emigres to England and America, the social classes, the land. All sorts of settings and situations tackle these in slight variation; for better or for worse, the stories are incredibly varied in their similarity.

Something I don’t quite understand is the relative obscurity of McGahern’s name in Ireland, outside of critics and well-read folk. Off the Irishness of his prose, topics, landscapes, humanity and characterisation alone he should've found his place in the school curriculum and have his name be known by all of the island (even at the expense of some uttering it in infamy - I truly hated Peaches).

[ThePageGobbler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typically excellent - I’m amazed by how stable his prose style remains over 400 pages worth of stories, how he never noticeably cadges from other writers and how typically well-chosen every word is. It must be said however that this does not really work as a bulky volume in that McGahern ultimately has a very small set of themes and situations that end up being inexorably repeated. In the rare occasions where he tries something new (e.g. ‘The Beginning of An Idea’) you often rue that he didn’t turn his once in a generation talents to a more ambitious scope… although some of the stories about the local gentry are a bit over sentimental

[Деница Райкова]

Джон Макгахърн - "Страндхил, моорето. Събрани разказ", изд. "Прозорец" 2018, прев. Иглика Василева

Още един ирландски автор се нарееди сред прочетените през тази година. Продължавам "ирландската вълна", чието начало поставих с прекрасната "Далече и отвъд" от Себастиан Бари и продължих с разказите на Франк О' Конър.
И пак, както и след разказиете на О' Конър, не съм сигурна как да ��иша. Дали да пиша за всяка история поотделно? Дали да описвам общи впечатления? Или да говоря просто за усещания, въздействие, чувства, останали в мен? Не знам. Просто ще пиша, и ще видим какво ще излезе.
Не обичам да правя сравнения, но все пак нека кажа, че разказите на Макгахърн са доста различни от тези на О' Конър. Може би, когато четях тези на О' Конър, се повлиях донякъде от революционното минало на автора, но неговите разкази, поне една част от тях, ми се сториха някак по-динамични, по-"бързи". Макгахърн не пише така. Неговите разкази са бавни, тихи, меланхолични, понякога тъжни. И в тях всъщност не се случва кой нае какво, нито пък героите му са особено забележителни личности. Много от тях са неща, които са се случвали, случват се иили биха могли да се случат на всеки един от нас. И може би именно в това е въздействието им - защото в тях се говори за обикновени неща, разказани по един кротък и в същото време майсторски начин. В някои от тях - като например "Белката" - някой може да открие жестокост - но дори тя не звучи истински жестоко, а по-скоро напълно естествено.
Повечето разкази в този сборник на Макгахърн са "градски", с действие, развиващо се предимно в Дъблин. Но "градското" в тях не е прекалено, не е натрапващо се. Просто знаеш, че става дума за град - но в това няма блясък илии привлекателност. Има просто обикновени хора, които се срещат, разделят, празнуват или тъгуват - и каквото и да правят, каквото и да се случва, във всичко има една кротка меланхолия. И виждаш, че някои неща са едни и същи навсякъде - хората си припомнят стари истории, котгато се събират, децата се присмиват на други деца /"Да влезеш в царството му Божие"/, правят нелепи грешки /"Грешка"/, отказват да се разделят със старите вещи, дори когато те вече не вършат работа, защото за тях това означава да изхвърлят или заличат един спомен /"Златният часовник"/, готвят се за неизбежното, което така и не идва /"Ключът"/ - и всичко това са късчета живот, всяко едно - различно, понякога - странно, друг път - безцветно - и все пак всички те правят онзи, големия живот.
Лично за мен, "Страндхил, морето" е една от ония книги, към които посягаш, когато не ти се чете поредният съвременен роман, чието действие се развива в голям и шумен град. Книги, които четеш бявно и спокойно, без да очакваш смайващи обрати. Просто заради удоволствието от добре разказани истории. А и още - пак ли„но мое усещане - тя е от книгите, с които допълвам представата си за Ирландия. Защото преди години видях съвременната Ирландия - наистина я видях, потопих се в атмосферата й, чух на живо музиката й, разходих се по улиците на градовете й. През годиниите прочетох нейните приказки и легенди.После прочетох историята й. Запознах се с миналото й. А сега, с разказите, виждам по нещо от съвременността. Онази, обикновенатта, негеероичната. И това е прекрасно.
Харесах разказите на Макгахърн и "Страндхил, морето" ще се нареди сред едно от чудесните ми книжни попадения за таззи година.
Радвам се, че посегнах към тях.
.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had not heard of John McGahern until I came across this book of stories in my favorite used bookstore, located in Pittsboro, North Carolina. The blurb on the front cover proclaimed him the best short story writer since James Joyce.

I don’t believe in awards for writers or declarations to the effect that so-and-so is the best. These are arbitrary and subjective para-literary phenomena. But of the finest Irish short stories writers I know of at work since Joyce, John McGahern belongs in the same class as Edna O’Brien and William Trevor.

The stories in this book are stunners. They’re quiet, they’re moving, they’re subtle, they’re penetrating. They unfold with a marvelous pace, they capture family and romantic tensions with the greatest skill, they probe secrets, memories, and desires.

McGahern was a master of the form. He knew what Chekhov and Hemingway did with it, and he certainly knew what Joyce did with it. The last story in this collection, “The Country Funeral,” is as good in its way as Joyce’s “The Dead.” Three brothers in their forties, who disliked their uncle, have to go to his funeral after not having seen him for twenty years. Each brother has a reason for bridling over this chore, but their mother, the uncle’s sister, is too feeble to make the journey to a village on the bogs…where it turns out that the villagers adored the uncle. The brothers have to accept and learn from the villagers’ judgment. One, the brother who was born without legs, chooses not to. He remains convinced that the uncle would have put him in a bag, loaded it with stones, and thrown him into the bog when he was a boy. The ways in which he combats his brothers’ conversion to respect, if not affection, for the dead uncle are splendid and outrageously funny. There is a line in this story I think I must have encountered elsewhere, but I cannot recall where. It goes this way: If the rich could pay the poor to die for them, the rich would be immortal. There’s a lot of truth in that, and it perfectly reflects the Irish disdain for class and economic distinctions—notably the distinctions imposed by the colonialist English until they were thrown off the island south of Belfast.

I almost never give 5 star ratings. This one is well-earned.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how I stumbled onto this collection of stories, but I am very glad I did. McGahern seems one of the best writers to have failed to get the international literary attention his work deserves. While I can't say I liked all 34 stories, there are few which are less than very good and a number which are masterpieces (especially "The Country Funeral," the longest story and the one which closes the book.

About half the stories are eleven pages or less (and only two five or six pages). Some of them are linked, but I failed to keep track of that as I read through the volume. Taken together, they provide a comprehensive view of mid-20th century Ireland and the people who live there.

The writing is excellent, albeit not showy. The stories are meticulously framed by the small things in life -- settings, the weather and a sense of place. Dublin figures in many (perhaps most) of them, but the characters often combine a Dublin base with excursions elsewhere in the country.

Taken together, the reader gets a thorough sense of Irish culture, including farming, a lot of drinking, a funeral, gentle humor and a lot of vernacular. But the stories are really about relationships, both within families and between couples. While it is somehow not depressing, most of the relationships do not end happily, especially between couples. And the other leitmotif is the connection between the past at the present. Many of the characters experience flashbacks as a story progresses.

And these stories stand out compared to the other Irish fiction I have been reading in recent years in one surprising way. Several of the stories are frankly sexual and in one or two, in a way which can make the reader uncomfortable. While they are not quite graphic, in several cases they are close to that.

It's hard to write anything which does justice to this collection. I am left with complex feelings, which is appropriate when a national culture is explored objectively. These stories are about people seeking happiness, love, even simple comfort, and not finding it all that often. I have no idea how accurately that summarizes Irish culture, but I find it moving.

Anyway, I will certainly seek out more by McGahern and hope that other readers join me in this commitment.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

These two. "Like All Other Men" and "Gold Watch."

Oh, there were others that shined bright, but I couldn't bear to look away from those two.

The writing is good, the characters are true, the place feels right, though I could have used a stronger sense of land, but this is just a "me" thing, as I prefer to taste the soil and stones of place upon my tongue when reading. I think the easiest way to voice what it is I am feeling, is a frustration that too many of these short stories turned me out rather than turning me in. Of course, it's quite interesting if we apply this sense of being cast away as reader to narrative as person to world, but I don't think I'm bringing this to the text, though I am, to some degree, but not in the way that would undermine what I'm attempting to articulate, or at least point at with a stick.
John McGahern is a terrific writer, I just would have appreciated the opportunity to sit and talk with him about story shapes and endings, and why he chose to.....

3.5/5

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love Ireland and/or things Irish, then you will likely love this collection. McGahern is rightly lionized as one of the island's masters of short prose, and what comes through most clearly in this volume is his eye and ear for nuance, for subtlety of gesture, expression, for the importance of what is not said and done as much as for what is. Many of these stories are quite moving, and one even manages to be joyful and a bit funny, but common to all (even "Peaches", which is set in Spain) is the feel and rhythm of Irish life, whether set in the urban complexity of Dublin or a country town in Clare or Donegal. I have seen a quote attributed to Yeats along the lines of the only two things worth writing about are sex and death. If so, these stories are worth reading, for those two topics are dealt with in every story, and dealt with in worthwhile fashion.

[Zach Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the loners, and the way days are described, and the small little household dramas that make up most of these stories. And I liked the love stories and the death stories, and the family stories.

But even though I took my time with this - never more than one story in a day, never crammed into a few spare minutes - it started to feel like variations on a theme too often. A handful of stories really shined, but many felt like a different version of a different story I had already read in the book.

I really liked The Recruiting Officer, and Wine Breath, and the last one is a .. smart? intriguing? ... story about three brothers attending a funeral in their mothers' hometown. It was also the longest one. Perhaps I should go back to the novels. I really liked Amongst Women.

[Differengenera · Rating 4 out of 5]

few stories here I'd not come across before, including ones based on his first marriage which surprised me in the sense that they were /about Francoism and offer a rare more or less direct insight into his stance in ideology / politics proper outside of his non-fiction and essays (he doesn't care for them)

[Conor Tuohy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I could start again at the beginning and and it would be even better the second time.

There's such a universal breadth of emotion in them, despite their circling the same settings and archetypes over and over. I want to lacquer them into my mind.

Forget Wilde or Joyce or O'Brien, he is far and away our best.

[Rachel Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I ever could create something just a fraction as good as McGahern’s works, I could die happily.

“It must be surely the greatest grace of life, the greatest freedom, to have to do what we love because it is also our duty”

[Priscilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeah, no.

This wasn't for me. Nice to have it on the course and I might have learnt some things while we discussed the separate stories, but I'm pretty sure I'll never pick this up again.

[Irena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Прекрасен сборник с майсторски написани разкази за Ирландия.

[theshortstory.co.uk (TSS Publishing)]

Read James Holden's full review at: https://theshortstory.co.uk/the-short...

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me han gustado sobre todo los primeros, esas historias pegadas a la tierra, a un mundo de raíces que va desapareciendo.

https://liblit.com/john-mcgahern-cuen...

[Mr. C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding collection of work.

[Vivian Valvano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirty-four stories by McGahern, from his early work through 1993. What more could you ask for? No one portrayed 20th-century rural Ireland with the precision and grace of McGahern. But he "did" Dublin and city venues admirably, too. So many of his stories are poignant and bespeak such dimensions of loss and pain. But love and beauty have places, too. Many stories reflect memories of McGahern's youth and his life with his brutal father, but without doubt, everything here is fiction, not memoir. (He provided the memoir shortly before his death.) An avid reader of any author will, necessarily, have favorites and rankings of his/her stories. I find some of McGahern's to be little masterpieces. "Korea," of course, his much anthologized father-son story that should leave you breathless. "The Recruiting Officer," one of the best lambastings of Irish religious looking for young people with "vocations" that I know. "All Sorts of Impossible Things" about Tom Lennon, the teacher not seen without his brown hat for at least 20 years. "Gold Watch," an unforgettable Dublin story with a few visits to Big Meadow. "A Ballad," a specific story that seems able to apply to many people. "Oldfashioned," an excellent look at post WW II Ireland in an area surrounding an old Anglo-Irish estate. "Like All Other Men," wherein a 40-year old teacher who left the seminary at Maynooth just before ordination dares to think that he has found a lifemate. "Eddie Mac," yet another bitter emigration and frustration tale. "Crossing the Line," wherein a new teacher takes up his post in an established parish. "High Ground," wherein young Moran must make a hard decision about his future. "The Conversion of William Kirkwood" - is it only a religious conversion? And we've met some of these characters before - we certainly couldn't have forgotten Annie May from "Eddie Mac." "The Country Funeral," a tour de force of family betrayals, loyalties, traditions, and absurdities. Ireland: in the masterful, sometimes gentle, hands of McGahern, a continuation, much of the time, of the state of paralysis. From "Why We're Here," not one of my favorites, comes one of my favorite quotations, good enough for all time: "If everything was right we'd appreciate nothing."

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

One might be excused for thinking that the "Swinging Sixties" never made across the Irish Sea, but McGahern's slow and quiet stories puts paid to that idea. One is reminded of the title (if not the content) of Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate as McGahern's protagonists muddle their way through sex and romance on the rain-slicked footpaths of 1960s, '70s and '80s Dublin. Not that all the settings are urban though; even when the crux of the story takes place in "the heart of the Hibernian metropolis", there is always a connection to the rural West of Ireland.

And indeed perhaps my favourite story of the entire collection, and written especially for it, was the last, "A Country Funeral". It tells of three brothers who return to the County Leitrim country-side of their forebearers in order to bury their mother's brother, a bachelor farmer. Vivid and violent memories are resurrected, which each brother deals with in their own fashion. But perhaps most surprising is the transformation of the middle brother, Philly, who after many years working in the oil fields of the Middle East, decides to purchase the family farm and return to roots which are barely his.

This was the most mature McGahern, written a few years before his death, when his own life's journey had brought him and his American-born wife back to the Leitrim of his childhood. In a way "A Country Funeral" is not just about the death and burial of a man, but of a way of life that has almost completely vanished from contemporary Ireland. McGahern's own elegiac "romance" with this simpler, quieter time is more fully fleshed out in That They May Face the Rising Sun, his final novel.

[Veronica McGlynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not usually a short story reader, but I'm really enjoying this book. I've read other John McGahern ("By the Lake") is one of my all time favorite books). These stories remind me so much of Ireland, where they all take place. Bleak yet understated and also beautiful. Just like me. :)

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fraility of people

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

1 - Exiled in England, a retired Irishman sustains himself by imagining working the farm he lost back home. Read by Sean McGinley. Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 7, 9:15pm Sunday 13th December 2009

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

completed my first of his short stories: THE WINE BREATH 8/17/2010

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

Korea, The Wine's Breath, Swallows