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A review by wolfdan9
The Dark by John McGahern
4.0
“Shame and embarrassment and loathing, the dirty rags of intimacy.”
...
“…or had your life been the haphazard flicker between nothingness and nothingness.”
The Dark is one of McGahern's earlier novels (my 3rd in a short spurt from him personally), and immediately it will remind the reader of his most famous work Amongst Women. Mahoney, the father in the story, is a prototype for Moran, and each are equally detestable. It's clear the McGahern grew up with a father like Mahoney, and there is a particular chapter early in the novel that is unforgettable (in addition to the opening scene) for the "ickiness" it instills in the reader, so much so that it is hard to read without wincing, and really is a testament to McGahern's steeliness and stoic writing hand. I'm referring to two scenes, the first of which is when Mahoney forces his son to strip naked in front of his entire family to accept a beating as punishment for saying "fuck." Mahoney scares him to tears, and makes him rear himself naked to accept a humiliating beating, but he never actually hits him. This opening scene is rather symbolic of their tension and relationship, which is a cycle of arbitrary punishments that far exceed the son's transgressions, in which a "finality" is never delivered.
While Amongst Women focused on the family dynamics in Moran's household (to great success), this one is more of a bildungsroman of the family's son. But considering both utilize a similar father archetype -- that of the implacable, unsociable, and disagreeable Irishman -- to such great effect as a vehicle for the novel's themes is admirable. The Dark's powerfully simple prose and well-written, introspective main character help it stand toe-to-toe with other great bildungsromans like Stoner (which coincidentally came out in the same year), whose dark tone and unflinching portrayal of an inner misery rang to mind as I read.
The novel is rife with scenes that highlight the extreme tension between father with son, which rarely but occasionally do boil over into conflict (only for the son to quickly realize the futility of fighting back and to fall back into the routine of appeasing his father). There are countless examples of the father's arbitrary resistance to his son's wishes and goals and his abusive nature. One to mention is the son's motivation to study and win a scholarship. Clearly, the son is highly motivated and quite brilliant. He does extremely well on a practice exam and seems like he will score top marks on the actual exam. Mahoney, however, is instantly resistant to the idea of him using a fire to study because it will waste money. He doesn't care that the home environment is loud and assumes the son can tune it out while studying. He thinks a career in academia is a waste of money, a scam, etc. He is jaded by any and all possibilities. Yet despite Mahoney's discouragement, the son is motivated to escape his home life and eventually does receive the top score on the exam, winning himself a scholarship.
The son seeks solace through escapism but finds himself ultimately unsatisfied. He masturbates countless times a day, finding himself obsessed sexually with women, but represses these urges and does not actually pursue any women. He is attracted initially to the idea of priesthood as a fix to his problems, but concludes that this lifestyle isn't for him after having another odd (and sexually ambiguous) private meeting with a priest who invites him to stay at his church for a week. I found the son's sexual awakening (a common bildungsroman theme) to be interesting considering how it was tied into the novel's other contextual pieces, like the influence of the church on the rural son and the patriarchal influence of his father. There is an inappropriate intermingling of sexual influence from these institutions during this period of sexual awakening that confuses and erodes his mental state.
The nameless son, whose namelessness may be symbolic of the ubiquity of these young men who must endure similar abuses, is also referred to interchangeably as "he" and "you." This clever, and rather sly, change to the character's point of view draws the reader in even more as McGahern "forces" the reader into the son's shoes. The reader feels a sense of discomfort being called "you" -- being told they are someone who they are not in moments of great discomfort for this character -- which is how the son feels through his father as well. I found this literary trick rather brilliant.
The ending was interesting. The son calls his father to the university after deciding that he is going to leave the school, to which he received a full scholarship, to instead take a well-paying job in a bank. I didn't know how to feel about the ending, but I interpreted it as positive. It seemed like the boy was able to escape his father on his own terms, call him back into his life on his own terms, and make a decision on his own terms (which happened to coincide with what the father thought was right too, and the fact that this did not bother the son shows personal growth on his part).
The Dark is one of McGahern's earlier novels (my 3rd in a short spurt from him personally), and immediately it will remind the reader of his most famous work Amongst Women. Mahoney, the father in the story, is a prototype for Moran, and each are equally detestable. It's clear the McGahern grew up with a father like Mahoney, and there is a particular chapter early in the novel that is unforgettable (in addition to the opening scene) for the "ickiness" it instills in the reader, so much so that it is hard to read without wincing, and really is a testament to McGahern's steeliness and stoic writing hand. I'm referring to two scenes, the first of which is when Mahoney forces his son to strip naked in front of his entire family to accept a beating as punishment for saying "fuck." Mahoney scares him to tears, and makes him rear himself naked to accept a humiliating beating, but he never actually hits him. This opening scene is rather symbolic of their tension and relationship, which is a cycle of arbitrary punishments that far exceed the son's transgressions, in which a "finality" is never delivered.
While Amongst Women focused on the family dynamics in Moran's household (to great success), this one is more of a bildungsroman of the family's son. But considering both utilize a similar father archetype -- that of the implacable, unsociable, and disagreeable Irishman -- to such great effect as a vehicle for the novel's themes is admirable. The Dark's powerfully simple prose and well-written, introspective main character help it stand toe-to-toe with other great bildungsromans like Stoner (which coincidentally came out in the same year), whose dark tone and unflinching portrayal of an inner misery rang to mind as I read.
The novel is rife with scenes that highlight the extreme tension between father with son, which rarely but occasionally do boil over into conflict (only for the son to quickly realize the futility of fighting back and to fall back into the routine of appeasing his father). There are countless examples of the father's arbitrary resistance to his son's wishes and goals and his abusive nature. One to mention is the son's motivation to study and win a scholarship. Clearly, the son is highly motivated and quite brilliant. He does extremely well on a practice exam and seems like he will score top marks on the actual exam. Mahoney, however, is instantly resistant to the idea of him using a fire to study because it will waste money. He doesn't care that the home environment is loud and assumes the son can tune it out while studying. He thinks a career in academia is a waste of money, a scam, etc. He is jaded by any and all possibilities. Yet despite Mahoney's discouragement, the son is motivated to escape his home life and eventually does receive the top score on the exam, winning himself a scholarship.
The son seeks solace through escapism but finds himself ultimately unsatisfied. He masturbates countless times a day, finding himself obsessed sexually with women, but represses these urges and does not actually pursue any women. He is attracted initially to the idea of priesthood as a fix to his problems, but concludes that this lifestyle isn't for him after having another odd (and sexually ambiguous) private meeting with a priest who invites him to stay at his church for a week. I found the son's sexual awakening (a common bildungsroman theme) to be interesting considering how it was tied into the novel's other contextual pieces, like the influence of the church on the rural son and the patriarchal influence of his father. There is an inappropriate intermingling of sexual influence from these institutions during this period of sexual awakening that confuses and erodes his mental state.
The nameless son, whose namelessness may be symbolic of the ubiquity of these young men who must endure similar abuses, is also referred to interchangeably as "he" and "you." This clever, and rather sly, change to the character's point of view draws the reader in even more as McGahern "forces" the reader into the son's shoes. The reader feels a sense of discomfort being called "you" -- being told they are someone who they are not in moments of great discomfort for this character -- which is how the son feels through his father as well. I found this literary trick rather brilliant.
The ending was interesting. The son calls his father to the university after deciding that he is going to leave the school, to which he received a full scholarship, to instead take a well-paying job in a bank. I didn't know how to feel about the ending, but I interpreted it as positive. It seemed like the boy was able to escape his father on his own terms, call him back into his life on his own terms, and make a decision on his own terms (which happened to coincide with what the father thought was right too, and the fact that this did not bother the son shows personal growth on his part).