Hindustan Times
Writers’, readers’ writer
I came to John McGahern after he had died in 2006, encouraged by English and Irish writer friends who admired his work very much.I’m not sure how easily his books are available in India (they are, very much, in the UK), but, some months ago, I chanced upon two collections of his stories in the new Landmark in Mumbai (which, if you have not been to, you ought to).
Getting Through and High Ground and Other Stories, two the several genuinely lovely collections of stories that he wrote (he died in 2006), offer a window into his genius.
McGahern wrote very slowly, and wrote mostly stories. He is regarded very well in the English-speaking world (alas, in India, we don’t know him as well as we ought to), and is a magnificent chronicler of Ireland, and its change, in a quiet, elegiac, thrilling, inimitable manner.
Read his obituary here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/mar/31/guardianobituaries.books
And an essay he wrote just before he died here.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/apr/08/featuresreviews.guardianreview30
And get the books if you can.
You won’t regret them.
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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