John McGahern's fiction continually tempts critics to compare him with other novelists. An Irishman, he has undergone the inevitable comparison with Joyce, which few Irish novelists escape. One critic claims, however, that he writes in the tradition of English romanticism, echoing Keats and Blake; others see him as "post-Beckett," in both tone and style. McGahern has also been compared to Hemingway, Mauriac, and Chekhov and has been called a "Hibernian Camus." The incredibly broad range and diversity of these comparisons, certainly a tribute to McGahern's talent and a testament to his significance as a contemporary novelist, often obscure the essential individuality of his personal vision and style. McGahern's position as not only one of Ireland's most important novelists but also as one of the best contemporary writers of English prose derives ultimately from the originality and uniqueness of his fiction.

Born in Dublin in 1934 to John (a police...