SOURCE: Kennedy, Eileen. “The Novels of John McGahern: The Road Away Becomes the Road Back.” In Contemporary Irish Writing, pp. 115–26. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983.

In the following essay, Kennedy discusses the recurring themes in The Barracks, The Pornographer, The Leavetaking, and The Dark.

Well known and highly praised in Ireland and England, John McGahern—whom Julian Jebb in the Times Literary Supplement ranked as “among the half dozen practicing writers of English prose most worthy of attention”¹—was relatively unnoticed in this country until the publication of his novel, The Pornographer, in 1979, and a collection of short stories, Getting Through, in 1980. Both books received wide critical attention; but so far as I can determine, no one has pointed out how The Pornographer, despite its lurid title, is essentially conservative, a circling back to ideas and values explored in McGahern's first novel The Barracks (1963).

The circling back is unexpected because...