SOURCE: Lloyd, Richard. “Memory Becoming Imagination: The Novels of John McGahern.” Journal of Irish Literature 18, no. 3 (September 1989): 39–44.

In the following essay, Lloyd discusses the influence rural Ireland has on McGahern's novels.

Although heralded in England and Ireland, John McGahern has gone virtually unnoticed in the United States. His first novel, The Barracks (1963), received Ireland's most prestigious award—the A.E. Memorial Award. His second and third novels, The Dark (1965) and The Leavetaking (1974), also received praise and spurred some reviewers to compare his talent to Joyce: “At his best, McGahern leaves no doubt of his equality with Joyce.” Another critic, Peter Prescott, commenting on McGahern's reception in this country, “doubts there is another writer of fiction in English as good as John McGahern who is so little noticed in this country. One would have to poke around even among those who read books for a living to find the...