That They May Face The Rising Sun by John McGahern

I have just finished reading That They May Face The Rising Sun by John McGahern. It is a very beautiful book, and captures rhythms of colloquial speech very expertly. As I was reading I kept thinking the novel seemed familiar, until I realised that it was infused from start to finish with the poetry of the Lake Isle of Innisfree (one of my favourite poems).

http://www.bartleby.com/103/44.html

John McGahern died last year, and That They May Face The Rising Sun was his last work. His work was banned in the Irish Republic because of the way in which it was seen to criticize the claustrophobic inhibitions and abuses of Irish provincial life. He was barred from working in his profession as a teacher (this is the sort of thing that you normally associate with the old Soviet Union!). Depressed by these experiences he moved to England for ten years before returning to southern Ireland as a smallholder farmer. He was also an accomplished short story writer (That They May Face The Rising Sun can be seen as a sequence of short stories featuring the same characters). His work is both funny and sad, and expertly describes complex characters living ostensibly simple lives.