Newspaper Article

NOVEL TEEMS WITH LIFE THROUGH PERSONALITIES OF MOTLEY CHARACTERS

Corey Mesler Special to The Commercial Appeal Memphian Corey Mesler is a longtime book reviewer for The Commercial Appeal

2002

Overview

The plot, such as it is, is simple. [John McGahern] draws two main characters, Joe and Kate Ruttledge, and describes the life that swirls around them and their lakeside farm. The visitors they receive include irascible Bill Evans, who suffers from the abuse he received as a child at the hands of priests; gossipmonger Jamesie, one of the book's more likable eccentrics; the dodgy womanizer John Quinn; and Joe's aristocratic uncle, whom everyone calls The Shah. There is no real action, yet the book teems with life. \"Had Bill any news?\" asks Joe at one point. \"Big news,\" Kate tells him. \"One day every week from now on he is going to town on the bus.\" And, during a trip out of the area, Jamesie complains, \"You see nothing at home. Nothing.\" To which Joe replies, \"You see the birds and the sky and the tracks of animals.\" In lesser hands, these sentiments could be lackluster, but McGahern is a master prose stylist and writes with a keen understanding of human psychology. The reader is drawn into the book's simple life, pulled by a temperate tide of wisdom and grace.

• Publisher: Gannett Media Corp
• Subject: McGahern, John