{"product_id":"young-john-mcgahern-becoming-a-novelist-9780199682348","title":"Young John McGahern: Becoming a Novelist","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn McGahern was the most admired Irish novelist of the past fifty years. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis accessible fiction won him a wide readership throughout Ireland, but the accomplishment of his craft ensured that he also became known as a writer's writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe set his novels in places he knew intimately- Dublin, London, and the West of Ireland, where he grew up and became known for the intimacy and honesty of his mapping of home truths of Irish life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis first novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Barracks\u003c\/em\u003e, was widely hailed as a classic on publication in 1963, and his later works, including \u003cem\u003eAmongst Women \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eThat They May Face the \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eRising Sun\u003c\/em\u003e, and, indeed, \u003cem\u003eMemoir\u003c\/em\u003e, are built on the stylistic foundation of that novel. The first ten years of McGahern's career were crucial, for it was during this time that he became an artist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book explores a young man's discovery of literature. McGahern's youthful realization that books provide both intense pleasure and a spiritual lifeline toward a unique kind of knowledge matured in his twenties.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStruggling to overcome desolating experiences in childhood, and abandoning conventional beliefs, he found his anchor in European literary classics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis discovery of how a powerful individual personality could be embedded in novels and stories inspired him. He became an impassioned reader of Proust, Tolstoy, and Flaubert as well as a select few local writers, the poet Patrick Kavanagh and the novelist Michael McLaverty, whose work more closely mirrored his own experience and aspirations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDenis Sampson recreates McGahern's personal and cultural circumstances in Dublin and London in the fifties and early sixties: his absorption of the lives and the work of classic writers; his shrewd observations of those he encountered; his definition of the kind of poetic writer he wished to become.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe considers McGahern's first efforts as an apprentice novelist and weaves the inner story of the writing of \u003cem\u003eThe Barracks \u003c\/em\u003ein 1960-62 into a narrative of his imaginative formation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is an account of McGahern's triumphant emergence from what he called 'my years of training in the secret Dublin years'. In the decades that followed, whilst he experimented with styles and genres, the foundational aspects of his identity as a writer remained constant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Denis D. Sampson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/14\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.60h x 5.00w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780199682348\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDenis Sampson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter studying literature at University College, Dublin, Denis Sampson moved to Montreal, where he earned a Ph.D. at McGill University. He has lived and worked in Montreal since the 1970s but returns to spend part of each year in Ireland. He is the author of \u003cem\u003eOutstaring Nature's Eye: The Fiction of\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eJohn McGahern\u003c\/em\u003e (1993) and \u003cem\u003eBrian Moore: The Chameleon Novelist\u003c\/em\u003e (1998). He also writes personal essays (memoir and travel), book reviews, and literary features, broadcasts on the radio, and gives talks and public lectures.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39937638662259,"sku":"0199682348","price":77.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_f33e9991-4ee1-4043-bf43-9b5ef3579b13.jpg?v=1647994683","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/young-john-mcgahern-becoming-a-novelist-9780199682348","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}