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Review
'A tribute to a singular life and genius … this collection provides an insight into the mind of a gifted and generous critic.' --Stephanie Hegarty, New Statesman
'The appearance of what is pretty well the complete non-fictional prose by one of Ireland's greatest writers of fiction is a very significant event ... an ample and compelling collection of essays ... This is a wonderfully life-enhancing book.' --Bernard O'Donoghue, Irish Times
'Anyone who loves his work will be enthralled by 'Love of the World' ... through John McGahern's words we've all seen things we would otherwise have been the poorer for missing.' --John Boland, Irish Independent
'The appearance of what is pretty well the complete non-fictional prose by one of Ireland's greatest writers of fiction is a very significant event ... an ample and compelling collection of essays ... This is a wonderfully life-enhancing book.' --Bernard O'Donoghue, Irish Times
'Anyone who loves his work will be enthralled by 'Love of the World' ... through John McGahern's words we've all seen things we would otherwise have been the poorer for missing.' --John Boland, Irish Independent
Book Description
An enlightening collection of essays, reviews and speeches from one of Ireland's best loved writers.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The thickness of Love of the World, McGahern's collected non-fiction, seems surprising. McGahern published his books infrequently, sometimes leaving gaps of up to a decade between novels. As Clive James said of Larkin, it wasn't exactly a torrent of creativity - just the best. McGahern never wrote a line of fiction that wasn't meant to last. Few would have guessed, though, just how many of them the master left behind.
Unsurprisingly, the best pieces deal with subjects close to the author's heart, such as the letters of John Butler Yeats, his admiration for the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Williams, Alistair Macleod. Through these, his personal essays and short, insightful reviews for Irish magazines, we see the stones of McGahern's low-key aesthetic become a building. No other writer since Edwin Muir has left his readers with such an impression of gentleness and wisdom as McGahern.
A mystery, however, is why this volume's editor, Stanley Van Der Ziel, ignored his subject's warning that 'the small quantity of true work is buried in such a mausolem of tired, indifferent prose. Literature in our time is far more endangered by a surfeit of material and commentary than by neglect.' So with the lesser pieces. Next to the true work stands mere finger-exercises such as the Beckett imitation that opens the volume, the written-to-order travel articles. Perhaps the less said about Professor Kiberd's muddled, often arrogant introduction, the better. Trying to cram in everything, even out of reverence, is neither wise nor sensible. To return to Clive James, we do better to assume that when authors subtract something they are adding to the overall work, and watching an editor undoing those painstaking sums is painful. A selection, not a collection, would have been better, and more suited to the memory of McGahern, late master of the unsaid.
Unsurprisingly, the best pieces deal with subjects close to the author's heart, such as the letters of John Butler Yeats, his admiration for the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Williams, Alistair Macleod. Through these, his personal essays and short, insightful reviews for Irish magazines, we see the stones of McGahern's low-key aesthetic become a building. No other writer since Edwin Muir has left his readers with such an impression of gentleness and wisdom as McGahern.
A mystery, however, is why this volume's editor, Stanley Van Der Ziel, ignored his subject's warning that 'the small quantity of true work is buried in such a mausolem of tired, indifferent prose. Literature in our time is far more endangered by a surfeit of material and commentary than by neglect.' So with the lesser pieces. Next to the true work stands mere finger-exercises such as the Beckett imitation that opens the volume, the written-to-order travel articles. Perhaps the less said about Professor Kiberd's muddled, often arrogant introduction, the better. Trying to cram in everything, even out of reverence, is neither wise nor sensible. To return to Clive James, we do better to assume that when authors subtract something they are adding to the overall work, and watching an editor undoing those painstaking sums is painful. A selection, not a collection, would have been better, and more suited to the memory of McGahern, late master of the unsaid.
Format:Paperback
Though not given equal weight, three themes dominate this book.
The most interesting, entertaining and insightful for me was his observations, frequently autobiographical on the social, political and cultural mores of the Free State theocracy from the 1950s onwards.
I found it hard to warm to his often pretentious not to say portentous insights, generally penned in very short newspaper or magazine reviews either of their books or of their biographies, into literary and cultural luminaries varying from Vargas Llosa to J M Coetzee by way of E R Dodds, Flaubert, Ingmar Bergman, Georges Simenon amongst many others; though his dismissal of Isabel Allende as little more than a Chilean Maeve Binchy did draw a smile.
The third element is a series of essays on people who are obviously his heros in one way or another; John Butler Yeates, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernie O'Malley being brought to life for me at least.
Undoubtedly there is (much?) dross here though the editor would presumably justify the final volume on the grounds of completeness.
The most interesting, entertaining and insightful for me was his observations, frequently autobiographical on the social, political and cultural mores of the Free State theocracy from the 1950s onwards.
I found it hard to warm to his often pretentious not to say portentous insights, generally penned in very short newspaper or magazine reviews either of their books or of their biographies, into literary and cultural luminaries varying from Vargas Llosa to J M Coetzee by way of E R Dodds, Flaubert, Ingmar Bergman, Georges Simenon amongst many others; though his dismissal of Isabel Allende as little more than a Chilean Maeve Binchy did draw a smile.
The third element is a series of essays on people who are obviously his heros in one way or another; John Butler Yeates, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernie O'Malley being brought to life for me at least.
Undoubtedly there is (much?) dross here though the editor would presumably justify the final volume on the grounds of completeness.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A superb collection of John McGaherns work that serves to remind me of his superb simple, but very moving way of expression. It also helps to get a picture of the all round writer and his interests.
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