The author's debut novel

McGahern, John ~ The Barracks

Faber and Faber, London : 1963

The First UK Printing published by Faber and Faber, London in 1963. 8vo., red cloth lettered in gilt to spine; complete in the publisher's grey, black and green wrapper (unclipped, priced '18s net' to the front flap); The BOOK is in Very Good++ or better condition, a little pushed and rubbed to the spine tips; lightly rubbed at edges and corners; Light toning to the text-block; Free from inscriptions and erasures ; The WRAPPER is in Very Good++ condition, lightly rubbed, toned and creased at folds, with very minor losses to the spine tips. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. An excellent example of McGahern's first novel. The story of Elizabeth Reegan, who marries a policeman in a small Irish village. Part tragedy, part comedy, and taking as its focus the banalities of everyday life, the plot follows Elizabeth, battling cancer, and her husband, battling his superior officer. John McGahern (1934 – 2006) was one of the most important Irish writers of his generation. Born in Dublin, he was raised by his mother, a schoolteacher, and his father, a police sergeant. When his mother died of cancer in 1944, the family were uprooted, and his father, already a volatile man, became more and more prone to outbursts of physical abuse. 'The Barracks', therefore, like many debut novels, serves as a semi-autobiographical account of the author's early years, living and working in rural Ireland. Following publication of the present work, McGahern released 'The Dark', a coming-of-age story between a boy and his widowed father. Upon release, it was immediately banned by the Irish Censorship Board for its depictions of sexual abuse, and the resulting scandal led to McGahern's dismissal from his teaching job at Scoil Eoin Báiste, events that were to shape the rest of his life. The Guardian writer Richard Pine writes in his obituary of the author that he was 'arguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett', whose early autobiographical novels "had already set the tone for his major themes: domestic interiors (in every sense of the word), the relationships of men to women and of parents to children, and the mindscape of traditionalist rural Ireland." Today, he is perhaps best remembered for his 1990 novel 'Amongst Women' which revolves around the character of a tyrannical father and former IRA leader. 'The Barracks' was subsequently adapted for stage in 1969 by Hugh Leonard, where it appeared in the Dublin Theatre Festival. For its publication, McGahern received the AE Memorial Award and the Macauley Fellowship. An increasingly elusive title

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++
JACKET: Very Good ++