The mother is evidently dead (she is barely mentioned). The five children are in their teens as we start, except for Luke, who is already out of the house, living in London, and refusing to communicate with his father or return home for any reason. In Amongst Women, Irish novelist John McGahern takes us back to the 1950s and inside the home of the Moran family in rural County Sligo. McGahern’s storytelling is subtle and measured and, if you let it get to you, moving. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and lost out to Possession by Byatt, a novel that was written by an author seemingly far more concerned to impress literary judges. The very useful Wikipedia entry was helpful here, and if I’d had more of a Catholic bent, I’d have picked up the reference ‘blessed art thou amongst women‘ is a line from the Rosary which Moran faithfully leads his family to pray on many occasions in the book. There’s at least one son at home for most of the novel so it isn’t that Moran has to endure entirely female company. Quite why McGahern titled it Amongst Women eluded me. And it’s Moran you really want a break from most of the time. The story is well told although none of the characters except Moran are really crafted well enough for you to get to know them too well. Despite her saintly forebearance, he still manages to push everyone to the limit. In the midst of this storm comes Rose, a local woman who, somehow, manages to marry the man and bring some fur to line the flint. His daughters tiptoe around him like he’s primed semtex.

He’s already alienated one son as the book gets underway and goes on to alienate another. It’s very hard to be sympathetic to him, though as his constant belligerance keeps his family on edge. He’s an old freedom fighter from the days of revolution against British rule and, if we’re being sympathetic to him, he suffers from PTSD. Moran rules his family with an iron fist. Lyrically written as so many Irish novels are, this centres around the inscrutable patriarch of a rural family.

John mcgahern amongst