READING THE NOVEL Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007 Liam Harte Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007 READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel HarryE.Shawand Alison Case Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Daniel R. Schwarz Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1910–2010 James Phelan Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007 Liam Harte Forthcoming Reading the European Novel Daniel R. Schwarz Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007 Liam Harte This edition first published 2014 C 2014 Liam Harte Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Liam Harte to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. 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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author(s) have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harte, Liam. Reading the contemporary Irish novel 1987–2007 / Liam Harte. pages cm – (Reading the novel) ISBN 978-1-4443-3619-1 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4443-3620-7 (paper) 1. English fiction–Irish authors–History and criticism. 2. English fiction–20th century–History and criticism. 3. English fiction–21st century–History and criticism. 4. Social change in literature. 5. Social problems in literature. 6. Ireland–In literature. 7. Northern Ireland–In literature. I. Title. PR8803.H37 2014 823.914099415–dc23 2013025426 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Coverimage:MartinGale,By Pass 2, oil on canvas, 2003. Reproduced courtesy of the artist, www.martingale.ie Cover design by Nicki Averill Design & Illustration Typeset in 10/12.5pt Minion by Aptara Inc., New Delhi, India 1 2014 For Yvonne and Ois´ın Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction: Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007 1 1 In the Family Way: Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy (1987–1991) 23 2 House Arrest: John McGahern’s Amongst Women (1990) 51 3 Malignant Shame: Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy (1992) 75 4 Uncertain Terms, Unstable Sands: Colm Toib´ ´ın’s The Heather Blazing (1992) 105 5 Unbearable Proximities: William Trevor’s Felicia’s Journey (1994) 127 6 History’s Hostages: Edna O’Brien’s House of Splendid Isolation (1994) 151 7 Shadows in the Air: Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark (1996) 173 8 The Politics of Pity: Sebastian Barry’s A Long Long Way (2005) 197 9 Mourning Remains Unresolved: Anne Enright’s The Gathering (2007) 217 Bibliography 243 Index 259 vii Acknowledgements This book began its journey into print in university classrooms, so I must begin by thanking the many students who have taken my undergraduate and postgraduate courses on contemporary Irish fiction over the past two decades at the University of Manchester, the University of Ulster and St Mary’s University College, Twickenham. I have had the pleasure of teaching many bright minds in all three institutions and several of the textual readings I put forward in these pages have their origins in seminar discussions and tutorials. Friends and colleagues in these universities, and others, have also shaped my thinking about the contemporary Irish novel, in particular Lance Pettitt, Patrick Crotty, John Wilson Foster, Declan Kiberd, John McAuliffe, Kelly McGovern, Murray Pittock, Stephen Regan, Michael Parker and George O’Brien. I am very grateful to Professor Daniel R. Schwarz at Cornell University who, as General Editor of the Reading the Novel Series, put his faith in me to bring this book to fruition. My thanks also go to Emma Bennett, commissioning editor at Wiley Blackwell, and project editor Ben Thatcher for their patience and encouragement during the book’s evolution. I am also indebted to the three anonymous readers at Wiley Blackwell who offered valuable insights and suggestions on reading an earlier version of my manuscript. Thanks, too, to Martin Gale for kindly granting permission to reproduce his By Pass 2 on the cover. My deepest debt, as ever, is to the dedicatees of this book, my wife Yvonne and my son Ois´ın, who are my richest sources of support, inspiration and joy. Some parts of this book have been previously published, though all have been revised and expanded for publication here. Different versions of the Intro- duction and Chapters 4, 5, 8 and 9 have appeared in the following forms: “‘Tomorrow we will change our names, invent ourselves again’: Irish fiction and autobiography since 1990,” in Irish Literature Since 1990: Diverse Voices, ix Acknowledgements eds Scott Brewster and Michael Parker (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009), 201–215; “Uncertain Terms, Unstable Sands: The Heather Blaz- ing,” in ReadingColmToib´ ´ın, ed. Paul Delaney (Dublin: Liffey Press, 2008), 53–68; “Material and Symbolic Geographies in William Trevor’s Felicia’s Jour- ney,” PLL: Papers on Language and Literature. A Quarterly Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature, 48:4 (Winter 2012), 411–440; “The Pol- itics of Pity in Sebastian Barry’s A Long Long Way,” South Carolina Review, 44:2 (Spring 2012), 103–116; “Mourning Remains Unresolved: Trauma and Sur- vival in Anne Enright’s The Gathering,” LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, 21:3 (2010), 187–204. x Introduction: Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007 ........................................................................ The novel is the only developing genre and therefore it reflects more deeply, more essentially, more sensitively and rapidly, reality itself in the process of its unfolding. Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination (1981)1 ................................................................................ ........................................................................ Our mistake was to assume that we could be at home in a single nation. Wefed our- selves on ideologies of violence and instant salvation, the illusion that history is a continuum moving forward to its perfect destiny. Wethus forgot that we can never be at home anywhere. Perhaps it is one of the functions of writers and artists to remind the nation of this. To expose the old ideologies. To feel in exile abroad and also when one returns home. Toremain faithful to the no-place (u-topos)inusall. Neil Jordan, “Imagining Otherwise” (1988)2 ................................................................................ This book examines some of the most well-known and critically feted works of contemporary Irish literary fiction, all of which were published during a twenty-year period that witnessed accelerated change in virtually every sphere of the country’s economic, social, cultural, political, and religious life, and which was paralleled by an uncommon flourishing of literary and artistic creativity.3 Reading the Contemporary Irish Novel 1987–2007, First Edition. Liam Harte. C 2014 Liam Harte. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 Introduction It is written primarily for third-level students of Irish literature and culture, and as such my textual choices have been significantly influenced by university syllabi at home and abroad, though my chief guide has been my sense of the moral and aesthetic quality of the fiction itself. I have also drawn on my extensive experience of teaching and writing about Irish fiction outwith Ireland over the past two decades, of which this book is the latest fruit. As the select number of novels chosen for analysis indicates, this study does not purport to be comprehensive