The Barracks - Tapa blanda

(One of the preeminent Irish writers of our time, John McGahern has captivated readers with such poignant and heart-wrenching novels as Amongst Women and The Dark, Moving between tragedy and savage comedy, desperation and joy, McGahern s first novel, The Barracks, is one of haunting power. Elizabeth Reegan, after years of freedom and loneliness as a nurse in London, returns to the Irish village of her childhood. She marries a police sergeant who is struggling to break free from the servile restrictions of the barracks, feuding bitterly with the superintendent, and is step-mother to his three children. Elizabeth is able to balance the small satisfactions of provincial life against the keener joys and sorrows of her past in London. But then she realizes that her very existence is threatened by illness. Moving as it does between tragedy and savage comedy, between desperation and joy, The Barracks has a haunting quality which deservedly won it a famous literary prize. 'The details (of domestic life) are evoked with a scrupulous yet enhancing accuracy that reminds one of the young Joyce ... He is astonishingly successful in penetrating the mind of a mature woman confronted with pain and death. Mr McGahern is the real thing.' David Lodge, Spectator)