By the Lake: ALA Notable Books for Adults

by John McGahern

Book Overview

In this "autumnal novel" ("The Atlantic Monthly"), the writer who has been called the Irish Chekhov guides readers into a fictional village in rural Ireland and deftly explores its natural rhythms and the inner lives of its inhabitants.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679744029
• ISBN13: 9780679744023
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

That you rise with the angels Mr Gahern

I was so sad to hear of the death of this gentleman last year. I read this book, and his earlier books too. wrt:/'That they may face the rising sun', I agree with other reviews that now't happens in this book that you could recount to anyone, but the prose, the mood, etc makes it one of my favourites. Life affirming, gentle, genuine. Being irish myself I think I can relate to that disappearing world of decent, friendly humble and genuine people who built our country, like my own parents. For me, this book was an absolute joy to read, and profoundly moving, although I don't know why. It's on my favourites list, but once again I was genuinely gutted that the author passed on suddenly last year. May you rest with the angels Mr McGahern.

Wonderfully Simple Character Piece

I had been told about this book at separate times by two older women who are avid readers, and both talked enthusiastically about its quiet charms. It took me nearly a year to finally pick it up, and after turning the last page, I was sorry to see it end. A wonderful virtually plotless novel that follows the simple lives of Joe and Kate Rutledge, a couple who have left their busy lives in London to lead simpler ones in the Irish countryside. What propels the book through a year is their relationships with various "characters" who live near and around them. The book is lyrical in its simplicity with restrained but honest emotion pulsing through its veins. I loved the way these people interacted with one another, and by the end felt I was leaving a group of old friends. In a way it reminded me somewhat of Wallace Stegner's,"Crossing to Safety" and like that book left me totally satisfied upon finishing.

A NECESSARILY UNHURRIED STORY

I found this novel by John McGahern to be much more satisfying than his collected short stories, which I also read recently - and I can see two reasons for that. Finding no fault at all with his writing - he's amazingly talented - I felt that the characters depicted here were much better developed and fuller, all-around, than the ones in his stories. The `space' of the novel also allowed the author to take his time and delve into the story at it's own pace, rather than his own. The result is a beautiful book that quite literally picks the reader up and places him/her into the setting (rural Ireland, relatively modern, with the time never specified) and amongst a group of most wonderful characters. The novel is peopled with much more likeable - and acceptable - characters than the stories. Even the scalliwags herein are not without their redeeming qualities.Rather than setting out to tell a story about a specific event or person, McGahern has chosen instead to allow the reader access to the daily lives of his characters, following them gently over the course of a year. We see them deal with their farms, their jobs, their personal relationships, with the changing times, and with life and death. This book enveloped me so entirely and so comfortably that I was very sorry to see it end - all the while knowing that it couldn't go on forever (rather like life itself).This is a very enjoyable, worthwhile read - I can give it my highest recommendation.

A book to savor

I truly loved this book. But first, I had to slow way, way down. This is a quiet book -- a loving portrait of a year in the life of a small enclave in rural Ireland. Nothing happens, yet everything happens. Ultimately, this book is "about" the nature of life itself -- love of land, the rhythms of the natural world, human connections -- the simple universals. It's beautifully written and well worth pondering.

A quiet, happy, gem

This is a quiet, happy, gem of novel by a proven literary master. Set in recent time in a small rural community in northwest Ireland, the story follows a year in the lives of several lakeside residents of small neighboring farms. The very common place events of their lives are described in episodic fashion. The central figures are a childless Anglo/Irish couple who left their successful professional careers in London to reside on a farm by the lake. A theme throughout the narrative is about Irish people who leave for England and later return. But the primary theme is the almost seamless and repetitive lives of the people of this almost idyllic community. This is a place where the accidental death of a lamb or the sudden appearance of a new telephone pole are major events. These lives and relationships are told in prose that is so poetically descriptive that, without being at all cloying, almost glistens on the page. The vision of a heron that rises in the mist everytime someone walks by the lakeshore is palpable. There are no chapters in the book. The various episodes are strung together one after another, but this seems fitting where there are no large, climactic events. The people and their speech are quaintly Irish, and it is easy to love and admire each of them in spite of a host of personality quirks and ritualistic behavior. The story resolves itself with the death and funeral of one of the leading characters, replete with the traditional laying out of the corpse, the wake and the digging of the grave in the family plot (many Irish graves contain the remains of several generations of individuals). This episode is described in such detail and matter-of-fact forthrightness that one feels intimately involved. The original title of the book when published in Ireland was "That They May Face The Rising Sun". This more appropriate title comes from a conversation among the grave diggers where one of them explains that people are always buried with their heads toward the west so that when they are eventually resurrected from the grave, they will rise from the ground facing the rising sun. It is an image, both morbid and uplifting, that sticks long after the book is finished.