Amongst Women
Amongst Women (German: "Unter Frauen") is a 1990 novel by the Irish writer John McGahern (1934-2006). The story describes the embittered, aging IRA - Veteran Michael Moran and its tyranny against his wife and children, who both fear him and love.
The book is McGahern's best known work; it is considered his masterpiece . It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1990, which then went to Antonia Susan Byatt , and won the Irish Times / Aer Lingus Literature Prize in 1991. Robert McCrum tops the work in his list of the 100 best English-language novels compiled for the Guardian .
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The novel is set in the rural-backward west of Ireland in Great Meadow . It covers the period of twenty years in the middle of the twentieth century. The focus is on Michael Moran, patriarch of the Moran family and former IRA fighter, who was previously an officer in the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) and the Irish Civil War (1922–1923). Although Moran is a respected member of the community and a devout Catholic at that, there is a cruel, violent, and dominant side to his character . He determines the life of his second wife Rose and five children. Despite their loyalty to the family, they try to assert their own lives. Mementos are told during almost the entire plot, in which Moran's children try to celebrate "Monaghan Day" to do a favor for their father, because he is always very pleasant to deal with. For him, the war was the best time of his life because "things in war are very simple and clear".
The story is told from the past. Memories keep popping up, like what happens when his friend McQuaid visits Moran on market days and they talk about the old (war) times.
As Moran gets older, his role as the central figure in the family is weakening as the children withdraw from Great Meadow . Most of the time he is calm with his daughters, but his sons revolt more and more often. Despite his need for attention and help for the father, the eldest, son Luke, leaves the house for London because he can no longer bear "the overwhelming authority". He will only return to his parents' house once in his life. This progression is very painful for Moran, and the others' conversations about Luke don't make matters any better. Michael, the youngest, hides behind Rose, the mother, as long as he's still in the house, but at some point he has enough courage and can no longer be stopped. The only way the children can develop their independence is to leave, despite all of Moran's appeals to the ethos of the family .
So Moran can now only determine the lives of the daughters, who come back home as soon as their professional life allows. They want his approval, but fear his temper. From him comes the guiding principle that holds them together: “Alone we are nothing, together we can do everything.” The daughters find their own characters in relation to a possible family group to be embarrassing.
The description of Moran's friendship with McQuaid is also interspersed with flashbacks. For example, there is the memory of an attack by the British Army on Flying Column , to which they belonged. An argument between the two is also described, which destroys their friendship and leaves Moran alone.
At the end of the story, his protagonist dies . He is buried under a yew tree , but his influence on the family continues: "[...] as they buried him under the yew tree, it seemed to them that each of them had become daddy in their own way."
The title
The title can be understood in two different ways: on the one hand, it refers to the women who were significant in Morgan's life; in this regard the novel describes in detail the dominant role of the patriarchal Moran in the circle of women around him. On the other hand, the title is an allusion to the traditional prayer Ave Maria , which contains the half-sentence "You are blessed among women". This prayer is an essential part of the rosary that is prayed daily in the Moran household.
People in Amongst Women
- Michael Moran The main character of the novella and patriarch of the family. He has five grown children and is married to his second wife, Rose. A "formerly vigorous man" is an IRA veteran and farmer.
- Rose Moran (nee Brady) Moran's second wife and stepmother to his children. She is in the middle of life when she marries Moran. She previously worked in Glasgow . Although Moran is clearly abusing her, she is loyal to him. She has a calm and peaceful mind. She is an integral part of the family and the mainstay for the children.
- Luke Moran Moran 's eldest son. He has become estranged from the family because of the brutal treatment of his father; he lives in london. He communicates with the family by telegram and is informed of the death of his father, but he does not react to it and does not come to the funeral.
- Maggie Moran The eldest daughter. She works as a nurse in England. She lives in London with her husband and children but comes back to Great Meadow regularly.
- Mona Moran works in the services sector in Dublin and returns home frequently.
- Sheila Moran's father Moran stops her desire to study. She also works in the service sector, is married, has children of her own and also lives in Dublin.
- Michael Moran jun. is the youngest of the children
- James McQuaid, former lieutenant in the Revolutionary War, now a successful cattle dealer. He ends his friendship with Moran because of his unforgiving and ungrateful nature.
- "Annie & Lizzie" They own the mailroom they run themselves.
Film adaptations
In 1998, a four-part television series directed by Tom Cairns appeared in a joint production by the BBC and Raidió Teilifís Éireann , which was also broadcast in Sweden and the Netherlands the following year . It starred as Tony Doyle as Michael Moran, Ger Ryan as Rose and Susan Lynch as Maggie.
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- Bookerprize (English)
- ↑ Amongst Women (1998 TV Mini-Series) . On: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved October 25, 2013.
- ^ Amongst Women (1998) . On: Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
- ↑ Susan Lynch Biography . On: filmreference.com. Retrieved October 25, 2013.