Reading in the Dark

I regularly get asked if I know of a certain author or a book – the expectation being that because I publish books I know everything (or almost) that has been published and probably read it. Sadly, in most cases I’ve never heard of the author, let alone the book. On occasion, an auhor or friend will suggest a book which I invariably will get to read, and then on occasions like this, I’m offered a book to read because the person wanted another opinion. So, thanks to Keith Joyce (Train Alive), I got to read Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane.
I purposefully didn’t put Seamus Deane in the subject title as that could be quite limiting. I’m not sure why he chose the title for his book as there is very little reading that takes place in it, other than the lead unnamed character reading between the lines to work out what happened to his family between the end of the Second World War and the 1970s in Ireland. Personally, I do a lot of reading in the dark as I’m sure many avid readers do especially if they have busy lives. The dark part of the day is the only time left to read, although others might have different ideas.
And that brings us back to Reading in the Dark, which tells of dark, hidden secrets in a family – and the hell or trauma people are subjected to in keeping the secret. The question being – is it better to know or not to know? I’ll leave you to read the book to decide yourself.
The book has an interesting structure – Three parts each with two chapters and then various essays or sub-sections which contain a title and a date. I understand the sub-sections. They’re flashes of memory/recall of episodes which ultimately bring the story to a conclusion, with scope for moving on if Seamus Deane had so chosen. That he died in 2021 means there won’t be. I’m not so sure the Parts and Chapters were required other than to make up pages… for me they didn’t add to the story and were not that helpful in place keeping which is what many people tell me the point of chapter numbers is for. It was a quick read – 9 hours in all. It’s a well-written story, taking the reader on a journey, but it’s not likely to be everyone’s cup-of-tea. It appears unstructured and the reader has to work quite hard (comparatively speaking) to make the links the author is presumably hoping they will.
Is this a feature of Irish writing? James Joyce, Brendan Behan spring to mind… Seamus Deane won a few awards for Reading in the Dark – and was short listed for the Booker back in 1996. I can see why.
Whilst reading the book, I was transported to another dark Irish period, that of the Famine as written about by Frank Parker in Called to Account. Both books – Reading in the Dark and Called to Account are stories of struggle against the systeem, of persistence and perseverence, of families torn apart and of survival.