There is a theme of regret and missed opportunity running through John McGahern’s short story collection, Getting Through. Mainly these involve broken relationships, between man and woman, father and son: ‘Sierra Leone’, ‘Along the Edges’.
As with High Ground and other stories, McGahern’s prose has a depth which belies the narrative somehow. They are incidents that touch on the universal. “I recognise that”, we might say – and surely that is the objective of all good writing, to relate to and touch the reader.
McGahern’s are thoughtful well-written stories, refreshingly devoid of gimmick or any linguistic sleight-of-hand.
Ian Gouge - Writer 