It began as a series of flash memories that were recounted. This novel was a long time in the making. This short, original and captivating book, composed of many self-contained stories or ‘prose poems’ is described by Terry Eagleton as, ‘a working-class, Republican version of Irish gothic … it occupies some transitional zone between fiction and autobiography’ ( New Statesman & Society, August 1996). The novel’s landscape is drawn from the intimately domestic, from political history and from Irish legend. In the interview extracts that follow, Seamus Deane throws some light on the writing process, family secrets and Northern Ireland. The English & Media Centre interviewed Seamus Deane for their publication and video, Three Modern Novels at A Level. A literary critic, poet and Irish republican, what Seamus Deane wants to represent – growing up in Northern Ireland in the forties and fifties, political treachery, sectarian violence, rumour, hauntings, family secrets – makes particular demands on the written word, literary forms and on the reader. Reading in the Dark was the 1996 Guardian Fiction Prize-winner and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize. Reading in the Dark has attracted enormous critical attention and acclaim: ‘we are in the territory of the power of the word’ (Anne Devlin, The Independent, August 1996) ‘a thriller of such enigmatic depth that even when all is revealed, its mystery does not dissolve … a masterpiece of eloquence distilled’ (Laura Cumming, The Guardian, December 1996). One relates to one of the narrator’s uncles, Eddie, who disappeared in April 1922 after a shoot-out between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the police.“I have confidence that there will be a solution (to the Northern Ireland conflict), maybe by the year 2020 when we all have 2020 vision” – Seamus Deane Bamboozelem, make a series of objects disappear before finally disappearing himself.ĭuring a difficult winter, the family’s boiler breaks, and the narrator’s uncles arrive to help repair it. The second relates to an experience the narrator has at Duffy Circus. The first relates to a belief that fairies walk among humans and are intent on stealing children.
The narrator comments on two instances of disappearances. The narrator has four younger siblings, whose ages are spaced out in “one-year or two-year steps” (6). His oldest sibling, Eilis, is four years older than him, while Liam is two years older. The narrator describes the structure of his large family. She means that she sees a ghost, but the boy does not see or sense anything. His mother warns him to go back down because there is “somebody there” (3). When we first meet the novel’s narrator, a young boy in an Irish Catholic family, he is climbing the stairs.
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