Lost Fields

THE modern Irish novel has a quality all its own, since Irish life and writing have qualities all their own and are unlike anything to be found in either England or America. Ireland is Catholic, and poor, and not even semi-industrialized, and the haunting rhythms of its specialized use of the English language give it a further remoteness. Not that there is anything remote in this novel, in the actual representation of its scenes and characters. It is brilliantly clear-cut in its visualization and projection, with a clean economy of line and detail in both dialogue and description. It is a novel of episode rather than of plot, dealing with situations in the life of three generations of a Belfast family in the extreme of poverty. The family scenes, the vignettes of city and country incidents, and the personalities of each member of the family and their friends have a limpid clarity, and to read Mr. McLaverty’s prose is a delight in itself.

E. D.