Just the title - The Country Funeral - tells you everything. This is a dour, slow, miserable story where fun, imagination and anything you like about fiction goes to die! It’s not even the subject matter. John McGahern’s “fiction” is like reading a nonfiction article on what a funeral is like - that’s the level of entertainment on offer here.
Three Irish brothers go to bury their dead uncle. What do you think happens at a funeral/wake? People put on dark clothes, bow their heads, say nice things about the deceased, and have a few drinks and things to eat. That’s exactly what the non-characters do here. So. What.
Where’s the story? What’s the point? Does McGahern have anything to say or is he just describing a relative’s funeral and trying to pass it off as fiction by changing the names? And what bland “characters” - I couldn’t tell any of them apart aside from that one of them was in a wheelchair.
The Country Funeral is one of the dullest, most coma-rific stories I’ve ever read - prose that’s DOA!
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