Ecology, Memory, and Speed in John McGahern's Memoir

Eoin Flannery, Ecology, Memory and Speed in John McGahern's Memoir The speed with which homes and other human edifices 'return' to a state of wilderness is a concern of McGahern's, expressed towards the end of Memoir, and this alignment of the passage of time and ecology will be the focus of this essay. Memoir is a work of memory and navigates the lieux de memoires of McGahern's formative years, as well as much of his adult life. The act of autobiographical remembrance is facilitated by a slowing down of time and slowness enables the percolation of memory through our consciousness, and therefore is, firstly, part of the mechanics of autobiographical authorship. In another way slowness is a tonal quality of McGahern's writing as he takes a Proustian meander through the physical and memorial lanes of his origins. Furthermore, the ecological animation of McGahern's narrative bespeaks a writer who is keenly sensitive to the virtues of ecological dwelling, as McGahern is alert to the interdependencies of human and non-human; he treats of the non-human as more than an inert backdrop to his narration; and his works not only lament the passing of a way of life, but they assert the currency of this decelerated lifestyle in the contemporary moment.