The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien – Galley Beggar Critical Reading Class #3

I spent another very enjoyable two hours online with the other participants in this class, led by chief Galley Beggar, Sam Jordison, discussing Edna O’Briens sensational debut novel from 1960 – The Country Girls. Before I get started on the discussions, here are links to the first two sessions’ write-ups.

1. The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine
2. Kindred by Octavia Butler

The Country Girls was a re-read for me – I first read it for ‘Reading Ireland Month’ hosted by Cathy back in 2016. My original review is HERE. I loved it then and I hugely enjoyed revisiting it, but must admit that knowing what happens, it lost some of its immediacy. However, it gained in getting deeper into the text, amplified later by our discussions.

To summarise in broadest terms, The Country Girls is the first part of a trilogy, narrated by Caithleen who is fourteen as the book opens. This coming of age story follows her and her friend Baba from rural village school in the west of Ireland to the convent boarding school and being expelled; arriving in Dublin earlier than planned to become a shopgirl. The pair have their ups and downs in their relationship, and the girls do indulge themselves! I can see why the book offended the Irish censor in 1960. The writing may be lyrical, but it is also frank – and the constant sexually-charged teasing that goes on between girls and boys, men and women, and all combinations thereof would elicit many a tut.

We began with Sam giving biographical notes on O’Brien to set the start of her illustrious writing career in context. The novel, which is strongly autobiographical, was famously written in three weeks, after the publisher for whom she’d been working writing reader’s reports suggested she should write herself. She was already ensconced in soon to be swinging London though when it was published in 1960, so had the Irish Sea between her and the furore it caused in her homeland.

A lot of the discussion centred around ‘agency’, especially that of our narrator Cait, who for most of the book it seemed let things happen to her, including being groomed by Mr Gentleman, but also letting Baba take advantage of her compliant nature. There’s also the moving away from the Catholic church which is agency giving

Beyond O’Brien’s lyrical and sensual descriptions of the countryside, there were some wonderful scenes: a hand coming through from the bed behind Cait’s to hand her some cake on their first night in the convent, and the hilarious one of wearing brassieres until they were dirty then chucking them out for new ones, black this time, so they didn’t show stains! One thing is certain, we were all left wanting to read the rest of the trilogy.

Next month. Something very different – golden age crime with Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. I’m pretty sure I read this as a teenager, but can’t remember a thing.