A lovely gentle and witty story, 12 Feb 2008
Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967) is best known as an Irish poet, but he also dabbled in fiction. Tarry Flynn, first published in 1948, is perhaps his most popular and most famous novel. It is set in rural Ireland in the 1930s and tells the story of a young farmer's day-to-day desires: women, nature and poetry, not necessarily in that order.

On the face of it, this book does not have much of a plot. It's essentially a series of vignettes, held together by the passing seasons, but it is written in such beautiful, evocative prose, it's difficult to find fault with the narrative. There's a quiet, understated grace to every sentence that makes it a powerful and affecting read. I never thought I would say this, but I loved this book so much I'm afraid the late John McGahern, my favourite Irish writer and possibly my favourite writer per se, has a rival for my affections.

There are lots of similarities in style and content -- I rather suspect that McGahern (1934-2006) drew inspiration from Kavanagh's work -- but it is their shared ability to find beauty in the simplest of things, in the mundane tasks of people's lives, that I love so much.

In Tarry Flynn, the farmer of the title, Kavanagh creates a character that is also able to find beauty in a world that he finds otherwise perplexing.

In fact Tarry is so awe-struck by the fields and flowers and changing seasons that he believes that the "Holy Spirit was in the fields" and that religion is "beauty in Nature". When he shares these views with his overbearing mother, she feels that there is a "kink in him which she never had been able to fathom" and that he spends far too much time with his head in the clouds.

"And he was forever reading and dreaming to himself in the fields. It was a risk to let him out alone in a horse and cart. The heart was often out of her mouth that he'd turn the cart upside down in a gripe while he was dreaming or looking at the flowers. And then the shocking things that he sometimes said about religion and the priests. She was very worried about all that. Not that she loved the priests -- like a true mother she'd cut the Pope's throat for the sake of her son -- but she felt the power of the priests and didn't want to have their ill will."

The priests are, indeed, powerful. The local priest, Father Daly, is so worried that Dargan, the rural area in which the story is set, is "in danger of boiling over in wild orgies of lust" that he organises a special Mission to warn parishioners about the sin of sex outside of marriage.

Tarry, who is fast approaching 30, is one of those bachelors to whom the Mission is aimed. But he has never even kissed a girl, much less gone "all the way" and so the Church's crusade is pretty much a lost cause as far as he is concerned. Indeed, it tends to backfire a little because as he moulds the potatoes one morning "his mind drifted to a new excitement by the thought of all the strange girls that would be coming to the Mission. It often worried him that a lot of other men might be as hypocritical as himself. He, when he analysed himself, knew that he went to religious events of this kind mainly to see the girls".

While the book has dark overtones -- the Mission and the Catholic Church's control of every aspect of village life is pivotal to the story -- it also contains some light-hearted scenes and there's a gentle witticism that pervades much of Tarry's escapades, especially his dispute with a neighbour over the purchase of a field.

All in all, this is a lovely, gentle story about one man's struggle to rise above the burden of family, farm and lust, all set in the idyllic surrounds of 1930s rural Ireland.


Sweet Dreamer Tarry , 06 Jul 2006
I first read Tarry Flynn while at school and to this day I have read it about 6 times. I never get bored with it and it never ceases to make me smile. Tarry Flynn dreamer/farmer lives with his mother and sisters in the shadow of Drumnee probably as Kavanagh was writing it he saw Tarry on that same stony grey soil of Monaghan that he grew up on. This is a book about a county long gone one ruled by class and the iron hand of the Catholic Church. It is the church that takes a central role in this book. The boys at the back of the chapel and the misssion in town. For those of you who do not know what the mission meant in terms of an Irish town I will expalin. Very often priests who came home from Africa would do a stint of preaching on the road. These orders were usually Redemptions and other fire and Brimestone orders. The whole town would go to the mission and if you did not well the parish priest would know. This book is also about man's realtionship with nature and a desire for something different. It will make you laugh and think in equal messures.

Absolutely Fantastic.............., 02 Mar 2001
I have read and reread this book many times. It is brilliantly written and captures the essence of country life in S.Ireland. I have relatives in this part of the country and characters like this still exist. This is not a book where a lot happens, but you will be captivated from page 1 in Tarry's life, trials and decisions.If you like Irish literature - read this ..

A real taste of Irish country life of yester year, 24 Oct 2000
When first starting to read you need two thing's to fully appreciate this book. Firstly a pipeing cup of what ever take's your fancy (preferably tea) and secondly a raging open fire. To start this book is writen by the type of person anyone can relate to. The type of incidents which happen throughout the book may seem trivial in this day and age but at the time they were matter's of life and death. It brings you to a world deep within Ireland, a simple way of life only upset by gossip and public opinion. When all that is important is the price you can get for the hen's eggs and a woodbine at night. Simplicity is the initial reaction you may have, but in reality there is much much more. The story is based on the author's life beneeth the Grey hill's on a Monaghan farm. His life some what distracted by his love for book's and awe of nature in short you could say he is a dreamer but in truth he is only a romantic who long's for love. In his mind he is all conquering but when faced with the reality of a situation thing's just never seem to go right. A heart warming look at the toils and tribulation's of a young man and his struggle with love and his outlook on life.