Reading in the Dark

Seamus Deane’s 1996 novel, Reading in the Dark, was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. It follows an unnamed narrator living in Derry, Northern Ireland, from the 1940s until the 1970s. Each of the book’s six chapters is divided into several short fragments, which provide snapshots of a character, event, or aspect of the narrator’s world. 

Throughout the novel, the dominant narrative is the mystery surrounding Uncle Eddie. The narrator, a young boy, is curious about his uncle’s disappearance in the 1920s. Most of his family members, especially the narrator’s parents, refuse to talk about Eddie. According to rumors, Eddie became involved with the Irish Republican Army, and he disappeared after a shoot-out at an old distillery. Later, the narrator’s grandfather reveals that he ordered Eddie’s execution after hearing rumors that Eddie was a police informant. However, Eddie was innocent. The real police informant was Tony McIlhenny, one of the narrator’s uncles who escaped to Chicago.

Another dominant narrative throughout the novel is the conflict between citizens and the police. The narrator has many run-ins with the police. The first one occurs when the police spot the narrator playing with a gun. The police arrest the narrator, his father, and his brother Liam and beat them at the police station. Later, the narrator throws a rock at a police car, and he tells Sergeant Burke the names of the boys he was with during the incident. This makes the narrator an informant. We later learn that Sergeant Burke leaked misinformation about Eddie being an informant to the narrator’s grandfather because the latter murdered a police officer.

As time goes on, the narrator pieces together his family’s history from their confessions and from their community’s stories about them. He becomes increasingly distant from his parents as he gets older. Though the narrator learns more and more about his family members, they are unable to speak to each other about their shared history or trauma.

The narrator is just beginning university in the late 1960s as the Troubles, a nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland, begin. His parents die without having a direct discussion about their family’s history.