Literary Significance & Criticism
Although McGahern had published four novels and three collections of short stories before Amongst Women, it was this novel that brought his first abundance of critical acclaim. This approval completely shifted the Irish public's reception of his work. Once reviled — he left the country after his novel The Dark (1965) was banned by the Irish Censorship Board because it was deemed pornographic — he became one of Ireland's most eminent writers of fiction.
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