Allusions/references To Other Works
Amongst Women refashions characters, themes and situations from The Barracks and The Dark, McGahern's first two novels. For example, Moran resembles the character Mahoney in The Dark and Reegan, the bitter IRA veteran in The Barracks.
McGahern's autobiography Memoir (2005) makes clear the influence of his early life on his work. His much-loved mother Susan died when he was a child, leaving McGahern and his siblings in the care of his father — a former IRA member — who was an authoritarian and self-absorbed Garda (policeman). His complicated character bears a large resemblance to Moran.
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