JOHN FURY

by Jack Dunphy ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A studied, stylized novel of Irish Americans in South Philadelphia of the early 1900's, that explores the development of John Fury's disintegration through his pride and his inability to save himself from the disaster of his second marriage. Mame, his first wife, and their two daughters, give him the only happy time in his economically insecure life. With Bridget, and her jealous, critical brother, John is unable to hold his girls or control the son Bridget has borne. John, through drink and ill health, is barely tolerated in his own home, and when, at her brother's suggestion, Bridget locks him out, John is killed in trying to force the door. As in McSorley's Our Own Kind, here again is the clannish Irish in all their hopeless belligerence, warm kindliness, abject surrender to the conditions of living. The formalization of the prose, and the sustained pitch of the story give this a distinctive quality that emphasizes its social consciousness, but which has little of the tender, wide appeal of the McSorley.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1946

Categories: FICTION