An original contribution to Irish studies, John McGahern and Modernism includes close readings of Amongst Women and Memoir alongside comparative readings of Toibín, Joyce and Trevor. It surveys existing scholarly evaluations and sifts through critical assessments of McGahern's writing, centring him in a theoretical framework of 'European' thought. To show the strain over the iconicity of 'John McGahern' as a cultural construction in Ireland, Richard Robinson revisits debates in Irish culture, uncovering much about the contemporary status of Irish fiction and its relationship with the academy.

But most importantly, Robinson's study tackles the argument between tradition and modernity in McGahern's work, freeing the writer from out-dated descriptions of an elegist for a vanishing way of life and portraying him as dramatic dramatist of the tension between ritual and change.