Prodigals’ Dreams: John McGahern’s That They May Face the Rising Sun

In this article I focus primarily on Irish writer John McGahern’s last novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun (2002) and develop the argument that the parable of the Prodigal Son from the New Testament gospel of Luke offers a way to read McGahern’s novels, an approach secured with his last novel.  To give Rising Sun the necessary context for the prodigal discussion, I review the author’s first five novels and briefly point out the journey motif in them.  The longer discussion of That They May Face the Rising Sun then examines the various ways the parable offers us a lens through which to understand the return to Ireland of McGahern’s protagonists. The article addresses recent scholarship, in particular Eamonn Hughes’s study of Rising Sun in the Spring/Summer 2005 special edition ofThe Irish University Review dedicated to McGahern.