“Reluctant Catholics”: Contemporary Irish-American Women Writers

Abstract

In “Confessions of a Reluctant Catholic,” Irish-American novelist Alice McDermott describes the genesis of her narrative style and focus: “Gradually, as the pattern of my own work began to come clear, I began to understand that this repetition of what might be called Catholic themes, Catholic language, had meaning that I did not at first recognize, meaning that went far beyond matters of craft and convenience and material at hand. Gradually—no lightning bolts here—I began to realize that the language of the church, my church, was not only a means to an end in my fiction but an essential part of my own understanding of the world.” Catholicism, she continues, “was the native language of my spirit” (12–16). McDermott is not alone. Despite the United States’ reputation as a secular country, “Catholic themes, Catholic language” pervade the works of contemporary Irish-American women writers. Running throughout their novels are themes of guilt and repression, suffering and penance, transcendence and redemption, prayer and forgiveness, fatalism and free will.