The Dead School

by Patrick McCabe, Pat McCabe

Overview

From the award-winning author of The  Butcher Boy comes a new novel of  extraordinary power that, according to the San Francisco  Chronicle, "confirm[s] McCabe's standing as one  of the most brilliant writers to ever come out of  Ireland."

In The  Dead School, Patrick McCabe returns to the  emotionally dense landscape of small-town Ireland  to explore the inner lives of two men: a  headmaster and a schoolteacher, each man the product of a  soul-stifling culture, each battling his own demons  of loss and betrayal. Tension coils—until tragedy  strikes a young student in their charge, and the  latent despair and rage that has festered in their  hearts explodes onto the page. As in The  Butcher Boy, McCabe demonstrates his  remarkable command of the vernacular and an uncanny  ability to pinpoint the exact moment when ordinary  minds take flight into madness. Equally  compelling, equally heartbreaking in its impact,   The Dead School has established McCabe  as one of the most celebrated writers of literary  fiction today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385314206
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/01/1995
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.41(w) x 9.51(h) x 1.17(d)

Reading Group Guide

About the Book:From the award-winning author of The Butcher Boy comes a new novel of extraordinary power that, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "confirm[s] McCabe's standing as one of the most brilliant writers to ever come out of Ireland."

In The Dead School, Patrick McCabe returns to the emotionally dense landscape of small-town Ireland to explore the inner lives of two men: a headmaster and a schoolteacher, each man the product of a soul-stifling culture, each battling his own demons of loss and betrayal. Tension coils—until tragedy strikes a young student in their charge, and the latent despair and rage that has festered in their hearts explodes onto the page. As in The Butcher Boy, McCabe demonstrates his remarkable command of the vernacular and an uncanny ability to pinpoint the exact moment when ordinary minds take flight into madness. Equally compelling, equally heartbreaking in its impact, The Dead School has established McCabe as one of the most celebrated writers of literary fiction today.Discussion Questions: Question: The New York Times Book Review wrote that The Dead School "transfixes through the brilliant manipulation of voice." Discuss the impact of the omniscient narrator voice on the tone and message of the novel. Both Malachy Dudgeon and Raphael Bell, the novel's protagonists, have distinct voices of their own. In what way does this affect the tone and message of the book as well? Question: One of McCabe's primary themes throughout his work is societal repression vs. individual freedom. Though Raphael and Malachy come from different generations, how does McCabe articulate this theme throughout the novel? Question: Do you think Raphael and Malachy can be cast as isolated "madmen," or as examples of the times in which they lived? Question: The Chicago Tribune has written that "Patrick McCabe is a master at depicting the byways of interior lives, particularly those of characters who have a tenuous grasp on sanity." Discuss the moments in the novel when both Malachy's and Raphael's sanity begins to slip—and why. Given the circumstances of both men's lives, could these moments have been prevented? Question: Both Dudgeon and Bell suffered irrevocable losses in childhood. Discuss these losses and their impact on the characters' lives. Are these losses alone enough to have set in motion the psychological damage that leads to the eventual denouement of the novel? Question: The Dead School is told in loosely alternating chapters. Discuss how McCabe uses this as an effective storytelling tool. Question: McCabe has inserted two excoriating—and poignant—fable-like chapters in the novel: "Little Chubbies" and "The Dummy." How do they service McCabe's view of small-town life in Ireland? Question: Discuss McCabe's use of popular culture (rock music, cinema, television) to create an external counterpoint to the inner lives of his characters. Question: How does the role of Catholicism, both as a cultural force and an individual commitment, play an important role in The Dead School? Question: Headmaster Raphael Bell considers the feminist Evans as his nemesis. Can Bell's and Evans's opposing points of view about society and education ever be reconciled? Are his feelings of betrayal in her presence legitimate? Or do they simply arise from his inability to adjust to the changing times? Question: The Dead School can be considered a dark novel, but many have referred to McCabe's use of antic humor throughout. Explore the technique of introducing humor in the novel, and its effectiveness as a storytelling device. Question: Critics have said that McCabe is moving in startling new directions from the magisterial accomplishment of Joyce, Yeats, and Beckett. Discuss why this might be so, and if the author himself is as much a reflection of his time as his predecessors were of theirs.

Editorial Reviews

McCabe's The Butcher Boy (Booker shortlisted in the U.K. and a critical success over here) was roundly praised as a "triumph of voice," and indeed the smart-alecky Joyce-drunk narration of Francie Brady was a steady delight throughout an otherwise harrowing portrait of rural Ireland. Now, in this new book, McCabe attempts to tame his own apparent gift for the novelist's rowdy blather and build a traditional novel, full of structure and dramatic tension; instead, he has produced a predictable story with stock characters, well-timed dreams and deaths whenever the pace truly lags. The Dead School is the tale of two schoolteachers a generation apart-Raphael Bell, born in 1913, and Malachy Dudgeon, born in 1952; the first the son of an IRA man killed by the Black and Tans, the younger the son of a cuckold who took his own life. McCabe has powerful material here, as the two different Irelands, revolutionary Ireland and post-colonial Ireland, with its TV shows, rock bands and Indian food, clash at St. Anthony's school in Dublin, where young Malachy teaches and Raphael is headmaster. The fates of these two are bound for mutual destruction, as the peculiar narration, in the form of a lecture to some children from yet another schoolteacher, baldly hints at from the start. Unfortunately, readers have to wade through long spells of madness from both characters before the inevitable and tragic clash. McCabe shows flashes of his lyrical brilliance and wild exposition, but his theme has fared better in the hands of countrymen Colm Toib'n, John B. Keane and Roddy Doyle.

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Tensions at a small-town school erupt into tragedy in the latest from Irish novelist McCabe. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Raphael Bell, head prefect of Dublin's prestigious St. Anthony's school, has devoted his life to upholding its rigorous core curriculum. By the late 1960s, however, parents and students have begun to question Bell's inflexibility on such issues as corporal punishment and mandatory school prayer. Bell attributes all such criticism to the baleful influence of television, rock music, and American movies. His rage finally finds a focus in Malachy Dudgeon, a first-year teacher who seems to embody all the worst features of the counterculture. The two are soon locked in a power struggle that can only end in disaster, as McCabe's intrusive narrator repeatedly points out to the reader. The Dead School is a more complex and ambitious work than McCabe's award-winning novel The Butcher Boy (LJ 5/1/93), but it is just as pitiless in its depiction of Irish life. This deeply pessimistic novel of ideas speaks directly to the current American debate on educational reform. Recommended for most fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/95.]-Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles

Library Journal