In this, the final book of Christine Dwyer Hickey's masterful "Dublin" trilogy, the dancer is relocated to a house in one of the new Corporation estates, Crumlin. His useful life is over but he still exerts a malign influence over his family. This novel explores the lives of his three sons, Herbert (The Gatemaker of the Title), George and Charlie. A night's drunken escapade in Dublin ends in tragedy and shame for the family. Elegantly written, brimming with beautiful descriptive passages and peopled with rich cast of ...
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In this, the final book of Christine Dwyer Hickey's masterful "Dublin" trilogy, the dancer is relocated to a house in one of the new Corporation estates, Crumlin. His useful life is over but he still exerts a malign influence over his family. This novel explores the lives of his three sons, Herbert (The Gatemaker of the Title), George and Charlie. A night's drunken escapade in Dublin ends in tragedy and shame for the family. Elegantly written, brimming with beautiful descriptive passages and peopled with rich cast of superbly drawn characters, "The Gatemaker", which covers the period from 1939 to 1953, is a moving and elegiac depiction of life in Dublin and of the fortunes - and tragic misfortunes - of one extended family that has, within a generation, come from prosperity to something approaching respectable overtly.
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