‘All sorts of wonderful impossibilities’: Tracing the Genesis of John McGahern’s ‘Doorways’

It is well known by now that John McGahern was a scrupulous reviser of his own work, even if this insight into compositional methods has not been accompanied substantial body research on the archive and revisions themselves. This essay aims to address anomaly focusing genetic evolution McGahern's short story ‘Doorways’. Specifically, it will concentrate earliest handwritten drafts when work at its most provisional. The consensus view writing practices an artist committed ideals Flaubertian perfectionism, but implicit in bias towards more granular late-stage refinement. approach takes shows distant from perfectionist he best as, thus opening up new ways reconsider how those works achieve their distinctive appearance refined delicacy simplicity.