Way Out West

WAY OUT WEST is a beautifully written coming-of-age novel ostensibly about the Irish emigrant experience and, more subtly, the idea of the emigrantxe2x80x99s America as a constructed one. It follows Fintan from Donegal, where his 1950s childhood was filled with tales of America told by a plethora of xe2x80x98returned Yanksxe2x80x99, onwards to the States via Europe as he seeks to understand his deceased motherxe2x80x99s past. Throughout, Fintan never stands still as his meandering journey through multiple states and an eclectic and diverse array of jobs, rented rooms, landscapes, acquaintances, friends, and lovers is quietly underscored by his search for a painting of his mother by an American artist who once visited his homeplace of Glenbay.xc2xa0 At the heart of the novel is a sense of longing that both propels Fintan across America and prevents him from establishing roots anywhere. The xe2x80x98way out westxe2x80x99 that he so wants to reach is an imagined land, a place of inherited legend, of his long-gone mother.