Colum McCann, The Journey Home, Tin House, Spring 2014 (Our hero goes on a journey…)

I love Colum McCann. His novel, Let the Great World Spin, was sad, riveting and beautifully written. Though it was billed as a novel, in my mind it was really a book of short stories about inter-connected characters, as Jennifer Egan did in A Visit from the Goon Squad and Elizabeth Strout did in Mrs. Kitteridge.

In the essay, The Journey Home, McCann writes about a trip he took with his father to see a soccer (aka football) game when he was a boy. The trip magnifies the relationship between father and son, England and Ireland, and soccer players and soccer. There is passion and violence, love and disappointment in all these relationships.

All great heroes go on a journey, and in this piece, McCann leaves Dublin, crosses a “…choppy sea. Huge and gray…” to go to England to see his first soccer game. The sea is a scary place and so is the ship. “Some men were arguing over a bottle. Thick Irish accents. They sat under a blanket of cigarette smoke. Others intent at the slot machines. The boat tilted and rolled.” Note what McCann has done: The stakes are raised, the child’s life might be at risk. There is vice everywhere---drink, smoke, gambling, dissent. Will the men get into a fight? Will the ship tip over? Will our hero get out alive? We read on to find out.

McCann continues to raise the tension. “The boat pitched and rolled. The sound of the slot machines jangled in the air. Shouts rang out .Fighting. Laughter.” They reach land and there, literally, is the light: “…with rumor of lights already in the sky.” It’s always lovely to read about light in a story. As readers, we are always looking for the light. 

Then the Dad warns the son about his accent: Not everyone likes the Irish, especially in England. There is a hint of violence. We worry some more for the safety of our young traveller. “Gray smoke poured across the sky.” Great, colorful, ominous details of the weather, always a great thing to include for your reader. It makes s/he feel as if s/he is really there with you in your story.

Note there are also a few food details here: A ham sandwich packed by Mom, the taste of “my first ever hamburger.” If you ever run out of things to write about, write about your first time ever doing something. It can be anything: The novelty of it will give your writing a jolt and push the reader along. When you try something new, you (and the reader) don’t know what will happen. We readers love this kind of suspense.

This is also the first time the narrator “lies” about something: He tells his father he likes the hamburger, when he doesn’t. To write, and read about, lies, is always satisfying.

Also note the use of the many lovely and(literally) colorful details: “England wasn’t very green..” “Gray smoke poured across the sky...” “Club Orange drink…” “red-brick houses… “a sea of moving red..” Readers love reading about light and color and these details will bring your story to life.

McCann then turns to the details of the soccer game. It was exhilarating, the boy roots for his hero, the English goal keeper Gordon Banks. Politics don’t matter when a little boy feels passionate about a ball game. There is a bit of play-by-play, which always makes the reader feel as if s/he is there.

McCann and his father leave the game and “started the long journey home.” Our hero has completed his journey---a seemingly dangerous boat ride, the taste of new food, the hostility of strangers, followed by a soccer game in potentially hostile territory---and lived to tell his tale without losing his innocence.