Madam, - Forty years on, my memory of the original reception of John McGahern's The Darkmay be faulty, but I certainly have the impression that it was in general benignant. So why Susan McKay should say that the book was "violently received" I do not know ( Book Reviews, November 25th).
My own review appeared in the TLS. Like all reviews in that journal in those days, it was unsigned, but I told him I had written it. It may have been less laudatory than he would have liked - but it contained enough praise to be quoted in the blurb of a subsequent paperback edition. - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY CRONIN, Oakley Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.