John McCluskey
Books by John McCluskey
John’s writing illustrates the deep physical and emotional effects of loss, alcoholism, abuse and other personal crises that shape the course of many lives, often across generations.Yet such struggles can lead to arrival, redemption, and a greater sense of understanding. John explores these connections within historical contexts to further illustrate the universality of this human condition.
A Moment of Fireflies
John McCluskey gives us a taste of life during the Great Depression while also tapping into the universal pain and sorrow we experience across all ages and lifetimes. - Goodreads review
A Moment of Fireflies tells the story of Michael Callahan, a Depression-era alcoholic husband and father wrestling with a tormented past and its impact on him, his wife Lily, his young son David, and younger daughter Meggy. Can he survive the unimaginable event from years past in Ireland, locked up in his heart for so many years, without dulling away hard memories with drink? Can love from his family bring him back from the brink? --J. Summerfield, Publisher, New Plains Press.
Praise for A Moment of Fireflies:
Author John McCluskey covers a lot of ground in "A Moment of Fireflies," his compact and moving novel from 2017. Set over a few winter days in Depression-era Chicago, the story follows a family struggling under the consequences of bad choices, and a 10-year-old boy vowing to make things right. As McCluskey explores father-son relationships and how childhood events can alter the course of one's life, his sensitive writing brings to mind James Agee's "A Death in the Family." McCluskey's strong sense of place (Keeler Avenue and vicinity), believable dialogue, and contextual details ground this story in reality. Both heartbreaking and redemptive, this story is well worth the read. - Paul F. Brown, author, Rufus, James Agee in Tennessee.
Set in Depression-era Chicago, "A Moment of Fireflies" by John McCluskey is all the more impressive when considering that it is the author's debut as a novelist. Deftly handling raw realities of alcoholism, depression, domestic violence, and the persevering resilience of the human spirit, "A Moment of Fireflies" is an inherently compelling and memorable read from cover to cover. While very highly recommended, especially for community, college, and university library Contemporary American Literary Fiction collections,it should be noted for personal reading lists that "A Moment of Fireflies" is also readily available in a digital book format - Midwest Book Review.
McCluskey’s concise novel tackles heavy subject matter with a somewhat light touch, deftly using spare language in an evocative way. The close-knit world of this South Side Irish community is David’s entire universe, and the author’s choice to develop just a few key occurrences works very well as the family takes tiny steps toward absolution or at least something like peace. Flashbacks and scenes of strife are told in a dynamic, stream-of-consciousness flow, which nicely captures the effort to get to the root of the family’s pain.
A lean, astute story about a family searching for hope during hard times. ~ Kirkus Reviews.
New Plains Press ✧ 2017/2020 ✧ 99 pages
ISBN-10 : 0998685704
ISBN-13 : 978-0998685700
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I Will Listen If You Tell Me Who I Am
McCluskey’s work suggests life’s continuing action, the ongoing search for identity and meaning.
John McCluskey’s new collection explores the implications of the volume’s intriguing title, I Will Listen If You Tell Me Who I Am. The absence of a comma in the title is a clue. McCluskey’s work suggests life’s continuing action, the ongoing search for identity and meaning. Through a combination of poems and short stories the author magnifies, with profound emotional intensity, life-shaping childhood memories. He remembers his father who, “with remarkable fingernails,” prays to God, recalls a painted lady, “who slithers into his room at night,” learns lessons in mortality at age nine climbing trees, tasting the pressures of competition, failure and success, the need to prove something. McCluskey is a poet whose work resonates free and easy, like walking together down a quiet forest path. - Quill & Parchment.
Praise for I Will Listen If You Tell Me Who I Am:
John McCluskey’s new collection is simply amazing. Known as an author who “does his homework,” McCluskey is at the height of his powers with, I Will Listen If You Will Tell Me Who I Am. We, at New Plains Press, wondered how any piece of writing could surpass his novella, A Moment of Fireflies. John’s latest work measures up entirely to his previous creation. An accomplished craftsman, his poetry and short stories have appeared in some of the country’s finest journals.
--J. Summerfield, Publisher, New Plains Press.The poet John Keats once wrote, “If a sparrow come before my window I take part in its existence and pick out the gravel.” Of his new collection, John McCluskey writes, “As my life progressed it became obvious to me that who I am is very likely different from who I think I am, and it takes experiences and interactions with others to reveal that.” That’s where McCluskey’s intriguing title comes into play along with the Keatsian quote above. The poet becomes one with the people closest to him, takes part in their lives “picks out the gravel” of his shared experiences with those significant others who, over time have shaped and defined him. The poet avers, “I listened most respectfully to their collective voice.”… I like the simplicity of presentation in these poems. By way of contrast many poems feature an array of complex indentions. In reading these poems I came to appreciate the art of reading poems slowly, savoring each word, pausing when a word appears on a line by itself, then, having felt deeply the intended impact of that word, I move on in concert with the poem’s progression. Result: mindfulness. - Quill & Parchment.
New Plains Press ✧ 2019 ✧ 80 pages
ISBN-10 : 099868578X
ISBN-13 : 978-0998685786
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Ogden’s Proverb
A teenager struggles with an alcoholic father, a move to the East Coast, and first love in McCluskey’s novel. ~ Kirkus Reviews.
“With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding.” What does that even mean, a teenaged Ogden Skully pondered as he tried to make sense of his new life. And his first girlfriend, his parent’s troubling influence on him, and a tragic episode at the private prep school he had been sent to without his permission, where he knew he didn’t belong, and which sported that perplexing proverb. As an older Ogden looks back at his life and discovers through these experiences, and more, exactly when and how he became the person he would always be, he realizes just what “… Get Understanding” requires.
Praise for Ogden’s Proverb:
In the 1970s, Ogden Skully’s family has humble roots—his parents were raised during the Depression—but his father has high hopes for him. As his dad climbs the corporate ladder, the family leaves behind the Chicago suburbs for Connecticut, where Ogden is enrolled, along with the Guggenheims and Astors of the world, at Hamden Academy. It’s a precursor to Harvard University, and everyone there seems nice, but Ogden, a former public school student, doesn’t feel like he fits in. He also confronts his troubled home life; his dad is a heavy drinker who’s prone to rages, and his mom is often silent and still carrying the trauma of childhood poverty. Still, Ogden finds some comfort with his first girlfriend, Chloe, who’s from a wealthy oil family and whom he can make laugh. Also at Hamden is Adam, a rebellious boy who thinks Ogden may be a kindred spirit. As the two become friends, a jarring tragedy hits the Hamden community, testing the last threads of Ogden’s innocence. McCluskey, the author of A Moment of Fireflies (2020), offers a bildungsroman that, despite its relatively short length of fewer than 200 pages, is full of long, winding sentences—and some great lines. For example, Ogden wins Chole over with an unspecified comment that is, according to Ogden, “pithy, yet decidedly harebrained and proudly empty-headed.” That said, some paragraphs span pages, which can cause the story to feel like it’s drifting at times. McCluskey peels back multiple layers of memory, revealing the not-so-privileged past that led to Ogden’s seemingly secure future. Over the course of the book, the author memorably lays bare how one can be haunted by moments years in the past even while one looks toward a bright future.
A rich, soulful coming-of-age tale full of the wonder of first love. ~ Kirkus Reviews.
In his novel, "Ogden's Proverb", novelist John McCluskey skillfully creates an inherently eloquent and original 'coming of age' story that reflects how moments of the past can affect our views concerning our future anticipations. A deftly scripted and truly memorable read from start to finish, "Ogden's Proverb" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Literary Fiction collections. - Midwest Book Review.
New Plains Press ✧ 2022 ✧ 188 pages
ISBN-10: 1734571977
ISBN-13: 978-1734571974