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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Trevor, W. 2004 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
From the bestselling author of "The Story of Lucy Gault, Death in Summer, After Rain," and "Felicia's Journey" comes a collection of short fiction. Trevor is a regular contributor to "The New Yorker" magazine.
Author Notes
William Trevor Cox was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland on May 24, 1928. He received a degree in history from Trinity College in 1950. Before becoming a full-time author in 1965, he worked as a sculptor, a teacher, and a copywriter at an advertising agency. He exhibited his sculptures in Dublin and England and was joint winner of the International Year of the Political Prisoner art competition in 1952.
His first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, was published in 1958. His other novels include Other People's Worlds, Nights at the Alexandra, The Silence in the Garden, The Story of Lucy Gault, My House in Umbria, and Love and Summer. He won the Hawthornden Prize in 1964 for The Old Boys, the Whitbread Award in 1976 for The Children of Dynmouth, the Whitbread Award in 1983 for Fools of Fortune, and the Whitbread Award in 1994 for Felicia's Journey.
His short story collections include The Day We Got Drunk on Cake and Other Stories, The Ballroom of Romance and Other Stories, Beyond the Pale, A Bit on the Side, Cheating at Canasta, and The Mark-2 Wife. The Hill Bachelors received the 2001 Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Short Stories. He received the Allied Irish Banks' Prize in 1976, The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in 1992, the David Cohen British Literature Prize in 1999, and the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award in Irish Literature in 2008. In 1977, he was awarded an honorary CBE in recognition of his services to literature. He died on November 20, 2016 at the age of 88.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The protagonists of this haunting, emotionally bleak collection of stories-a new widow confessing to two surprised Legion of Mary sisters the secrets of her marriage to a hateful man in "Sitting with the Dead"; a woman stalked by her lonely, possibly violent ex-husband in "On the Streets"; an heiress who compulsively recounts her tragic life story to total strangers in "Solitude"; and a couple who exploit each other on a blind date in "An Evening Out"-are generally 50-ish, usually childless and almost always burdened by regret over relationships decayed or forgone. They live in the aftermath of irremediable mistakes, ruefully cognizant that hope and romance are often delusory covers for self-interest and survival. Even the young-an 18-year-old girl who weeps with regret over future betrayals, an Irish woman who calls off her wedding after realizing she loves the dream of America more than her intended-are melancholy and introspective. Trevor reveals his native Ireland as a world sandwiched between modernity and its accompanying wealth, secularism and vulgarity, and a past that was more soulful and pious but also more restrictive. The much-lauded Trevor (Felicia's Journey; The Story of Lucy Gault; etc.) explores the many sources and shadings of regret with his usual delicate but brilliant psychological nuance, brightened occasionally by nostalgia for the lost love that once impelled his characters forward. Agent, Peter Matson at Sterling Lord Literistic. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Tenth collection from the Irish-born Trevor, a dozen wise and beautifully crafted pieces from a master. Most of the stories have to do with adultery, though the surprise is how many of the characters manage to treat one another with grace and kindness. In the title piece, Trevor (The Story of Lucy Gault, 2003, etc.) takes us through a single day in which two middle-aged lovers in London, who have built a comfortable second life together that's organized around daily meeting places, end their affair with the honor and dignity they believe their love deserves. A lonely librarian ("Graillis' Legacy") tries to reconcile his dual love for his wife and for his former lover, after both have died, by refusing to accept an inheritance from one of them. In "Rose Wept," a gossipy teenaged girl recognizes the adult cost that her tutor has paid for his wife's infidelity. And in the stunning "Solitude," one of the best tales here, a woman in late middle age makes a confession to a stranger: she's attempting to come to terms with the life-long sacrifice her parents made for her own protection, after her mother's infidelity resulted in a terrible accident that changed all of their lives. Her confessor reassures her: "Theirs [her parents'] was the shame, yet their spirit is gentle in our conversation: guilt is not always terrible, nor shame unworthy." This capacity for forgiveness, even under desperate circumstances, is a theme tying many of the pieces together, while others deal with betrayals of a different nature: in "Sitting With the Dead," a bitter widow confesses to a loveless marriage; and in "Sacred Statues," a woman's faith in her artist-husband's work nearly leads her to sacrifice their child. There's nothing mechanical about the simple humility and compassion that make the best of Trevor's stories so moving. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The dozen stories in the latest collection by beloved, critically esteemed Irish writer Trevor typify his best traits. His awareness of the need for a successful short story to plunge directly into the action, without authorial throat-clearing, coincides with the sheerness of his prose style, the keen power of the understated emotion he ascribes to his characters, and his subtle but assured pinpoint defining of each one's personality. And, as well, his probing of the psychology of ordinary individuals whose personal struggles are no less important to them for their lack of global importance is exercised here to a poignant, not maudlin, effect. The outstanding title story presents a woman who is having an affair with a married man; he decides he must let her go so she won't be regarded as just someone's bit on the side. But Sitting with the Dead is the best story--actually a masterpiece; its appearance in a future compilation of Trevor's major stories is assured. Two sisters in rural Ireland are professional sitters for the dying, but they arrive too late at the house of a woman they actually do not know; her husband lies dead upstairs by the time they arrive, so they end up spending time listening to the new widow's lament, not over her loss but over her marriage in the first place. In these stories, as always in his fiction, Trevor adds to our understanding of human nature. --Brad Hooper Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Perpetual award winner Trevor offers 12 stories sure to sparkle. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Sitting with the Dead | p. 1 |
| Traditions | p. 19 |
| Justina's Priest | p. 39 |
| An Evening Out | p. 59 |
| Graillis's Legacy | p. 84 |
| Solitude | p. 100 |
| Sacred Statues | p. 128 |
| Rose Wept | p. 153 |
| Big Bucks | p. 168 |
| On the Streets | p. 193 |
| The Dancing-Master's Music | p. 213 |
| A Bit on the Side | p. 228 |