2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Darkness very darkness is sectional', February 27, 2010
Perhaps this old Gertrude Stein quote is as apt a way as any to introduce comments on this book by William Trevor, that master of Chekhovian style of story telling, that fills this slight but profound book CHEATING AT CANASTA. This is not a book for every reader: readers not familiar with Trevor's group of characters - marginalized members of society, children, old people, single middle-aged men and women, or the unhappily married - may find this group of short stories simply to dense and dark to tolerate. 'Those who cannot accept the reality of their lives create their own alternative worlds into which they retreat'. But for the large audience that delights in the craftsmanship of his writing, this is a collection to savor - perhaps not all at on sitting, but at parcels of time when the psyche can recover from the at times bleak flavors of these tales.
In a recent interview these words came to the forefront: 'Trevor has been praised for his compassionate portrayal of evil characters, but he is "also very fond of writing about goodness". It requires far more subtlety, he says: evil is pretty straightforward stuff. "I would use anything in order to tell a story," he says with an unmistakable icy glint in those kindly eyes, "anything, anything at all to make the story work." And you know that about this, at least, he isn't exaggerating.' And so proceed the brief but pungent tales from this collection: each focuses on just what binds us together as individuals hungry for a relationship. Whether he focuses on aging, on regret, on topics such as adultery or abuse, or, more aptly stated, on the aspects of the human condition that makes us so vulnerable, there is a reason for his sharing these stories. CHEATING AT CANASTA may be dark for most, but these stories beg for examining our own secrets and hidden places. William Trevor is a master sculptor of words. Grady Harp, February 10
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very well written but very downbeat, September 11, 2009
This review is from: Cheating at Canasta (Paperback)
Very well written but the lack of much hope or joy makes for non-uplifting reading, , September 11, 2009
By Aquinas "summa" (celestial heights, UK) - See all my reviews
These stories are very well written and Trevor's reputation is deserved. My one reservation is the fact that the stories are somewhat down beat and one just longs for a story illuminated by joy and peace but alas there are none of that type in this collection. I will make some observations on each of the stories, really to try and distill down my own reactions to stories:
(I) The Dressmaker's Child: a very strange story about a bond beginning to form between a man who accidentally knocks down and kills a wild child (daughter of an off-beam mother) and the subsequent incipient relationship that begins to form betweem the man and the mother. Really not sure I understood this story.
(II)The Room: a disturbing story about a woman married to a man, who was accused but not convicted of murder and her suspicious of his part in the murder and her trying to come terms with this over many years. The story resonates and disturbs.
(III) Men of Ireland: A tramp returning from England to Ireland after 23 years and his attempt to capitalise on the scandals in Ireland by soliciting money from a retired priest through insinuating the priest had tried to press drink on him when he was a young altar boy. The priest gives in through a kind of shared shame. A disturbing story.
(IV) Cheating at Canasta: a man returning to venice in response to a wish made by his wife before dementia took hold of her. I was failry neutral about this story.
(V) Bravado: another distrubing story, this time about a lad trying to impress his girlfriend by beating another lad on the way home from a party with fatal consequents. One comes away with a sense of utter pointlessness
(VI)An Afternoon: I did not like this story at all: a young girl and a predatory young man on probation.
(VII) At Olivehill: A catholic ascendancy familiy having fallen on hard times decides to sell their farm to be converted into a golf course. This was moving - a sense of change and a sense of loss.
(VIII) A Perfect relationship: the ending of a relationship between a young woman and an older man. A kind of moving story, particularly the ending where there is no real resolution of what is causing the relationship to end.
(IX) The Children: A recently widowed man taking up with a divorced lady and their decision to marry and the impact on their repsective children - a moving story.
(X) Old flame: An elderly couple and the husband's continuing to keep in contact with a woman for whom he had once intended to leave his wife. This is a puzzling story of how a couple and can live with such duplicity and how the wife is being crushed by the husband's old attachment.
(XI) Faith: This was one of my favourites about a Church of Ireland clergy man and his dominant sister. He appears to lose his faith whilst serving his country parish while she is undimished in her dying - indeed she is given a beautifully written happy death:
"She turned away, shuddering off a convulsion as best she could, but another came and she was restless. Confused, she tired to sit up and he eased her back to the pillows. For a moment then her eyes were clear, her contorted features loosed and were calm. Batholomoew knew that pain was taken from her and that she shed, in her first moment of her eternity, he too-long gnawing discontent; that peace, elusive for a lifeime, had come at last".
Any yet the minster remains at a loss?
(XII) Folie a deux: a story about not accepting forgiveness and redemption - the killing of a dog by 2 young lads results in the apparent disintegration of one of them through the sheer horror of what he had done.
Even though it would be fair to say that the stories were indeed down beat and lacking in hope, Trevor's economic style carries one along and one is infused with a kind of regret for lost lives.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not great., November 11, 2008
This review is from: Cheating at Canasta (Paperback)
When reviewing a new book by William Trevor, one needs to acknowledge the issue of impossibly high expectations. Previous short story collections of his are so amazing that it's not realistic to expect the same level of brilliance every time.
That said, this is the first of his books that I've read that was a disappointment. Although two or three of the stories in this collection were terrific ("Bravado" and "Folie a Deux"), most were below his usual standard. The title story, in particular, seemed sentimental and unfocused. As usual, with Trevor, nobody in these stories is having much fun: we are presented with characters who are mourning the death of a loved one, or who mark time waiting for their own death, or - a favorite theme of Trevor - we watch people as they settle for less, as they learn to accommodate and accept the narrow, circumscribed nature of their lives.
Usually the brilliance of Trevor's writing mitigates the bleakness of his characters and their situations. In these stories, not so much. There is an aimlessness about most of them which is quite uncharacteristic for Trevor who, one senses, usually has things firmly under control. Not here.
I didn't dislike these stories. A couple of them are extraordinary. But, if you have never read William Trevor, I wouldn't recommend this collection as the place to start. The collection
William Trevor: The Collected Stories, published in 1993 is excellent, though somewhat daunting at 1200 pages;
Ireland: Selected Stories (Penguin Classics) is also superb, though it may be harder to locate.
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