Ireland [Paperback]

William Trevor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

William Trevor has long been hailed as one of the greatest living writers of short fiction. These nineteen stories--selected by Trevor himself from The Collected Stories and After Rain--capture the nuances of rural and middle-class life in the Ireland he knows so well. Here are its people, their lives driven by love, faith, and duty, surviving in a culture that blends tradition with transformation. In spare and eloquent prose Trevor's stories engage and provoke us as only the best fiction can.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When a William Trevor story comes saddled with the title "The Paradise Lounge" or "The Ballroom of Romance," readers can be fairly certain there's a heavy dose of irony involved. Acclaimed as one of the finest English-language writers living today, Trevor specializes in lives crippled by low expectations. In Ireland, selected from his previous volumes, Collected Stories and After Rain, he assembles a cast of assorted dreamers, loners, and hard-luck cases and then chronicles their disappointments with a compassionate but profoundly unsentimental eye. "The Paradise Lounge" is a rundown hotel bar where Trevor juxtaposes two adulterous loves, from two different generations; one affair has been consummated, the other not, but each is bitterly envious of the other. In "The Piano Tuner's Wives," a blind man's new wife becomes jealous of her predecessor. Instead of describing the world around him as his first wife did, Belle lies to her husband, who resigns himself to the situation: "Belle could not be blamed for making her claim, and claims could not be made without damage or destruction." Other stories find the specter of the Troubles lurking in the background, as in "Beyond the Pale" or "Lost Ground," in which Irish violence assumes the nasty inevitability of fate: "Milton's death was the way things were, the way things had to be: that was their single consolation." Throughout, the writing is simple, luminous, and characteristically lovely. Like Chekhov, another master of understatement, Trevor can paint an entire world with a single stroke of his brush. Trevor's characters are willing to settle for very little, and they seldom even get that. His readers, however, get everything they could possibly ask for.

About the Author

William Trevor is the author of twenty-nine books, including Felicia’s Journey, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and was made into a motion picture. In 1996 he was the recipient of the Lannan Award for Fiction. In 2001, he won the Irish Times Literature Prize for fiction. Two of his books were chosen by The New York Times as best books of the year, and his short stories appear regularly in the New Yorker. In 1997, he was named Honorary Commander of the British Empire. He lives in Devon, England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140277595
• ISBN-13: 978-0140277593
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,053,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written many novels, and has won many prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. His most recent novel Love and Summer was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He is also a renowned short-story writer, and his two-volume Collected Stories was published by Viking Penguin in 2009. In 1999 William Trevor received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement, and in 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature. He now lives in Devon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A contemporary master of the short story, February 5, 1999

By 

Noah Mass ([e-mail]) (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ireland (Paperback)

This is a fine introduction to the short fiction of William Trevor, focusing on the most Irish of his stories--and more accessible than his imposing Collected Stories. Trevor has always been a confident writer. His stories have such a logic to them. They seem not have been invented at all. Perhaps this is why they are so affecting. The best stories include "The Ballroom of Romance," the classic "Theresa's Wedding," "The Paradise Lounge," and my two favorites, "The Piano Tuner's Wife" and "Honeymoon in Tramore." Trevor is a giant of the form.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly impressive themes, but too tragic, March 11, 2001

By 

Simone, Koo (Northampton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ireland (Paperback)

I'm reading this for my colloquium class and have enjoyed the most of it, except that the stories are so tragic or rather gloom. You have to go out of your ways and make up an awkward reference to humor, usually a black one, too. But besides, I thought his writing style is impressive and the themes, beautiful and unique. Beyond the Pale, definitely counts as one of the most outstanding story, for Trevor shocks the reader with unexpected point of view. I guess you can say having Milly as the narrator was funny because she was smug and intellectually indifferent, but the reader don't get the humor in it unless he/she reads it more than once. Revelation of bitter truth and viciousness of the story's last paragraph will overwhelm the reader more than the humor. I personally like Malamud or Flannery O'Connor better because they weren't as serious into misery and grief. They were, but they managed to introduce humor with those elements, so the reader wasn't deserted by the tragedy that makes the face frown. However, I give Trevor four stars because I think his writing style is awesome. It's detail-oriented, things like whiskey and whisky, and unpredictable. You don't know who is going to be on the center stage until at least the middle of the story. Then, the narrator starts to dominate whether he is on the center stage or not, and he usually is not, blocking as well as providing maybe more interesting things that are going on. Impressive!!

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly impressive themes, but too tragic, March 11, 2001

By 

Simone, Koo (Northampton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ireland (Paperback)

I'm reading this for my colloquium class and have enjoyed the most of it, except that the stories are so tragic or rather gloom. You have to go out of your ways and make up an awkward reference to humor, usually a black one, too. But besides, I thought his writing style is impressive and the themes, beautiful and unique. Beyond the Pale, definitely counts as one of the most outstanding stories, for Trevor shocks the reader with unexpected point of view. I guess you can say having Milly as the narrator was funny because she was smug and intellectually indifferent, but the reader don't get the humor in it unless he/she reads it more than once. Revelation of bitter truth and viciousness of the story's last paragraph will overwhelm the reader more than the humor. I personally like Malamud or Flannery O'Connor better because they weren't as seriously into misery and grief. They were, but they managed to introduce humor with those elements, so the reader wasn't deserted by the tragedy that makes the face frown. However, I give Trevor four stars because I think his writing style is awesome. It's detail-oriented, things like whiskey and whisky, and unpredictable. You don't know who is going to be on the center stage until at least the middle of the story. Then, the narrator starts to dominate, whether he is on the center stage or not on which he usually is not, blocking as well as providing maybe more interesting things that are going on. Impressive!!