Customer Reviews

My Oedipus Complex

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This shining collection of short stories is not only an excellent introduction to a neglected master, Frank O'Connor, but it also dramatically illustrates that the short story should be tuned to the human voice, not literary fireworks.

This is a great read aloud collection and my wife and I took turns reading these to one another through a long car trek. My favorite was the title story, perfectly pitched and wholly creditable.

This collection makes me want to find "My Father's Son" and maybe his biography of Michael Collins, "Big Fellow". Read this collection, preferably before a fire, at night, aloud, to someone else, and you won't be disappointed.

The only reason this collection didn't get five stars is because it was a little too Irish for my Irish-American sensibility. Not O'Connor's fault.

Frank O Connor is just a genius. His stories need to be read by everybody. I don't think this collection includes his most famous work, First Confession, but the title story is also quite famous. Each story is there to be enjoyed and appreciated.

I just want to make the point that it does contain O'Connor's great and justly famous story "My First Confession". The whole book is a complete and utter joy, a kaleidoscope of characters, and tour-de-force of the storyteller's art. Inasmuch as anybody doesn't get it, it's a negative reflection on their literary percipience.

This is an interesting collection of Short Stories from O'Connor, and is rather humorous and entertaining for a while, till of course it becomes a tad repetitive and the reader interest flags a bit. Humor comes in the form of mostly asinine stuff, and the reader can often find nuggets of his or her own childhood in the fanciful narratives his tales tell. Good to kill some time on a lazy day, when you don't quite feel like digging into some Proust ;)