Collected stories

by Frank O'Connor

Paperback, 1982

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Vintage Books, 1982.

Description

Fiction. Literature. Short Stories. HTML:The definitive collection from an Irish literary icon, "one of the masters of the short story" (Newsweek). In the words of W. B. Yeats, Frank O'Connor "did for Ireland what Chekhov did for Russia." Anne Tyler, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, described his tales as "encapsulated universes." This indispensable volume contains the best of his short fiction, from "Guests of the Nation" (adapted into an Obie Awardâ??winning play) to "The Mad Lomasneys" to "First Confession" to "My Oedipus Complex." Dublin schoolteacher Ned Keating waves good-bye to a charming girl and to any thoughts of returning to his village home in the lyrical and melancholy "Uprooted." A boy on an important mission is waylaid by a green-eyed temptress and seeks forgiveness in his mother's loving arms in "The Man of the House," a tale that draws on O'Connor's own difficult childhood. A series of awkward encounters and humorous misunderstandings perfectly encapsulates the complicated legacy of Irish immigration in "Ghosts," the bittersweet account of an American family's pilgrimage to the land of their forefathers. In these and dozens of other stories, O'Connor accomplishes the miraculous, laying bare entire lives and histories in the space of a few pages. As a writer, critic, and teacher, O'Connor elevated the short story to astonishing new heights. This career-spanning anthology, epic in scope yet brimming with small moments and intimate details, is a true pleasure to read from first page to last.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member upstairsgirl
Reading Frank O'Connor is a little like getting kicked in the stomach every couple of pages.

O'Connor is a master of the short story, and I admire his ability to create incredibly detailed pictures with comparatively few words. His Ireland, though, is an incredibly bleak place, where the biggest
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sin is planning for the future, and the only thing worse than being drunk is not being drunk.

He's particularly adept at showing the world through the eyes of children, particularly boys, and at showing the way children try to explain their worlds to themselves in the absence of information from their parents, which is both wonderful and heartbreaking. On the other hand, many of his male characters are locked in frankly - and frankly creepy - oedipal relationships with their mothers, which I found incredibly uncomfortable - and possibly uncomfortably familiar. Many of the stories are very funny, but funny in a dark, bleak, desperate kind of way. I can't say I enjoyed the work, exactly, but it was definitely worth reading.
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LibraryThing member jeffcovey
Often funny and more often devastating, with surprising insights into people and their motivations. Pieces like "The Bridal Night" and "The Luceys" are unforgettable. I can't say I enjoyed the whole collection as much as I did reading just a few of them years ago. He rides his hobby horses a bit
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too much (how many variants of the out-of-wedlock-child-sent-away story do you need?), and the outlook is just too consistently bleak to be honestly enjoyed over so many pages. At his best, though, he's wonderful. A smaller selection of his best work might welcome.
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