CLASSIC IRISH SHORT STORIES BY FRANK

O’CONNOR

The short story, unlike the novel, is rooted in an oral tradition. Perhaps this explains its
popularity and prominence in Ireland, where people have always delighted in the
spoken word. From the magical folk tales and fairy stories, seven of which are given
here, to classics like Joyce's ``The Dead'' and O'Connor's ``Guests of the Nation,''
Trevor admirably suggests the variety as well as the continuity of this tradition. Seumus
O'Keely's poignantly comic ``The Weaver's Grave,'' about two elderly men's personal
battle to remember the last free space in an ancient burial ground, is a turning point,
mixing a modern sensibility with antique form. The modern story, which often portrays
the brutality, repression, and disappointment characteristic of Irish life, is keenly
represented by Mary Lavin's ``Sarah.'' Trevor has chosen well. Bitter Harvest , which
supplements Montague's The Book of Irish Verse (Macmillan, 1974; Peter Smith, 1984.
reprint), a collection of verse from earliest times to the Irish Renaissance, is not quite as
successful. The contemporary poets represented here write against the backdrop of
political turmoil, but the verse, less thematically homogeneous than Montague would
make us think, reels more from Yeats's powerful influence than from explosives.
Included are so many poets who have just started their careers that one might wait on
this collection to see if all the fruits of Ireland's ``bitter harvest'' are really worth saving.

George Moore “HOME SICKNESS”

In 1903, the year "Home Sickness" was first published, St Patrick's Day was made a
public holiday. The Irish Land Bill was introduced in the British House of Commons.
The University of Dublin first granted degrees to women. Edward the VII became
Emperor of India. “The Ambassadors” by Henry James was published. There were
7,635, 426 people living in the Philippines in 1903 and just over 4,000,000 in Ireland.

Massive exits had and still have a massive influence on the literature of Ireland. Its most
famous novelist, James Joyce, and the most important playwright of the 20th century,
Samuel Beckett, both spent much of their lives in exile.
When someone left Ireland, in most cases he or she knew they would never return and
never see their loved ones again. This caused huge emotional pain both in those who
left and those who stayed. Some left with a great sense of adventure, others in great
fear and sadness. Out of these experiences great literature was born. All who left
Ireland left with a great love for its culture.

George Moore (1852 to 1933-County Mayo, Ireland) is a great short story writer. I was
really amazed by this story of a woman in 19th century Ireland living her life as if she
were a man.

Frank O'Connor, the author of the only book on the short story worth reading, says
"Home Sickness" is a masterwork and included it in his anthology, Classic Irish Short
Stories. It opens in New York City with an Irish immigrant working in a bar. He has been
out of Ireland for a long time; he is doing OK money wise, is single, and keeps his
health up by long walks. He is feeling somehow despondent and his doctor tells him go
back to Ireland for a while and you will come back fine. Three weeks later he is back in
Ireland. He does not seem to have any family left living there but he wants to go back to
where he grew up. He looks everywhere for people he knows and places he recalls.
Everywhere people ask him about life in America.
He ends up taking room and board with someone he once sort of knew and he meets a
girl he likes. At first she is very shy and almost runs from him. Then he begins to court
her and soon the word is out they will be married. At first the man likes idea of taking
her back with him to New York City.

"Home Sickness" kind of illustrates the truth of the old saying "you can never go home
again". It is a very emotionally intelligent account of the impact of immigration on both
those who go and those who stay.

A conflict operating in “Home Sickness” between the attraction of rural Ireland and the
lure of urban America. Moore’s precisely controlled diction and carefully deployed
sentence structure even in the opening passage reflect Bryden’s state of mind and its
vacillations from moment to moment in subtle and suggestive ways. For example, the
degree to which Bryden has become depersonalized by living in New York City is
reflected in the opening paragraphs of the story, in which the narrator only refers to him
as “He.” The opening sentence subtly conveys the tedium of his life: “He told the doctor
he was due in the barroom at eight o’clock in the morning; the barroom was in a slum in
the Bowery; and he had only been able to keep himself in health by getting up at five
o’clock and going for long walks in the Central Park”.
The skillful use of semicolons only creates brief pauses, suggesting the degree to which
Bryden has been caught up in the frenetic pace of New York. While he argues that his
exercise before work keeps him healthy, he merely has compounded the hectic pace of
his day and worn himself out further. He also is likely substituting the anonymity of
Central Park for the intimacy of his native village. The reason for his trip to Ireland is to
improve his health, which has been sacrificed to his career. While he soon finds he
longs for Ireland, one connotation of the story’s title, the title also suggests that the
frenzied pace of his adopted home has literally made him sick.

It is significant that Bryden is only named when he arrives at the train station, five miles
from his village of Duncannon, Ireland: “A car was waiting at the station, and the boy,
discerning from his accent and his dress that Bryden had come from America, plied him
with questions, which Bryden answered rapidly, for he wanted to hear who were still
living in the village, and if there was a house in which he could get clean lodging”.

Part of his warm greeting arises from the villagers’ fascination with a relative stranger
from America and part of it stems from the possibility that he will spend money
recklessly, but more important, his attachment to a landscape and a web of communal
memory here confirms him as an individual most himself in the context of community.

E. Somerville and Martin Ross “LISHEEN RACES SECOND-HAND”

Lisheen Races Second-Hand" by E. Somerville and Martin Ross and the movie The
R.M have more differences than similarities when comparing the storyline and
characters.
One of the foremost character's in "Lisheen Races Second-Hand" is Leigh Kelway.
Leigh was a British friend of Yeates who called upon the Major to give him a tour of
Ireland. Yeates wished to take Leigh to the races where he would hopefully view a
glimpse of Ireland that would leave him feeling pleasant about the country.
Unfortunately, the two ran into many disasters along the way. Their intended horse and
cart was injured and ruined leaving them to ride in a funeral carriage with Mr. Flurry.
They then needed to stop at a friend of Mr. Flurry's to find another horse because their
horse was tiring and falling over. Disappointingly there was no other horse and their
current horse ran off. They then walked in the pouring rain to a nasty old hole in the
wall bar where they ran into an interesting character Slipper. There they heard the story
of the races, that they never made it too, from the mouth of a very drunken Slipper.
Interestly, Leigh Kelway was completely left out of the plot in The R.M. Also their was
a greater emphasis on women characters in the movie that were no where to be found
in the plot of "Lisheen Races Second-Hand." Mrs. Yeates and her friend purchase a
horse for her to ride in the women's races--a scene not found in "Lisheen Races and
Secondhand". Slipper is also introduced into the plot earlier on in the movie than in the
book. The scene at the Flurry's household where the horse takes off and ruins the cart
is similar except for Leigh Kelway is missing and a stable hand stows along. Although
Mr. Flurry and Major Yeates experience many mishaps along the way, as they do in the
book, they do eventually make it to the races. Also, there are scenes involving Mrs.
Yeates and a mishap with her horse, as well as the race itself that are missing from
"Lisheen Races Second-Hand."
The ending of the two stories is very similar with a couple cart loads of people drunk
who end up getting into an accidennt with another cart. Again, the main difference is
Leigh Kelway is missing.

In Somerville and Ross’s Lisheen Races, Second-Hand, many of the characters are
portrayed in stereotypical Irish ways. In the very beginning of the story, the main
character takes his old friend, Leigh Kelway, to see all of the Irish sites in his town. He
shows him all of the pubs and then decides to show his the races. By having the main
character take his guest to all of the pubs, the author has put the main character into a
mold of what the “typical” Irish persons would do. The stereotype that all Irishmen love
to drink is shown here and seems to be proven to the reader. Throughout the entire
story, talk of drinking is present and people actually drinking or acting drunk are shown.
Leigh Kelway seems turned off by this behavior and appears to stick his nose up at
these types of people.
Another example of stereotyping in this story is the general air about Leigh Kelway. He
is known to have done very well for himself and is apparently a sophisticated sort of
fellow. Whenever something goes wrong on the trip to the races, the main character,
Yeats, seems embarrassed in front of Kelway that it has happened. He apologizes
profusely and always seems to be getting snubbed by Kelway. It is obvious that Kelway
believes he is above all of this “Irish” nonsense. He is constantly annoyed and acting
extremely snobby. For example when they first get into the car to go to the races, he is
shocked that the seats are wet. It is as if he believes himself to be too good for such
accommodations. When the men hear about a fight that broke out at the races, Kelway
reacts by saying, “It scarcely strikes one as a comic incident; in fact, it seems to me that
the police ought— “By having Kelway appear to be the sophisticated Englishman, it
makes it even more apparent that the Irishmen are foolish, juvenile and troublesome. It
is as if the author wants the reader to believe that anyone who comes to visit Ireland
would be appalled by the behaviors and actions of the people living there.
Daniel Corkery THE AWAKENING, 1950

Daniel Corkery (1878 to 1964-Cork, Ireland) was a teacher at several schools. At the
close of his career he was Professor of English at University College Cork where Frank
O'Connor and Sean O'Faolain were among his students. He was active in the Irish
language revival movement. He was also a playwright, wrote a novel, and some cultural
works but he is mostly read now for the short stories he wrote about the lives of people
in Cork. He published several collections of short stories in his life.

"The Awakening" centers on a fishing boat owned by the widow with a son who will
soon become the captain of the boat. The story is a master work in the way it shows
the bonds between the men who work the boat, their constrained emotion and by the
very clear picture it paints for us of what it was like to work on a fishing boat off the
coast of Galway. The description of the smell of the boiling fish and potatoes on the
boat made me hungry. The captain was the best friend of the owner. For a long time he
has run the boat for his widow and he has always be scrupulously honest with her.
Her son works the boat also and he is to take over as captain at the end of this voyage.
I will quote a bit so you can get the feel for the prose style of Corkery:

"It was very dark. Everything was huge and shapeless. Anchored as she was, tethered
besides, clumsy with the weight of dripping fish-spangled net coming in over the
gunwale, the nobby was tossed and slapped about with a violence that surprised him;
flakes of wet brightness were being flung everywhere from the one lamp bound firmly to
the mast. Yet the night was almost windless, the sea apparently sluggish: there must
be, he thought, a stiff swell beneath them. What most surprised him, however, was to
find himself thinking about it. That evening coming down the harbour, he would not have
noticed it."

James Joyce “THE DEAD”

A professor and part-time book reviewer named Gabriel Conroy attends a

Christmastime party thrown by his aunts (Kate and Julia Morkin, grand dames in the
world of Dublin music) at which he dances with a fellow teacher and delivers a brief
speech. As the party is breaking up, Gabriel witnesses his wife, Gretta, listening to a
song sung by the renowned tenor Bartell D'Arcy, and the intensity of her focus on the
music causes him to feel both sentimental and lustful. In a hotel room later, Gabriel is
devastated to discover that he has misunderstood Gretta's feelings; she has been
moved by the memory of a young lover named Michael Furey who preceded Gabriel,
and who died for the love of Gretta. Gabriel realizes that she has never felt similarly
passionate about their marriage. He feels alone and profoundly mortal, but spiritually
connected for the first time with others.

Analysis

By general consensus, this is the greatest of all the stories in Dubliners — the longest,
richest, and most emotionally affecting — and the story more than any other that points
toward Joyce's career as one of the English language's greatest novelists ever. (He
would follow this book with A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, Ulysses, and
Finnegans Wake.)
The story reiterates the great themes of Dubliners. Gabriel's marriage is clearly
suffering from paralysis, the condition of nearly all the characters in the collection. This
accounts for his excitement at story's end when he believes that Gretta's passion
relates to him and them, as their marriage has decayed badly over the years. In this
story, paralysis is represented as usual by the colors yellow and brown, but Joyce also
employs the symbolism of snow and ice; after all, if something is frozen, it is motionless
— paralyzed.

Thus, when Gabriel enters his aunts' party, "A light fringe of snow lay like a cape on the
shoulders of his overcoat and like toecaps on the toes of his galoshes; and, as the
buttons of his overcoat slipped with a squeaking noise through the snow-stiffened
frieze, a cold fragrant air from out-of-doors escaped from crevices and folds." The
symbolism returns at story's end, in the justly famous final paragraphs describing a
snow-covered Ireland. Not only Gabriel but his entire homeland has been paralyzed,
Joyce is saying (or, more precisely, revealing). Alternatively, at the conclusion of
Dubliners, something connects Gabriel to his fellow Irishmen, a connection he had until
that time disavowed.

Gabriel's paralysis is partly a result of his denial of and lack of interest in those fellow
Irishmen, dramatized in his encounter with Miss Ivors. Like Kathleen Kearny in "A
Mother," she is involved in the movement to restore Irish language and culture to the
island. Gabriel writes a column for a newspaper opposed to Irish nationalism; indeed,
he goes so far as to tell Miss Ivors, "Irish is not my language." Additionally, he tells her
that he is uninterested in a vacation to the west of Ireland, preferring to holiday in
Europe. She parries by calling him a West Briton — that is, an Irishman who identifies
primarily with England, a cultural traitor — and this appears to be at least partly true.

After all, Gabriel plans to quote in his after-dinner speech from the work of the poet
Robert Browning (an Englishman); when he finally delivers that speech, it includes
extemporaneous remarks criticizing the "new generation" of Miss Ivors and her
associates. Gabriel wears galoshes, fashionable in Europe, though more or less
unheard of in Ireland. He earned his college degree at Anglican Trinity College in
Dublin. When he thinks of going outside, what comes to mind is the snow-covered
monument to Wellington, a British hero who played down his birth in Ireland. And
speaking of monuments, another symbol of Ireland's inability to progress is Gabriel's
grandfather riding his horse Johnny around and around the statue of William III,
conqueror of Ireland on behalf of England. (The circle as symbol of pointless repetition
was introduced in the stories "After the Race" and "Two Gallants.") Thus, as in many
Dubliners stories before it, "The Dead" connects paralysis with the English. To
summarize, Gabriel suffers from paralysis, at least partly because of his admiration for
and attraction to things English.

Of course, Joyce also holds the Catholic Church accountable for Ireland's failure to
move forward into modernity. Thus, in one of the story's most striking images (that of
Trappist monks sleeping in their coffins, which is a myth, but that does not make it any
less effective a symbol), Joyce portrays the most pious of clergymen as no less than
the living dead, zombies among us.

Though "The Dead" includes much believable dialogue, it is the story in all of Dubliners
with the most — and the most evocative — descriptions. For example, Joyce uses
closely observed details to add to the reader's understanding of the story's characters,
as in this description of Freddy Malins: "His face was fleshy and pallid, touched with
color only at the thick hanging lobes of his ears and at the wide wings of his nose." Not
once but twice Freddy is described as "rubbing the knuckles of his left fist backwards
and forwards into his left eye." As a result he is easily visualized, and despite Freddy's
movement in and out of the Morkin sisters' party, the reader never quite loses track of
him.

Joyce also uses description for pacing; the author cinematically cuts away to the
ordinary objects within the room during the story's enormously dramatic penultimate
scene. The result is that the already considerable dramatic tension of "The Dead"
actually increases: "A petticoat string dangled to the floor. One boot stood upright, its
limp upper fallen down: the fellow of it lay upon its side."

As effective as the combination of theme, symbolism, dialogue, and description were in

the prior story, "Grace," they mix here to yield something even more impressive: a story
that begins simply, builds slowly, eventually grows hypnotic in its power, and ends in a
truly heartrending burst of emotion. "One by one they were all becoming shades,"
Gabriel thinks of the people he knows and, until now, has taken for granted. "Better
pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither
dismally with age."

James Stephens “THE RHINOCEROUS, SOME LADIES AND A HORSE”

"The Rhinoceros, Some Ladies and a Horse" by James Stephens is a satirical piece,
and a merry-go-round of a story. There is a great deal of exaggeration, comedy,
double-meanings, and absolutely ridiculous situations described by the narrator, James.

It seems that Stephens uses James' voice to poke fun of those who are foolish, bullies,
scam artists, and those who are overly self-important and foolish.

First we meet the bosses, and James. James has a very unimportant job of an errand
boy, and admits that he's not very bright. He is portrayed as being quite young and
inexperienced when he reckons that his managers, both at least thirty years old, will be
dead of old age "in about a month." While this is right on the nose regarding how the
young often view anyone over twenty-five, James' observations count a great deal in
proving his obvious intelligence.

We hear of the women who visit the managers, described as "music hall ladies"
(another name for actresses), probably looking for a break into acting. Their "howls of
joy" behind closed doors would suggest that these ladies of questionable reputation are
granting sexual favors to further their careers. However, young James is naive, and the
reader must look for meaning "between the lines."

When going to the zoo, two larger boys force James into the rhinoceros’ cage. In this
case, Stephens is drawing attention to bullies. When they take advantage of James, he
escapes without injury. Meeting them later, they ask how he survived and he tells them
a tall tale. To draw the attention away from their part in the present circumstances, they
create a scene and blame James, thereby bullying, and refusing to take responsibility
for what they have done.

On another occasion, a well-known woman (Maudie Darling), obviously some kind of

celebrity, is scheduled to visit. At first the men are angry because she is late,
threatening to toss her out when she arrives. When she does show up, they extend to
her every courtesy. They're very brave before she arrives, but have no spine when it
comes to taking a stand. As the managers and the woman break up their meeting--with
all kinds of foolish compliments flowing back and forth--Ms. Darling turns her
nonsensical attention to James. He has some difficulty understanding her (they tell him
later she was quoting "Spokeshave"--Shakespeare??), and once again James shows
his smarts by avoiding her clutches and hiding under the table.

In the last incident, a stranger gives James the reins of his horse, commanding the
young man to watch it, even while James is supposed to be running an errand for the
managers. To avoid this overly friendly horse, James "pinches" apples for the animal.
When he is caught, there is a lot of double-talk between the husband and wife who own
the apple cart. The man is hen-pecked by his wife (she repeatedly tells him to shut-up),
and the wife seems to have designs on getting James to live with them so she can get
his paycheck. When it appears that he will be more trouble than he is worth (especially
because he's Protestant and will be doing "holy" things that will distract the rest of their
family--a statement by Stephens regarding Catholicism), they "cut James loose."

Left once again to his own devices, James is relieved of the horse, loses his job, and
leaves the scene feeling outraged, something any intelligent person would do in light of
the stupidity he has just witnessed.

Liam O’Flaherty

The source of many of Liam O’Flaherty’s achievements is his birthplace off the coast of
the west of Ireland. The Aran Islands’ remoteness and stark natural beauty, the
dependence of their scattered population on the vagaries of wind and sea, the
inhabitants’ preservation of the Irish language as their primary means of
communication, and the virtually mythological status accorded such phenomena by
leading figures in the Irish Literary Revival such as William Butler Yeats and John
Millington Synge, all exerted a crucial influence on the development of O’Flaherty’s
work.

Both his short fiction and novels are noteworthy for their unsentimental treatment of
island life, the vivid directness of their style, and their attention to natural detail. While
by no means all, or even all the best, of O’Flaherty’s work draws on his Aran
background, the marked degree to which all of his work emphasizes the spontaneity
and volatility of all living things is the product of his formative exposure to the life forces
of Aran. One of the consequences of this background’s influence is plots that deal with
the problematical socialization of natural energy. These plots tend to take on a
melodramatic or expressionistic coloration that can mar the overall balance and
objectivity of the work. Such coloration also, however, unwittingly reveals O’Flaherty’s
essential opposition to the aesthetic and cultural codes of the Irish Literary Revival and
lends his work an often overlooked but crucial, critical dimension.

"THE FAIRY GOOSE "

"For some reason, it was made manifest to them that the goose was an evil spirit and
not the good fairy which they had supposed her to be. Terrified of the priest's stole and
breviary and of his scowling countenance, they were only too eager to attribute the
goose's strange hissing and her still stranger cackle to supernatural natural forces of an
evil nature. Some present even caught a faint rumble of thunder in the east and
although though it was not noticed at the time, an old woman later asserted that she
heard a great cackle of strange geese afar off, raised in answer to the little fairy goose's
cackle."

"The Fairy Goose", set in rural Ireland, is just a wonderful story, I cannot imagine
anyone into the form not loving it. Compressing a bit, the story begins when an older
village woman's sitting hen died and she hatches a goose egg by the firre. The Goose
is strange, never gets more than half normal size, never loses its yellow down for the
white coat of an adult goose, and does not hiss at strangers. Soon many people in the
village begin to regard the goose as a fairy. The old woman charges others to have the
fairy goose cure sick cows and such and gains the reputation as a wise woman. I want
to quote a bit from the story as the prose is just so beautiful.

"That was done, and then the gosling became sacred in the village. No boy dare throw
a stone at it, or pull a feather from its wing, as they were in the habit of doing with
geese, in order to get masts for the pieces of cork they floated in the pond as ships.
When it began to move about every house gave it dainty things. All the human beings in
the village paid more respect to it than they did to one another. The little gosling had
contracted a great affection for Mary Wiggins and followed her around everywhere, so
that Mary Wiggins also came to have the reputation of being a woman of wisdom.
Dreams were brought to her for unravelling."

Of course the local priest hears of this, a wise woman in a nearby village informed him,
and he comes to denounce the Goose Fairy. The ending is really exciting and I will
leave it unspoiled. I for sure felt I was back in Ireland in 1927, far beyond the Pale.

"GOING INTO EXILE "

Going to Exile" is set in the late 19th or early 20th century on the Irish island of Inverara.
Micheal and Mary Feeny are forced by poverty to leave their island home and
immigrate to Boston, Massachusetts where they plan to work to improve their financial
situation.

The day before the Feeney siblings leave home friends and neighbors gather together
for an all night party. Their parents are heartbroken because they don't know if they will
ever see their grandchildren or their children again. Michael and Mary are young,
afraid, and excited to be leaving their family, friends, and the only home they have ever
known.

I can't help but wonder what happened to Michael and Mary after going through Ellis
Island. Did they ever see any of their family again? Did they keep in contact? Did they
ever go home again? Did Boston turn out to be what they expected?

Boston was probably a mixed experience. As likely as not, Michael and Mary worked
long hours and lived in crowded conditions. The Irish and Blacks were disparaged and
competed with one another for the lowest paying jobs. Somehow they stayed strong
and over time prevailed. Their descendants now live a higher quality of life.
“THREE LAMBS”

Abstract

Little Michael rose before dawn. He tried to make as little noise as possible. He ate two
slices of bread and butter and drank a cup of milk, although he hated cold milk with
bread and butter in the morning. But on an occasion like this, what did it matter what a
boy ate? He was going out to watch the black sheep having a lamb. His father had
mentioned the night before that the black sheep was sure to lamb that morning, and of
course there was a prize, three pancakes, for the first one who saw the lamb.

L.A.G Strong “PRONGS”

A Short Story by L. A. G. Strong , read by the author

Here is a human story, with very great appeal, that centres round two Irish boys, Johnny
catching 'prongs (prawns) by the sea wall at Kings-town, his elder brother Dan trying to
persuade him to come home. It is included in a collected volume of stories by L. A. G.
Strong

There is a strong Irish voice in the first few stories of the collection, and Coppard
hovered in my thoughts as I read them, for he too chose to tell his tales in an Irish idiom
from time to time. The rural and the poor here too are neither patronised nor
misrepresented.
In Prongs two young brothers fight, and are drawn into an arrangement with a group of
men who, having intervened without thinking, are fearful of the brothers’ violent father.
Strong’s world is not benign; yet it is never empty of love.

Sean O'Faolain

“THE TROUT”

Sean O'Faolain (1900 to 1991-Cork City, Ireland) was the son of a policeman. He
fought in the Irish War for Independence, 1919 to 1921. He received M.A. degrees from
the National University of Ireland and Harvard. From 1940 to 1900 he was the director
of a very prestigious Irish literary journal, The Bell. His daughter Julia O'Faolain is a
Booker Prize nominated author.

O"Faolain was a very productive writer. He published 13 books and over 90 short
stories. When collected, his short stories were over 1300 pages.

"The Trout" is a beautifully written story about family on holiday at an inn in the country.
The children, normally city kids, are thrilled to be able to explore nature. There is an
older girl, maybe ten, and her six year old brother. One day they discover a trout stuck
in a pool of water no bigger than a bucket. They are very confused how he could have
gotten there. Their mother tells him maybe a bird dropped a fish egg. The children
develop a fascination with the trout and his fate of being trapped. A wonderful tale about
childhood and family relations.

"UNHOLY LIVING AND HALF DYING "

"Unholy Living and Half Dying" centers on a single man, working in a bank and living in
a rooming house. (Rooming houses, land ladies, neighbors and such played a big part
in literary works up until at least the 1950s or so.) I really loved these opening lines:

"J A C K Y C A R D E W is one of those club bachelors who are so well groomed, well
preserved, pomaded, medicated, cated, and self-cosseted that they seem ageless-the
sort of fixture about whom his pals will say when he comes unstuck around the age of
eighty, `Well, well! Didn't poor old Jacky Cardew go off very fast in the end?' For thirty
years or so he has lived in what are called Private Hotels".

The story revolves around the relationship of Jacky, his land lady, his pub friends and
the local priest.

Frank O'Connor

"GUESTS OF THE NATION "

The basic situation of the short story "Guests of the Nation" by Frank O'Connor is a
story of friendship and war between two opposing sides, the Irish and British during war
time. The two Englishmen, Belcher and Hawkins whom are prisoners of war and the
Irishmen who are holding them captured engage in frequent card games, joke telling
and arguing altogether while the war seems worlds away.

The conflict with in the short story is an internal conflict. The Irishmen are forced to
forget about all humanity when dealing with the enemy during combat. This was
extremely hard for the guards because all but Donovan had befriended the prisoners. It
was stated that if any Irish prisoner was killed by the English, then Hawkins and Belcher
would be executed. This was hard for both the guards and the prisoners because
although they knew that Hawkins and Belcher would have nothing to do with executions
elsewhere, they would be the target of punishment. As enemies, not by choice, the Irish
must enforce this because they are on the lower chain of command. So in a way they
are absolved from their feelings of guilt because they "have a duty to do so."

I believe the crisis occurs when Donovan shot Hawkins. The crisis is the turning point of
the action in the plot of the story. At this point, they all "stood very still watching him
settle out in the last agony." The first shot did not work so the narrator, Bonaparte was
to shoot him again. After this, Belcher began to laugh for the first time throughout the
entire story and then began to talk excessively. I view this as the falling action
immediately following the climax. It was as if he could not contain his emotions of what
he had just witnessed.

Theme plays a very important part in this short story. Theme is the idea of a literary
work abstracted from its details of language, character and action. The great example
of theme that is evident throughout the entire short story is the duty to perform certain
acts. We can see here that the Irishman Donovan is very big on obeying his duty to
carry out orders that have been authorized to him. Because Donovan has distanced
himself from the prisoners more than the other guards, he did not have the same
connection or sympathy for them as Bonaparte and Noble. Donovan states that
because four Irishmen have been killed, Belcher and Hawkins must be "shot as a
reprisal." So Donovan and the Englishmen have a duty to protect their country and by
doing so they must execute the prisoners of whom have been befriended as well.

“MY OEDIPUS COMPLEX”

“My Oedipus Complex” is a short story written by an Irishman, Frank O’Connor. This
has been an entertaining and successful story due to the author’s techniques. His use
of characters, theme, imagery, word choice and humour make this a very enjoyable
story.

The word “Oedipus” comes from the Greek legend where the hero killed his own father
and married his mother. As the name suggests, this story contains a similar theme, only
in a milder more humorous sense. In the story Larry, whose father has just returned
from the war, finds that he is no longer an equal in his home. He has to compete with
his father for his mother’s attention. This results in quite a funny situation, which I found
very funny.

In the story, Frank O’Connor uses the boy as the narrator. Therefore the story is told
from the perspective of a five-year-old. However, the language and word choice is very
sophisticated for a child. Using phrases like “these obscene words referring to my
person” makes Larry seem more adult than he really is, which adds to his indigence at
being suddenly treated like a child. Of course I found this really funny because it’s so
strange to see a child think like this.

Soon, things begin to get rather tense between Larry and his father. The author actually
compares it to a battlefield when he says, “conducted a series of skirmishes against
one another”. This gives the sense of an ongoing battle between the two. The silliness
of this little private battle between a grown man and his five-year-old son is very
entertaining from my point of view, especially as the father has only just returned from a
proper war.

Every now and again, Larry will produce little bits of childish logic. Things he has
worked out that make perfect sense to him but we, as readers, know better. For
example, his mother tells him when he asks about why there isn’t a baby in the house
when all the other families have one, than a baby costs “seventeen and six”. This
makes no sense to Larry as “the Geneys up the road had a baby and everyone knew
they couldn’t afford seventeen and six.” So he reasons that the Geney’s baby must be
cheap and that his mother must want a better modal!

Another example is when his mother persuades him to sleep in his own bed because it
is “unhealthy” to hare hers. It is then terribly unfair to him that his father gets to sleep
with his mum when it is considered bad for his health and believes that his father should
really sleep in a bed of his own. Larry even tells his mother he is going to marry her
when he grows up because he is certain that this is the reason why his father gets all
the attention. This is where I think most of the humour comes from.

Larry of course thinks that all this is the right way to go about things. He seems to think
quite highly of himself, certainly that he is a very important person in the household.
This adds to the success of the story, especially when his father returns.

Another technique used to make this story successful is the world choice and use of
imagery. An example of this would be “like going for a walk with a mountain”. This is
referring to his father. It gives the impression that unlike his mother, his father is solidly
immovable. It also gives a sense of height compared to the little boy, as his father must
seem much taller than he is from his perspective.

One of my favourite examples of this is “feeling like a bottle of champagne”. This gives
the image of fizzling and bubbles and celebration. This means that the boy is very
happy and energetic at this moment, but also that maybe his mood with fizzle out and
he’ll run out of “bubbles” as he does later in the scene.

The authors use of irony is another very successful technique. Larry is told he must go
to church every Sunday and pray for the safe return of his father. But when his prayers
are finally answered, he realises that this is a disaster. So he comes to the conclusion
that “God wasn’t quite what he was cracked up to be” and that “God had codded” him.
By tricking him into praying for a calamity is disguise, the author makes the whole
situation very humorous indeed.

Due to all these techniques, Frank O’Connor has made “My Oedipus Complex” a funny
and successful short story that I particularly enjoyed reading.

Eric Cross "THE JURY CASE "

"The Jury Case" is set in rural Ireland. Twelve men have been summed to a coroner's
inquest trial to determine if a death is an accident or foul play. As I read this story I
thought "this story is playing right into the English image of the Irish (in 1942, not now of
course) as drunken ignoramuses dominated by their wives". These are not your English
jury of twelve men good and true. I was not sure if this was meant as satire of the Irish
stage character type or if it was meant for an audience who saw the Irish that way. I will
say that either way it was fun to read. Here is how the narrator describes the jury.

"They were twelve working men. Farmers and fishermen and such class of people.
They were twelve ignorant men-as ignorant as any twelve men you would find in this
parish, and, God knows, that wouldn't be difficult".

Most of the jury have no idea why they have been called to the hotel where the inquest
will be made. Some think they are to be charged with the murder of the dead man,
some think they are going to his wake, others that they were to be his pall bearers.
After viewing the body and learning why they were there, and having a few drinks, they
find they have to be sworn in and this causes a controversy as one of men thinks
swearing is a sin. They get through that. Then they are in the room where they will
decide after seeing the body and being sure he was dead it it was murder or not. One
of the jurors says the man who found the body once tried to cheat him in a horse trade
and as far as he is concerned that means he murdered the man. The sheriff and
coroner are with them to answer any questions and keep order. The men don't want to
be thought simple so each must give his opinion. The story really is funny (OK maybe
some Irish might be offended if very sensitive) I loved these lines.

`The coroner explained suicide, too, but Dan Bedam had not heard of that either. He
wanted to know if it was Irish. In the middle of this argument there was a knock at the
door, and in walked "Ball o' Wax's" wife with his dinner. 'She's the divil of a great
pounder of a woman, who would make a grand door for a car-house. "Ball o' Wax" is
only a small class of a man, but he had a fierce appetite, and his wife was afraid that he
would die if he did not have his dinner."

The deliberation continues and it is clear they cannot come to a conclusion. The
debates are really fun to read. It ends as insultingly as it starts.

Michael McLaverty "THE POTEEN MAKER”

McLaverty (1904 to 1992) was born in County Monaghan and then moved as a child to
Belfast where he spent the bulk of his life. He was a teacher and a principal in addition
to writing two novels and a number of short stories about life in Northern Ireland.

"The Poteen Maker" is told in the first person by a man recalling an old teacher of his,
(I confess I did not know that poteen is high potency alcoholic drink made from the first
distillation of fermented mash in the process of whiskey making. All whiskey had to be
taxed by the government and poteen was home made and untaxed). Making poteen
was declared illegal in 1691 but that never stopped anyone. I have never experienced
this but my guess is it packs a real kick and produces a mean hangover and is probably
not real smooth. Brewing it was kind of a way an ordinary citizen could try to assert his
independence from the British.

It is interesting to learn from the story what when on inside a small school with one
room and one teacher. One day the boys come a bit early and they see the teacher
boiling some brown liquid in a bunsen burner. The teacher says he is preparing for the
class a demonstration of how to purify dirty water so the boys will know how to do this
one day. Then of all the luck the district school inspector walks into the school and
"what is going on". With a wink and without the boys ever the wiser the two men share
the first shots of the poteen.
Bryan Macmahon “EXILE RETURN”

"The Irish father was often a defeated man, whose wife frequently won the bread and
usurped his domestic power, while the priest usurped his spiritual authority." Declan
Kiberd

Bryan MacMahon (1909 to 1998, county Kerry) was a novelist, playwright and short
story writer. One of his sons was a judge of the Irish High Court.

The 'Exile's Return" perfectly exemplifies the main tenants of O'Connor's book The
Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story. It centers on a lonely man, someone with no
one to speak for him, an Irish man working in Birmingham England for the last six years
now returned home. One my focuses this year is on Declan Kiberd's claim in Inventing
Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation (if someone knows of a better or as good
an overall book on Irish literature, please tell me about it) that one of the most important
themes of modern Irish literature is that of the missing or weak father. The father in this
story has been gone for six years, he sent home a bit of money but he largely turned
over the raising of his four sons and one daughter to his wife. He has come home with
the purpose of strangling his wife as he has heard she has cheated on him. He runs
into an old friend and they decide to have a drink. There are few open conversations in
the Irish short story that do not involve drinking as a prelude.

Another theme one often finds in Irish literature is the depiction of a culture of extreme
emotional restraint. Beneath this restraint is a submerged tendency to extreme violence
as seen in the intent of the returning father. With the help of his friend, who is perfectly
willing to help him kill his wife, he breaks in his house and sees his four sons sleeping
and his daughter. He plots how he will kill his wife.

He and the wife see each other when she comes home from the pub. She basically
says, "if you are going to do something to me do it now as I don't want to play cat and
mouse with you". She admits she was unfaithful while he was gone then he admits he
was unfaithful also then they both seem to say, let us take up where we left were six
years ago. No emotion, no tears, no screams of joy or hate, just getting the business
out of the way.

When his daughter sees him, she yells out to her brothers, "wake up, the old boy is
home" like he had just gone out an hour ago. The man is named Paddy, your stock
stage Irish name.

These lines will allow you to get a good feel for the prose of Macmahon and illustrate
exactly my points

"`You're back, Paddy?' .Ay!, `Had you a good crossin'?' `Middlin!' `You hungry?' `I'll
see ... soon!' There was a long silence. Her fingers restless, the woman stood in mid-
kitchen. She raised her voice: `If you've anything to do or say to me, Paddy Kinsella,
you'd best get it over. I'm not a one for waitin'!' He said nothing. He held his gaze on the
fire. `You hear me, Paddy? I'll not live cat and dog with you. I know what I am. Small
good your brandin' me when the countryside has me well branded before you. He held
his silence. `Sayin' nothin' won't get you far. I left you down, Paddy. Be a man an' say it
to my face!' Paddy turned: `You left me well down,' he said clearly. He turned to the fire
and added, in a mutter: 'I was no angel myself !' Her trembling lips were unbelieving.
'We're quits, so?' she ventured at last. 'Quits !' `You'll not keep firin' it in my face?' 'I'11
not!' 'Before God?' `Before God 1' The woman crossed herself and knelt on the floor. 'In
the presence of my God,' she said, 'because you were fair to me, Paddy Kinsella, I'll be
better than three wives to you. I broke my marriage-mornin' promise, but I'll make up for
it. There's my word, given before my Maker!'

Mary Lavin's

"THE WILL"

Mary Lavin was said to have felt that "The Will" was "the finest expression of her art".
The story is from a collection called In a Cafe, which was compiled by her daughter.
Lavin was an Irish author, born in 1912.

"The stories are always about a family, although the name, Conroy, Grimes, Becker,
may change from fiction to fiction. The recurrent antagonism is that between a
conniving, cold pursuit of material prosperity on the one hand and a flame-like spirit of
passion on the other. The typical battlefield exists between sisters. In the language of
the stories, one side is associated with darkness and heavy, clumsy movement, the
other with mobility, even to the point of destruction. What these stories unveil is the
mysterious, deadly antagonism in the world towards creatures of light and air, like Lally
Conroy in 'The Will'."
Lolly Conroy has returned home for her mother's funeral. Lolly has made her home in
Dublin to the shock and disappointment of her family, though you don't catch on to this
at first. What is readily apparent is that her mother has left Lolly out of her will. Her
sisters and brother try to convince her to accept a portion of their money from their
mother's will, unhappy and surprised that she has been so noticeably forgotten. Slowly,
through the sibling's dialogue it is revealed why Lolly has been left out of the will.

"I had two little blue feathers in my hat the morning I went into her room to tell her I was
getting married. I had nothing new to wear but my old green silk costume, and my old
green hat, but I bought two little pale blue feathers and pinned them on the front of the
hat. I think the feathers upset her more than going against her wishes. She kept staring
at them all the time I was in the room, and even when she ordered me to get out of her
sight it was at the feathers in my hat she was staring and not at me."
It becomes obvious that Lolly has chosen to marry down in the world and has led a life
of near poverty in the city. You get the impression that perhaps her husband is dead, or
worse in jail. What starts out as a sad but amiable family gathering soon spirals into
accusation throwing and truth telling. Lolly runs a boarding house and can barely
scrape by, which is a great embarrassment to the family. As a matter of fact, it turns out
that her even being there is an embarrassment. She's shabby in appearance, and even
the parish priest didn't know who she was. Lolly doesn't seem to mind or see her
situation as any kind of humiliation. Offers of money or suggestions to turn her boarding
house into a reputable hotel are declined. Lavin does a remarkable job of telling Lolly's
story through one small family scene, through the eyes of her family as well as her own.
Ultimately it will be obvious who has the true christian spirit of forgiveness in the Conroy
family and maybe even who has the richer character. Lavin is an excellent storyteller.

"A WET DAY"

March 13, 1944 The British government bans all travel between England and Ireland,
because they consider many of the people of Ireland in sympathy with the Germans.
Electricity, most foods, and most basic necessities are under strict rationing. WWII at
is peak. Ireland official position is that of neutrality.

Frank O'Connor features two women writers in his The Lonely Voice: A Study in the
Short Story. One of them is Katherine Mansfield and he does not really get her at all.
The only female Irish short story writer mentioned is Mary Lavin.
Lavin was in fact born in the USA to Irish parents who moved all the family back to
Ireland when Lavin (1912 to 1996) was ten.

I am pretty sure Mary Lavin is universally viewed as the best 20th Century female Irish
Short Story writers. Lavin married a successful attorney and published her first
collection of short stories in 1943.

There are lots and lots of priests in the Irish Short Story. The priest in "A Wet Day"
comes off look very bad and totally selfish. I am not inclined to relay the plot but it
shows how abusive a priest could be with no recourse. The story opens with a priest
visiting one of the members of his Parrish and basically telling her that her lettuce crop
looks bad, seemingly just wanting to hurt her feelings. It ends with him causing the
death of the husband of his niece for very unkind reasons that are very contrary to the
dictates of Christianity. The characters in this story come very much to life in just the
few details Lavin provides. The standard of writing is very high. I hope to read more of
her stories.

“A Wet Day” is a subtle story that explores several conflicts. The first is between the
young narrator and her aunt. This young person has been to the university and has
acquired ideas that are considered radical in her small Irish village. The most radical of
these is her lack of respect for the Roman Catholic clergy. Her estimate of a person’s
worth does “not allow credit for round collars or tussore.” She judges the person and not
the office, and thus contrasts with her aunt, who is afraid to offend the local priest,
Father Gogarty. The aunt respects the priest because of his position and never
questions his moral character.

In the first scene, Father Gogarty visits the aunt to get some vegetables from her. The
aunt carefully keeps her niece away from the priest so that she will not make a
troublesome scene, even though doing so results in her and her niece getting wet.

The garden setting is repeatedly described as wet and sodden. This troubles the priest,
who spent his early years studying for the priesthood in the balmy confines of Rome
and now suffers greatly from the wet and unhealthy environment in which he lives. A
diabetic, Father Gogarty can eat only vegetables—primarily cabbage and rhubarb. This
wins him the sympathy of not only the aunt, but also her niece and the whole village.

Mike, the gardener, is also fond of Father Gogarty and goes out of his way to provide
him with vegetables. He sympathizes with the...

(The entire section is 481 words.)

I've just recently completed a short essay on the use of symbolism in 'The Dead' and 'A
Wet Day,' and out of interest spent some time googling the two.

Joyce uses symbolism throughout his short story ‘The Dead’ to highlight the
dichotomous themes of Ireland’s loss of cultural influence and her loss of cultural
independence. Joyce uses music to symbolise a state of cultural paralysis that exists as
a result of a combination of the oppression of the individual at the hands of Western
civilization, the Irish Catholic Church[2] and Ireland’s own inflexibility. The discussion of
Julia’s losing her place on the choir highlights these separate yet interlinked concerns
by introducing the idea that Julia is being silenced or stifled by Irish society and the Irish
Catholic religion.
Gabriel has a clear superiority complex; he sees himself as more intelligent than
everyone else and can’t handle being made fun of. Part of his superiority is his belief in
his ‘higher culture.’ This is evident in his condescending manner at the party, his
obsession with galoshes (which are worn by “everyone… on the continent”) and his
attempt to distance his wife Gretta from her background when asked if she was from
Connacht (“her people are”). Most interesting to me here is the treatment of galoshes.
The galoshes can be seen as symbolic of the dichotomy of continent versus/against
Ireland; we learn that Gabriel wears galoshes and attempts to get his wife to do so. His
argument that “…everyone wears them on the continent” is significant in that it
highlights his own motivations and his abandonment of the Irish identity (probably as a
result of his belief in its inferior nature). That Gretta refuses to wear them at the start of
the story reveals that Joyce has used characterisation to further explore this dichotomy;
Gabriel represents the position of the continent in many respects, whereas Gretta
represents Ireland. Gretta makes a joke to the others about Gabriel’s insistence upon
wearing galoshes; he responds with a retort designed to remind her of her ignorance
and thus put her in her place. The intention is to place Gabriel back in a position of
power and affirm his sense of superiority. Gabriel sees himself (and apparently Western
culture outside of Ireland) as superior, yet somehow feels as though he needs to defend
his place among the inferior partygoers by belittling his wife. There is one evident flaw
on both sides of this dichotomy: inflexibility and the inability to really engage and
interact in an authentic way. Gabriel’s interaction with his wife symbolises the
disconnect between Ireland and the continent, and the alienation that was taking place
as a result of the refusal to allow the cultures to interact unhindered (i.e. without
argument as to who was superior).

Similarly, Mary Lavin uses symbolism in her characterisation of the narrator, her aunt
and the priest in ‘A Wet Day’ to draw the reader to consider the oppressive, stifling
nature of Irish Catholic religion in Irish society. The narrator is educated, but unlike
Joyce’s Gabriel she is motivated by a belief in reason rather than a false sense of
superiority. She does not appear to be bigoted against the church, as her aunt blindly
believes (“cheap anticlericalism”), but rather respects men based on their personal
worth: (“in my estimate of a man’s worth I did not allow credit for round collars and
tussore. I had met some fine men who were in clerical clothes but my respect for them
had nothing to do with their dress”). Her aunt, on the other hand, trusts and respects the
priest unquestioningly, no matter how critical or miserable he is. The contrast in beliefs
could be seen as symbolic of the two separate yet co-existent mentalities present in
Ireland at the time; that of ‘old’ Ireland in its unquestioning submission to the oppression
of the Church (symbolised in the character of the aunt and the priest) and that of ‘new’
Ireland, represented as being more liberating, which were indicative of the views of
many in the literary circles (represented by the character of the niece).

Like Gretta in ‘The Dead,’ the priest also symbolises an inability to let go of the past. He
is “always” telling stories of his “healthy youth,” and these images are clearly juxtaposed
with his present infirmities. His dwelling on his past makes him less tolerant of his
present condition, and this influences his ungenerous behaviour and false sense of
entitlement. In this way, the character of the priest represents the idea that a refusal to
change and adapt in a new world is a force for evil for both individuals and Ireland as a
larger social, cultural and political body.
Along with his personality and attitude towards his parishioners, the priest’s walking
stick also symbolises the oppressive role of the Irish Catholic Church in the lives of
individuals and Irish society. As he is walking through their garden, the priest “shook the
bush with… his walking stick.” This presents an act of domination and symbolises the
priest’s perceived right to control the lives and property of his parishioners. Pairing this
action with the preceding description of the bushes as “unpretentious” increases the
symbolic meaning of this act; the bush is honest, fulfilling its natural role with beauty
and integrity, whereas the priest is seen to manipulate his surroundings and his
parishioners for his own personal benefit (to get vegetables and sympathy). Similarly,
“the perfect machinery of his sentences” that “ran smoothly in the tracks they had cut
out for themselves through dogma and doctrine” symbolises the lack of integrity and
spirituality in Irish Catholic religion and this, combined with the priest’s attitude in
general, symbolises the repressive nature of religion in Irish society. The priest is
“careful” rather than “spiritual,” and this causes the narrator to view him with a level of
distrust.

That the narrator’s distrust of the clergyman proved reasonable is designed to raise
questions about society’s blind, unquestioning faith and trust in the oppressive Irish
Catholic Church and its members. The priest in this story is portrayed as uncharitable
and utterly selfish, to the extent that he is willing to allow a man to die, believing the
man’s condition to be “worse than she thought it was,” because he didn’t want the
trouble of having to care for a sick man overnight or longer. The aunt’s disillusionment
provides a hopeful symbol of the coming of a new age for Ireland – one free of the
oppression and repression that Lavin saw as being a destructive, stifling force in
Ireland.

James Plunkett “THE EAGLES AND THE TRUMPETS”

James Plunkett (1920 to 2003, Dublin) had several jobs. He started out as a clerk at the
Dublin Gas Company, then became a trades union official, before settling down into his
career in radio and writing. His best-known novel was Strumpet City first published in
1969. (I have not read this but I see it is available as a kindle edition for a reasonable
price so I hope to read it in 2013. It is set in Dublin in 1913 during the time of the city
wide lock out and is considered a grand panorama of Dublin, viewed from the bottom.
He also had two collections of short stories.

"The Eagles and the Trumpets" by James Plunkett is a hard drinking story that deals
with a diverse range of people in a small Irish town, mostly patrons of a hotel. There
would be little or no social or other interaction in the world of this story were it not for
alcohol. Everything is an occasion for a drink. When a man offers a woman a drink,
there is more to it than that, as we see in this story. I have said several times that
drinking plays a much heavier role in Irish short stories than it does in short stories form
other countries. I have read, for example, many short stories of The Philippines and the
Indian Sub-continent in the last three years and there are virtually no mentions of
drinking and for sure not the constant references one finds in the Irish short story.

One of the things Plunkett is a master at is showing how circumstances trap people.
How a deeply felt need for security keeps people emotionally confined. He shows how
people with any power use petty cruelty to embellish their own self-esteem. It is about
people put into totally boring soul destroying jobs at a young age by their parents in the
hope of getting a pension in 50 years. The story covers several people and their lives.

The story opens with Miss O'Hallorhan, the town library who moved here from a bigger
place, maybe Dublin six years ago in the only hotel in town. It is also the center for
social gathering and the only place to meet out of town people. A commercial traveler
offers her a drink and one of the story lines has it start. One thing one learns in the Irish
short story is people have their secrets and the traveler for sure has one, maybe two.

We also meet a twenty six year old clerk. These lines about him will, I bet, reverberate
with lots of people

"Put into the firm at nineteen years of age because it was a good, safe, comfortable job,
with a pension scheme and adequate indemnity against absences due to ill health, he
realized now at twenty-six that there was no indemnity against the boredom, no
contributory scheme which would save his manhood from rotting silently inside him
among the ledgers and the comptometer machines. From nine to five he decayed
among the serried desks with their paper baskets and their telephones, and from five
on-wards there was the picture house, occasional women, and drink when there was
money for it."

"The Eagles and the Trumpets" by James Plunkett is a very rich story which draws us a
sharp picture of the life of the people in the story. We feel their loneliness, their
frustration over the boredom of their lives, we see petty meanness and emotional
quietude under which their is a brooding potential for violence. We hear it casually
mentioned as if it were nothing that a woman has been in a "lunatic asylum" for the last
17 years. No one asks why.

Elizabeth Bowen “SUMMER NIGHT”

Elizabeth Bowen was a woman born in 1899 who reportedly had affairs, not always with
men, and who wrote about infidelity with a knowing sense of the tiny, uncomfortable
elements of these illicit encounters. This picture effectively displays her contradictions.

It is one of her most famous short stories. It’s a beautiful, evocative story that takes
place on a summer night in the Irish countryside. At the beginning a woman speedily
drives a car through the landscape, seeing the sun go down and how everything is
transformed by the softness of the light. Only the houses on a hill in the distance are
still bathing in the sunlight. That’s where she is going but we do not know it yet. The
point of view changes after a few pages. We do now see a scene in a large country
house. A phone is ringing. The point of view changes again and another phone rings.
We meet the people in those other houses, we know that they are linked to the woman
in the car who is the one ringing but we don’t know what is going on. It will take the
whole 30 pages of the story for us to find out the secret at the heart of the story. The
character descriptions are masterful and the dynamics between the people very
complex and subtle but what I liked most about the story was the description how the
summer night transforms the surroundings, how the changing of the light seems to cast
a spell over the landscape.

It is a World War II era story of a woman (Emma) speeding in her car in the dark to visit
a home and the man who owns the home, Robinson (presumably a last name) who is
entertaining an older brother (Justin) and deaf sister (Queenie) from the local village.

As I made my way through the story, it seemed to me to be a kaleidoscope: shifting

narrators, shifting perspectives on what was happening, what just happened. Much of it
is conveyed obliquely – through phone calls, letters, introspective interior dialogues. I
found it confusing initially (like the Disinherited) and then it all made perfect sense.
Bowen is being (coy sounds manipulative, but is the first word I think of) very careful
with what she reveals. She’s peeling her onion of a story, showing you a little bit here, a
little bit there – it’s very delicate.

For instance, toward the end Justin writes Robinson (the host Justin and his sister
dropped in on) a monster of a scathing letter condemning Robinson for being a poor
host and looking down on them. As I read it, I thought, wow! the social norms of this
culture were amazing because Robinson’s put-down is so subtle that you think (as you
are reading the scene of Justin and Queenie visiting his house) that Robinson is being
very polite although he is somewhat impatient (he is waiting for Emma to reach his
house). You do know from his interior dialogue that he is not particularly excited by his
company, but you don’t get the sense that he is conveying this to Justin or Queenie.

I thought, well, Justin really understood more than I would have thought. And then I
went back and re-read the story and realized that Justin’s a real neurotic, very hair-
trigger. You are left with a sense that Justin both jumped the gun and understood the
subtleties of Robinson’s attitude. And then, at the end, you hear what the deaf Queenie
got out of the evening and you realize that she was on an entirely different plane.

I’m trying to hold back a bit on the plot because Bowen does and this is part of the fun
of the story (it reminds me of the first Memento). But I do want to say that her highly
evocative descriptions of nature are front and center here too.