Volume 38, Number 15 · September 26, 1991
Relics
By John Banville
Two Lives: Reading Turgenev and My House in Umbria
by William Trevor
Viking, 375 pp., $21.95
Some years ago British television filmed an adaptation of William Trevor's short story 'The Ballroom of Romance.' It was a grim little drama, set in one of those concrete and galvanized-iron dance halls which sprang up at crossroads in rural Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s. The story centered on a woman, no longer young, who comes every week to the dance in a last-ditch and ultimately vain search for a husband who will take her away from her bleak life of toiling on her widowed father's farm, to which the circumstances of the time have condemned her.
Review, 2739 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |