Volume 33, Number 11 · June 26, 1986
Good News
By Robert Towers
The News from Ireland and Other Stories
by William Trevor
Viking/Elisabeth Sifton Books, 285 pp., $16.95
Monkeys
by Susan Minot
Dutton/Seymour Lawrence, 159 pp., $15.95
Transactions in a Foreign Currency
by Deborah Eisenberg
Knopf, 214 pp., $15.95
The Anglo-Irishman William Trevor writes in a tradition of storytelling that is seldom encountered in America today. He takes for granted the importance of the historical and social setting in which he places his characters and takes pains to render it plausibly. He knows that class distinctions matter, even when they are not emphasized. He imagines a past for his characters that is more than merely personal or familial, a past that bears down continuously on their present behavior. As a result, his short stories, like those of V.S. Pritchett, often have the weight and density of miniature novels. William Faulkner once wrote such stories in this country; Peter Taylor—another southerner—continues almost alone to do so today.
Review, 3527 words
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