A Bit on the Side
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
William Trevor’s stunning new collection of stories displays this renowned craftsman at the peak of his powers. A middle-aged couple meet in a theatre bar for a squalid blind date; a disappointed priest fears an innocent young girl may run away from home; two self-certain sisters visit a newly widowed local woman. From these slender moments Trevor creates whole lives, conjuring up characters marked by bitterness and loss. William Trevor’s graceful prose is a wonder in itself, and as convincing when inhabiting the mind of a school lunchmaid, an adulterous Irish country librarian or a murderer on the London streets. And as is always the case with William Trevor, venom and tragedy are never far from the still surface of the stories.
These stories, many of which first appeared in The New Yorker, are small masterpieces of observation from one of the most highly acclaimed and beloved writers of the century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The protagonists of this haunting, emotionally bleak collection of stories a new widow confessing to two surprised Legion of Mary sisters the secrets of her marriage to a hateful man in "Sitting with the Dead"; a woman stalked by her lonely, possibly violent ex-husband in "On the Streets"; an heiress who compulsively recounts her tragic life story to total strangers in "Solitude"; and a couple who exploit each other on a blind date in "An Evening Out" are generally 50-ish, usually childless and almost always burdened by regret over relationships decayed or forgone. They live in the aftermath of irremediable mistakes, ruefully cognizant that hope and romance are often delusory covers for self-interest and survival. Even the young an 18-year-old girl who weeps with regret over future betrayals, an Irish woman who calls off her wedding after realizing she loves the dream of America more than her intended are melancholy and introspective. Trevor reveals his native Ireland as a world sandwiched between modernity and its accompanying wealth, secularism and vulgarity, and a past that was more soulful and pious but also more restrictive. The much-lauded Trevor (Felicia's Journey; The Story of Lucy Gault; etc.) explores the many sources and shadings of regret with his usual delicate but brilliant psychological nuance, brightened occasionally by nostalgia for the lost love that once impelled his characters forward.
