Audiobook5 hours
A Bit on the Side: Stories
Written by William Trevor
Narrated by Josephine Bailey and Simon Vance
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
William Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age, and a new collection of stories from him is always a cause for celebration. These twelve stories include:
The waiter who divulges his shocking life of crime to his ex-wife.
A woman repeats the story of her parents' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy.
The schoolgirl who regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her.
A middle-aged couple meet in a theatre bar for a squalid blind date.
The disappointed priest who fears an innocent young girl may run away from home.
Two self-certain sisters visit a newly widowed local woman.
And, in the volume's title story, a middle-age accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair.
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.
At the heart of this stunning collection is Trevor's characteristic tenderness and unflinching eye for both the humanizing and dehumanizing aspects of modern urban and rural life.
The waiter who divulges his shocking life of crime to his ex-wife.
A woman repeats the story of her parents' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy.
The schoolgirl who regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her.
A middle-aged couple meet in a theatre bar for a squalid blind date.
The disappointed priest who fears an innocent young girl may run away from home.
Two self-certain sisters visit a newly widowed local woman.
And, in the volume's title story, a middle-age accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair.
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.
At the heart of this stunning collection is Trevor's characteristic tenderness and unflinching eye for both the humanizing and dehumanizing aspects of modern urban and rural life.
Author
William Trevor
William Trevor KBE was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.
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Reviews for A Bit on the Side
Rating: 3.7034884976744182 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
86 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not being a fan of short stories, my opinion may not do this book any justice. The stories are deceptively mild, understated, yet providing insight into the human psyche even while it might appear that nothing much happens. Nevertheless, whether the subject is pleasant or repellant Trevor writes beautifully, eloquently capturing moments in time.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This collection of short stories examines everyday life and relationships. The stories are intimate and self-contained. The characters are so real and the tiny dramas of their lives calls out the beauty of real life. It makes one appreciate the mundane details and see the loveliness of simply being alive.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This small collection of short stories was a bit of a disappointment. I have enjoyed several of Trevor's novels and story collections, but this one just didn't move me like other of his works. For the most part, the stories are about ordinary, mousey, even dull people living ordinary, dull lives. While this is true of other Trevor stories, his use of language has always been powerful, making me interested in and empathetic with the most ordinary of characters. That didn't happen for me in A Bit on the Side; for me, Trevor's usual poignancy was missing here.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I mean, Trevor is a great writer, but these stories seemed so FAMILIAR. Maybe the Irish village thing is played out.