A Bit on the Side

Simon Vance and Josephine Bailey take turns reading these 12 stories by one of the greatest contemporary practitioners of the genre. Both narrators do an excellent job. The stories are of love--alive and worn-out--tragedy--past and present--and of making a life out of whatever is available. Trevor's characters are the flawed real people that we are, and we believe in them. When reading Trevor's work, pacing is paramount, as the stories are subtle and inevitably surprise. Vance and Bailey rise to the occasion. Some of these readings are near-perfect; all are respectable. Listeners will not be dis-appointed. R.E.K. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 16, 2004
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. Agent, Peter Matson at Sterling Lord Literistic
.