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But Come Ye Back: A Novel in Stories
For thirty-some years, Lyle has made a life for his family working as an accountant. But when he retires, his Irish-born wife, Mary, wants to leave America and go home -- where the ocean is near and the butter has flavor. Somewhat grudgingly, Lyle agrees, but during their years in Galway, they discover that the surprises of life are not over. Going home is more complicated than butter and the bay, and thirty content years does not mean that a couple is immune to romantic intrigue. In this new life, while Mary and Lyle are rediscovering each other and building a richer life together, an unexpected event forces Lyle to decide where his home truly is. Told in "quiet stories with emotions like old stepping-stones that have sunk beneath the surface" ( Christian Science Monitor ), Beth Lordan's evocative and heartfelt novel explores the complex emotional terrain of mature marital relationships.
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 23, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
December 11, 2013
The emerald moors of Ireland lie a long way from the wheat fields of Carbondale, Ill., where Beth Lordan teaches writing. But this masterful storyteller knows all about spanning distances that seem unfathomable. Her new novel, inspired by a sabbatical in Galway, records the persistence of affection between a man and woman who remain strikingly different over their 30-year marriage.
But Come Ye Back opens on the day Mary and Lyle move into their new, very old home. Lyle has retired recently, and Mary has prevailed upon him to resist the orthopedic pull of Florida in favor of returning to the little Irish town of her childhood.
Decades earlier, she'd settled in Cleveland with her responsible American husband to raise their sons, assuming "she'd never move house again," but here they are across the ocean, amid paths and fields she recalls from girlhood.
"This whole undertaking was courageous," she thinks, and "Lyle was heroic, too, coming away with her to a foreign country where he knew nobody."
It sounds ironic to speak of courage and heroism in this context, but Lordan captures a kind of everyday bravery that's no less valuable for its tranquility. Mary and Lyle confront the challenges common to any long-married couple, including temptations to stray or settle. And like most couples, they face the unexpected problem of retirement: What on earth will we do with each other now, living together in a relationship that's suddenly unlike anything else we've experienced?
Lyle is a gruff, taciturn man who considers the precise and time-tested arrangement of his sandwich to be inviolate. He has no intention of taking up silly Irish idioms, as his wife does. "He called things their real names." But Mary has long ago made her peace with his rough edges. She's a woman of many small enthusiasms, which she knows must be carefully incubated before being exposed to Lyle. They enter their new house a little wary of each other.
But Come Ye Back greets an audience whose anticipation has already been whetted by the publication of five of these chapters in The Atlantic Monthly and Book Magazine. One of them, "The Man with His Lapdog," won an O. Henry prize in 2000. They're quiet stories with emotions like old stepping stones that have sunk beneath the surface. Bound in this arrangement as a novel, some of the chapters still read like individual masterpieces, but they all work exceptionally well together as the tale of a couple learning to understand the depth of their love.
After 34 years away from home, Mary has paved her new life back in Ireland with a series of little fantasies about the domestic pleasures she'll immediately enjoy with friends and family. In fact, she's polished these prememories to such a shine that they're inevitably scratched by Lyle's muffled complaints and her sister's old bossiness. But that's no matter. She's determined to keep disappointment at bay, and Lordan follows her mental gymnastics with a brilliant sense of wit that offers an embrace at the very moment it could turn to a jab.
After several years in Galway, the things that annoy Lyle about Ireland are about even with the things that please him. He loves Mary, Lordan writes, "although he is seldom aware that he does." In this precarious state, he meets an American couple on vacation. The wife is beautiful in a refined, charming way, but her husband has the ashen look of a dying man. Though Lyle exchanges only a few pleasantries with them on the beach each day, their striking devotion to each other incites in him a nagging sense of dissatisfaction with his own crusty personality and his suddenly more tedious wife.
All of Lordan's mastery is on display in this delicate portrayal of a man flustered by an adulterous thought — no less illicit and alarming to him for remaining just a thought (and by modern standards a charmingly chaste one). But in the end, his envy for this tragic American couple brings him back with refreshed appreciation to his own wife, his health, and his deeply satisfying marriage. As in so many other points in this novel, Lordan gets it just right, and manages to express the long-cultivated love that can't be articulated anymore but still makes its influence known.
Halfway through the book, Lyle must adjust to living alone, a challenge for which he is entirely unprepared. This second half of the book is comprised mostly of a novella that concentrates on those first weeks when Lyle is shocked by the force of his grief.
When his sons come to visit for a few days, the men find they have almost nothing to say to one another without Mary around to turn the crank of conversation. And Lyle must struggle to redesign his life again at a point when he thought everything was peacefully settled for good.
It's fair to say that nothing remarkable happens in these stories, and yet they're remarkable just the same. Part of the miracle of Lordan's fierce tenderness is her ability to catch melodies of comedy even through strains of grief. Again and again, she conveys the quiet thrill of a blessing to a mind that's given up hope. As Mary would say with studied Irish inflection, "Isn't it grand."
But Come Ye Back opens on the day Mary and Lyle move into their new, very old home. Lyle has retired recently, and Mary has prevailed upon him to resist the orthopedic pull of Florida in favor of returning to the little Irish town of her childhood.
Decades earlier, she'd settled in Cleveland with her responsible American husband to raise their sons, assuming "she'd never move house again," but here they are across the ocean, amid paths and fields she recalls from girlhood.
"This whole undertaking was courageous," she thinks, and "Lyle was heroic, too, coming away with her to a foreign country where he knew nobody."
It sounds ironic to speak of courage and heroism in this context, but Lordan captures a kind of everyday bravery that's no less valuable for its tranquility. Mary and Lyle confront the challenges common to any long-married couple, including temptations to stray or settle. And like most couples, they face the unexpected problem of retirement: What on earth will we do with each other now, living together in a relationship that's suddenly unlike anything else we've experienced?
Lyle is a gruff, taciturn man who considers the precise and time-tested arrangement of his sandwich to be inviolate. He has no intention of taking up silly Irish idioms, as his wife does. "He called things their real names." But Mary has long ago made her peace with his rough edges. She's a woman of many small enthusiasms, which she knows must be carefully incubated before being exposed to Lyle. They enter their new house a little wary of each other.
But Come Ye Back greets an audience whose anticipation has already been whetted by the publication of five of these chapters in The Atlantic Monthly and Book Magazine. One of them, "The Man with His Lapdog," won an O. Henry prize in 2000. They're quiet stories with emotions like old stepping stones that have sunk beneath the surface. Bound in this arrangement as a novel, some of the chapters still read like individual masterpieces, but they all work exceptionally well together as the tale of a couple learning to understand the depth of their love.
After 34 years away from home, Mary has paved her new life back in Ireland with a series of little fantasies about the domestic pleasures she'll immediately enjoy with friends and family. In fact, she's polished these prememories to such a shine that they're inevitably scratched by Lyle's muffled complaints and her sister's old bossiness. But that's no matter. She's determined to keep disappointment at bay, and Lordan follows her mental gymnastics with a brilliant sense of wit that offers an embrace at the very moment it could turn to a jab.
After several years in Galway, the things that annoy Lyle about Ireland are about even with the things that please him. He loves Mary, Lordan writes, "although he is seldom aware that he does." In this precarious state, he meets an American couple on vacation. The wife is beautiful in a refined, charming way, but her husband has the ashen look of a dying man. Though Lyle exchanges only a few pleasantries with them on the beach each day, their striking devotion to each other incites in him a nagging sense of dissatisfaction with his own crusty personality and his suddenly more tedious wife.
All of Lordan's mastery is on display in this delicate portrayal of a man flustered by an adulterous thought — no less illicit and alarming to him for remaining just a thought (and by modern standards a charmingly chaste one). But in the end, his envy for this tragic American couple brings him back with refreshed appreciation to his own wife, his health, and his deeply satisfying marriage. As in so many other points in this novel, Lordan gets it just right, and manages to express the long-cultivated love that can't be articulated anymore but still makes its influence known.
Halfway through the book, Lyle must adjust to living alone, a challenge for which he is entirely unprepared. This second half of the book is comprised mostly of a novella that concentrates on those first weeks when Lyle is shocked by the force of his grief.
When his sons come to visit for a few days, the men find they have almost nothing to say to one another without Mary around to turn the crank of conversation. And Lyle must struggle to redesign his life again at a point when he thought everything was peacefully settled for good.
It's fair to say that nothing remarkable happens in these stories, and yet they're remarkable just the same. Part of the miracle of Lordan's fierce tenderness is her ability to catch melodies of comedy even through strains of grief. Again and again, she conveys the quiet thrill of a blessing to a mind that's given up hope. As Mary would say with studied Irish inflection, "Isn't it grand."
January 10, 2013
Why isn't Beth Lordan better known? I love her wise and elegant and layered stories, the way she so makes us want to know more about her characters, the way they are flawed and human and familiar, the way their lives are messy and hopeful and mysterious. Lordan's books should be added to all sorts of "Best of --- " lists.
February 14, 2023
I was not expecting to like this book. The only reason that I started reading it was be because I chose it as my “Blind Date” book for the library book club’s February meeting. They had wrapped books and you picked one blindly and read it. It had a slow beginning but it was beautifully written. I read the last half of it in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. It was very emotional and left me…
September 10, 2007
I loved this gentle look at a marriage in the later stages of life. It was fun to read one chapter at a time, and see how each one told a whole story, but also, together, how they made up a book that was somehow greater than the sum of its parts. Very endearing, a bit sad at times. The descriptions of Ireland as seen by adults returning to it late in life were well crafted: I felt like I was there with Mary and Lyle!
June 20, 2015
I read this years ago and felt then and still feel that it deserved and deserves much more notice and praise than it's received. Same with Lordan's novel August heat, which stays with me decades after I read it.
June 22, 2025
This book is a treasure. It's so well written. Every character and their voice is authentic and full of telling details.
The center of the book is a marriage. The couple are in their 60s and have come from America to Ireland, the wife's former home, at her behest.
The husband is all within himself and ill-tempered; the wife is cheery, nudging or even nagging, but they go on amid trivial arguments without energy or joy. There are varying points of view in the chapters, and you learn of the interior lives of the couple. The husband is all practicality and complaints, the exception being when he falls in love with a dog or when he is gardening. The wife is a dreamer with an imaginary life full of "ifs" in her head.
The book is divided into stories that are self-contained within each chapter until page 150, when it begins a novella or long story divided into 8 chapters. This is the telling of the end of their marriage.
My favorite chapter is 6 EVENING. It begins "Pretend it's a story, and pretend it ends like this:"
And ends: "Because for Mary, of course, this isn't a story; it's just her life..."
I love the creative way the author wrote this chapter (going backward in time for some of it).
In the end, when the marriage is over, it creates changes in the characters, nothing huge, but realizations that might lead to more fulfilling lives.
I was impressed by this writer's skill and will look into more books by Beth Lordan.
The center of the book is a marriage. The couple are in their 60s and have come from America to Ireland, the wife's former home, at her behest.
The husband is all within himself and ill-tempered; the wife is cheery, nudging or even nagging, but they go on amid trivial arguments without energy or joy. There are varying points of view in the chapters, and you learn of the interior lives of the couple. The husband is all practicality and complaints, the exception being when he falls in love with a dog or when he is gardening. The wife is a dreamer with an imaginary life full of "ifs" in her head.
The book is divided into stories that are self-contained within each chapter until page 150, when it begins a novella or long story divided into 8 chapters. This is the telling of the end of their marriage.
My favorite chapter is 6 EVENING. It begins "Pretend it's a story, and pretend it ends like this:"
And ends: "Because for Mary, of course, this isn't a story; it's just her life..."
I love the creative way the author wrote this chapter (going backward in time for some of it).
In the end, when the marriage is over, it creates changes in the characters, nothing huge, but realizations that might lead to more fulfilling lives.
I was impressed by this writer's skill and will look into more books by Beth Lordan.
January 30, 2025
this is an adorable story of Mary and Lyle who have moved to Ireland back to Mary's hometown after living in the states and raising their children. Mary wanted to be close to her family in their older years and living a much calmer life in Ireland with her husband. Every relationship has its moments, Lyle and Mary are no different, follow them in their current time, past and the people they meet along their path. this was a nice story that makes you slow your pace and enjoy life
January 11, 2025
4.5! A beautiful little book. Took a bit to get into it but about 40% of the way through I started to see how all the stories fit together. A real slice-of-life book that, by the end, was really affecting. It struck me as mostly being about the rich inner-life we all have… and how we really ought to be sharing more of it with the people we love.
July 14, 2020
It took me a while to get into it, but I liked it by the end. It has a melancholic flavor throughout. Stories are unfinished, and the reader needs to fill in some parts of the past. It feels like looking at a beautiful piece of fabric that is old and fraying.
September 3, 2019
Interesting approach to telling a story - well written and touchingly true to life.
June 11, 2020
Very moving contemporary novel set in Galway about a retired US couple settling in Ireland. Heartfelt characters in genuine lifelike situations. Fun to read while visiting Jackie in Ireland.
October 8, 2023
This is my aunt so I’m biased but I enjoyed it anyway. Wonderful.
June 17, 2024
I liked the writing style - each chapter was like a point in time of the characters lives. So enjoyable, slow pace.
May 11, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
January 10, 2021
This is the simple, soft, human, and sometimes wistfully sad story of a marriage, as the couple-- both with Irish ancestry, are spending their retirement years living in a small town near Galway, Ireland. The story, told in short-story-like chapters reveal the couple's history from the early days of falling in love through the mature years where their love sometimes flourishes, sometimes diminishes. Their bond is tested when both Mary and Lyle Sullivan meet appealing persons. If there is one constant regret over their lives it is that their two sons live far away in the U.S.A.
The author spans brilliant emotional terrain in showing readers the small failings, thoughts not expressed, behaviors not curbed, that lead to marital disharmony and disappointments. The characters, drawn from life, are empathetic. The culture, place, and weather of Ireland can be included as characters.
Intertwined with the story of Mary and Lyle is a short history of both their Irish families--their stories fascinating--leading to American emigration. We also see a glimpse of American tourists Mark and Laura who become walking companions with Lyle, and a lonely Irish man who Mary befriends and becomes the recipient of his lovely dog, Lady. Lady plays a companionable and ongoing role with Lyle. And, happily for me, the dog does not die in this story!
The conflicts in this story are ordinary human ones but are major for the people affected. Lyle especially faces a life-changing choice, and the story twists toward his decision are intriguing to follow. There are many lovely scenes of Irish life. One especially between stoic Lyle and his two American sons takes place in a pub during a busy lunch hour, as they remember and meet characters from the stories Mary has filled their lives with.
The author spans brilliant emotional terrain in showing readers the small failings, thoughts not expressed, behaviors not curbed, that lead to marital disharmony and disappointments. The characters, drawn from life, are empathetic. The culture, place, and weather of Ireland can be included as characters.
Intertwined with the story of Mary and Lyle is a short history of both their Irish families--their stories fascinating--leading to American emigration. We also see a glimpse of American tourists Mark and Laura who become walking companions with Lyle, and a lonely Irish man who Mary befriends and becomes the recipient of his lovely dog, Lady. Lady plays a companionable and ongoing role with Lyle. And, happily for me, the dog does not die in this story!
The conflicts in this story are ordinary human ones but are major for the people affected. Lyle especially faces a life-changing choice, and the story twists toward his decision are intriguing to follow. There are many lovely scenes of Irish life. One especially between stoic Lyle and his two American sons takes place in a pub during a busy lunch hour, as they remember and meet characters from the stories Mary has filled their lives with.
April 19, 2016
This is a lovely little book that many would enjoy, especially at a time when the book Brooklyn is so popular. It is a novel told in story form, with each story being a chapter, but you can read it without really noticing that, except that time seems to skip a little.
It is the story of a couple, the woman an Irish girl who traveled from her Irish home to America to save her parents her upkeep, and a man, who, though of Irish extraction, is an American whom she meets some time after she arrives here.
This is a book that was about to be discarded from my library for not having gone out for ten years--my reading of it will save its life for a time.
A little to my disappointment, the book begins when the couple has already spent more than thirty years of their married life in America and raised their children and have returned to Mary's (the wife's) home town in Ireland to live out their lives. I regret never seeing the couple when they were young-- Lyle,the husband, was perhaps a little softer in those years than he is in his sixties. Still, the book has a quiet charm that is not inconsequential, including as it does Mary's strength and quiet patience with everyone, especially her gruff husband, difficult sister and absent sons. There are marital near-infidelities, little tragedies and lots of long walks in the Irish rain. It is difficult to express my liking for this book, but I would read everything this author has done and would read this again. The depth of feeling one experiences from first page to last is really affecting and it is a splendid little book.
It is the story of a couple, the woman an Irish girl who traveled from her Irish home to America to save her parents her upkeep, and a man, who, though of Irish extraction, is an American whom she meets some time after she arrives here.
This is a book that was about to be discarded from my library for not having gone out for ten years--my reading of it will save its life for a time.
A little to my disappointment, the book begins when the couple has already spent more than thirty years of their married life in America and raised their children and have returned to Mary's (the wife's) home town in Ireland to live out their lives. I regret never seeing the couple when they were young-- Lyle,the husband, was perhaps a little softer in those years than he is in his sixties. Still, the book has a quiet charm that is not inconsequential, including as it does Mary's strength and quiet patience with everyone, especially her gruff husband, difficult sister and absent sons. There are marital near-infidelities, little tragedies and lots of long walks in the Irish rain. It is difficult to express my liking for this book, but I would read everything this author has done and would read this again. The depth of feeling one experiences from first page to last is really affecting and it is a splendid little book.
November 12, 2007
When I read my synopsis of this book, I remembered it clearly, which is saying quite a bit. It says I really liked this quiet, deeply-moving novel about Lyle and Mary Sullivan. So much so, that years later, the imagery of Ireland returns to me. The story of a husband who takes his wife for granted until the day he loses her and can no longer do so. The author brilliantly captures the essence of that adage, "you never appreciate what you have till it's gone."
October 25, 2015
A lovely book with hard edges of long-standing quarrels and the softness of sweet memories. At the heart of the book is a kind, gentle Irish woman, returning to her native land with her newly-retired American husband. Life is not quite as she as hoped, but, as in her whole life, she finds the good in it, which comes from the goodness in her. Perfectly delightful, and a sweet find in my library. How I came to buy it, I have no recollection.
February 13, 2008
This was a beautiful book - the characters were well written and the situations they found themselves in were, although ordinary, still fascinating. A great love story, actually, several great love stories.
December 16, 2009
I started this as a research book for a novel I'm writing. I'm trying to find good examples of Irish accents in dialogue, but this book didn't seem to have any and I couldn't get into it for any other reason.
January 29, 2013
Described as a novel in stories and that is so true. Each chapter is like a short story and the novel just grows from there. A love story of sort. But much more real. I found myself growing to love all the characters and hating to see it all come to an end.
August 21, 2007
Going back home is never what we expect it to be.
June 13, 2008
Marital relationships are complicated even after many years together.
October 26, 2008
I have nothing positive to say about this book.
October 19, 2009
Amazing portrayal of the complexity of long-term relationships. The characterization is subtle and absolutely authentic. I sunk deeply into this story and into its characters.
October 22, 2011
A lovely story set in Ireland about a couple (in their 60's who've come back to Ireland to live. It's told in stories, sort of like Olive Kittredge, except that Mary and Lyle are in every story.
January 5, 2012
A little confusing to read
July 24, 2014
Loved these short, simple stories, so ordinary you would wonder who would care but care I did. Poetic prose weaves simplistic thoughts and events into a beautiful tapestry of life.
November 1, 2008
Had it's redeeming qualities after the book club discussion but I didn't enjoy the book itself.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews