500 Great Books By Women discussion

Lantern Slides, Edna O'Brien, 1990, Ireland, SHORT STORIES

"...Whether they tell of people on holiday, people in love, or children struggling to understand their surroundings, the stories are subtle in their motive, but rich in understanding, creating a world of memory and desire as physical as our own in color, texture, and taste...In "Oft in the Stilly Night," the reader is a traveler who is told numerous stories about the inhabitants of a small town—the madwoman, the cheating husband, the ambitious young beauty: "Perhaps your own village is much the same, perhaps everywhere is, perhaps pity is a luxury and deliverance a thing of the past."..."

(S.L., p. 357)