Only read (listened to) "A Day"

Forty eight short stories are included in this collection. I can only say that they are all wonderful, moving stories of human relationships. Events that impact and influence those relationships are related in a very subtle way that somehow brings out the human in the people covered in the narrative. Trevor has an ability to weave all the words together so that the stories are very taught; there are no extraneous words or sentences. More pleasing for me, there is no gratuitous use of vulgarities or sex scenes just to excite a reader- I don't mind and may even enjoy them, of course, if they are vital for the development of the story. But Trevor manages to maintain the reader's attention by the manner in which his characters relate to each other; their foibles, their nostalgia. ( )

Trevor is the successor to the James Joyce who wrote [bc:Dubliners|11012|Dubliners|James Joyce|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312325896s/11012.jpg|260248], but not the Joyce of the later works. His stories represent not an experiment in style, but the refinement of style. Trevor is a master of the short story form.

The stories are slow burners. Usually they start with a character engaged in a familiar routine in a given milieu (which is usually rural Ireland). Soon a twist in perception occurs and the reader finds himself aware of the characters' internal struggles. Often there's a darker element involved; homicide, incest, etc. But the focus of the stories isn't on the details of the dark happening, but on the complex emotional states that follow, and on the decisions that are made afterward. These are stories that will stay with you for a long time after you read them. You may find yourself welling up with complex feelings and considering anew things that have happened in your own life, and how you come to terms with past events that haunt you. I suppose that's the engine that motivates these stories: how the past continues to haunt.

You'd be well served to read one of these stories a week; to fully savor and consider each one, and the parallels each draws to your own life. It took me a year, off and on, to read this book for that reason. ( )