Lantern Slides: Stories

by Edna O'Brien

Overview

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction

“Superb...[Lantern Slides] continues the quest for origin and explanation that has preoccupied O’Brien...Her stories unearth the primeval feelings buried just below the surface of nostalgia, using memories to illuminate both what is ridiculous and what is heroic about passion.” —David Leavitt, The New York Times Book Review

“Her stories are brilliantly realized and often very funny...O’Brien is quite simply one of the finest short story writers of our time.” —Joyce Carol Oates

A newly reissued collection of stories from the author of Girl, “one of the most celebrated writers in the English language” (NPR’s Weekend Edition)

In twelve stories peopled with deeply etched characters, whom we come to know instantly and intimately, Lantern Slides reveals the wit and passion of a master of the short fiction form. Rich and humorous, full of struggle and boldness, these stories are a singular reflection of Edna O’Brien’s artistry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374721527
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Since her debut novel, The Country Girls, EDNA O'BRIEN has written more than twenty works of fiction. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Irish PEN Lifetime Achievement Award, the American National Arts Gold Medal, and the Frank O'Connor Prize. Born and raised in the west of Ireland, she has lived in London for many years.
Edna O’Brien has written more than twenty-five works of fiction, including The Little Red Chairs and The Light of Evening. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, the Irish PEN Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Arts Club Medal of Honor, and the Ulysses Medal. Born and raised in the west of Ireland, she has lived in London for many years.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS


"Oft in the Stilly Night" 3

Brother 27

The Widow 35

Epitaph 53

What a Sky 75

Storm 91

Another Time 109

A Demon 129

Dramas 147

Long Distance 161

A Little Holiday 173

Lantern Slides 185

Editorial Reviews

This collection of 12 stories conveys a nostalgic sense of place and introduces a passionate Irish cast of mostly women and girls in various stages of loneliness, love and regret. According to PW , ``The engaging voices . . . often sound as self-absorbed as overheard soliloquies.'' (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In the 30 years since O'Brien's acclaimed debut with The Country Girls, the regular production of her 17 subsequent volumes has fueled the predictable response that she is predictable. The core of her fiction does indeed work over the idea of a woman, usually Irish, embittered by society, usually Irish. But in the dozen stories here the author is wholly more interesting than the popular press's regular association of her with scandalous sexual candor. All narrators here are women, some characters and some omniscient. All combine well-studied weariness with refreshing toughness. The best of these stories compress multiple narratives into a sequence of cutting vignettes. The first, ``Oft in the Stilly Night,'' charts various denizens of a village, and the last, the title story, mixes images from a single party. Originally most praised for novels, O'Brien may now be most prized for short stories. A superior sequel to the widely praised 1984 collection A Fanatic Heart .-- John P. Harrington, Cooper Union, New York

Library Journal