A review by violetturtledove
The Collected Stories by William Trevor

reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ok it took me a while to get through this one,  not really surprising considering the number of stories and they're all pretty relaxed reads. What's impressive is the number of characters, each with distinct personal histories but all perfectly ordinary. There's no huge, dramatic events here, but the stories are all clearly about something (I've struggled in the past with slice-of-life tales that don't have a distinct point or end other than 'this happened on this day' and 'this is where I decided to stop writing').

There are recurrent themes - being Irish, being poor, being being awkward at dinner parties, being unfaithful or tricked, being bored or dissatisfied. And for a male writer, writing in the 1960s/70s, there are a lot of stories written sympathetically from a female perspective (although they may not seem particularly progressive today).

I probably wouldn't choose to read these again all in one go, but it's one I'll hang on to and will occasionally dip into to read a story at random.