IRISH GIFT
4HE STORIES OF FRANK O’CONNOR; Hamish Hamilton, English price 12/6. HIS volume, which includes material never previously published, is a selection from an immense number of Mr. on
O’Connor’s stories. But it is a little difficult to agree with the author’s reasons for excluding stories from an early. collection entitled Guests of the Nation: the title-story, a tale of the Irish rebellion during World War I, appears to be one of the finest stories written in English this century, and nothing like such a claim could be made for the greater part of the material included in the present volume. That is not however to deny the lively and entertaining quality of almost any story written by Mr. O’Connor. In this collection he rarely goes beyond the city of Cork and its county for his raw material, and is rarely if ever lacking in the racy fluency which one expects from Irish writers. Perhaps this Irish gift is not an unmixed blessing, since there are times when one feels that language is being whipped to a froth of very little substance. Nevertheless, one can, and I think should, be grateful to Mr. O’Connor for a number of stories that are remarkable for their insight and humanity. And incidentally. besides pleasing the New Zealand reader. the book should encourage the New Zealand writer: the author confidently handles a variety of provincial material, which only an unobservant or insensitive New Zealander would consider remote
‘and unfamiliar.
F.
S.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 766, 26 March 1954, Page 14
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248IRISH GIFT New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 766, 26 March 1954, Page 14
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