Cheating at Canasta: Stories | William Trevor | No Prozac in the water system here ....

Cheating at Canasta: Stories | William Trevor | A master of the short story . . . once again

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Cheating at Canast...

	Cheating at Canasta: Stories William Trevor Viking Adult, 2007 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The publication of a new book by William Trevor is a great literary event. Trevor?s last collection, A Bit on the Side, was named a New York Times Notable Book and hailed as one of the Best Books of the Year by papers from coast to coast, including The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. And his earlier collection, After Rain, published in 1996, was named one of the eight best books of the year by The New York Times.

Trevor?s precise and unflinching insights into the hearts and lives of ordinary people are evidenced once again in this stunning new collection. From a chance encounter between two childhood friends to the memories of a newly widowed man to a family grappling with the sale of their ancestral land, Trevor examines with grace and skill the tenuous bonds of our relationships, the strengths that hold us together, and the truths that threaten to separate us. Subtle yet powerful, his stories linger with the reader long after the words have been put away.

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No Prozac in the water system here ....

Life as it was lived before the ubiquitous use of anti-depressants. No Prozac in the water system here. Read and be enveloped by the emotion, the heart-wrenching reality of life in the raw. You can feel the sorrow, the embrace of an ineluctable reality, the inescapable path of Destiny. Feel the bleak damp in your bones, the drizzle on your skin. Smell the peat. These stories will linger with you for a long time. Another masterpiece by Ireland's favorite son.

A master of the short story . . . once again

I was convinced long ago that William Trevor is a master of the short story. I so enjoy luxuriating in his collections that I now intentionally pass by the occasional story in "The New Yorker" in favor of the delayed but ever-so-greater gratification of an entire volume of stories every three or four years. The latest collection of a dozen Trevor short stories is CHEATING AT CANASTA. After reading the first three stories, I feared that perhaps Trevor was slipping a tad. While quite accomplished technically, they did not touch my inner being. But the remaining stories put any such fears to rest. Once again, Trevor proves himself a master of the short story in English.

And once again, I marvel over how Trevor seems to be able to write about anything, about anyone -- to weave a story out of the unlikeliest stray rags and scraps of yarn. Here, many of the characters are from the working class or lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Those who are not nonetheless are not among society's glamorous or smug. None of Trevor's characters (here or as far as I remember from his other works) would ever have expected their lives, public or private, to be worthy of the attention of a great writer or legions of sensitive readers. They are common, yet in Trevor's renderings they become uncommon.

A theme shared by all these stories is deception, even between two seemingly very close people. Yet the tone rarely is one of anger. Instead, it is one of gentle ruefulness, tinged with melancholy, at times approaching a world-weariness. The narrative is sparse, almost minimalistic. Yet Trevor's voice is so assured, so authoritative, but without ever being overbearing.

In truth, I can't imagine anyone who appreciates literate short stories not relishing the stories of William Trevor, including CHEATING AT CANASTA.

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The Laureate of Melancholy

Reviewing William Trevor's THE STORY OF LUCY GAULT on this site some years ago, I wrote: "There are very few authors whom one trusts to lead one into dark places, with the assurance that there will be some beauty to be found there in the end. Trevor is emphatically one of them." In that book, in his novel FELICIA'S JOURNEY, and in almost all of his short stories, Trevor writes about the lost, the lonely, characters who are very young or growing old, people who have been deceived, rejected, or bereaved. But he also has the gift of benediction. The title of his previous collection, AFTER RAIN, is well-taken; his ability to bring the sun out after the storm is miraculous -- to produce not always a happy ending, but at least acceptance and understanding, a quiet gift of grace.

The stories in CHEATING AT CANASTA are just as good, but they are rather more sad. Trevor still has the power to set up a nuanced situation in a very few pages: the impending sale of an old estate in Ireland, an accidental encounter in Paris recalling boyhood traumas. He can still create characters who pull at your heartstrings: a fifteen-year-old girl meeting an older man from a chatroom, a widower finding love again after the death of his wife. And in story after story, he can still end gently with hard-won wisdom: a separated couple coming together again only to realize they were better apart, an old clergyman in doubt of his faith finding peace at the deathbed of his domineering sister. But while all the endings seem absolutely right, none of them is entirely happy. Trevor's rainfall still stops, but now mostly gives way to a tranquil dusk. I appreciate that... but miss the occasional rainbow. [4.5 stars]

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Short stories at their finest!

William Trevor continues his short-story excellence with this collection. A wonderful, spirited read! Enjoy, and rest assured that if this is the first Trevor collection you're purchasing, it won't be the last! If you're a long-time fan, you will not be disappointed.

Hidden cards of melancholic entanglement....

The powerful melancholic narrative in Trevor's 'CHEATING AT CANASTA is often unsettling and complex, but at the same time evocative and finely crafted.

These stories stay in your mind, the harshness of their conclusions, the solidity of them, strongly molded and resonating with fierce elegiac gravity.

Trevor is an eloquent storyteller and shines a probing light on elusive human intricacies and entangled relationships with a true master's touch!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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