- Paperback: 256 pages
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143035916
- ISBN-13: 978-0143035916
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.9 x 1.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,295,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Achingly Sublime, Nov 14 2004
By Kay Lexington - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Bit on the Side: Stories (Hardcover)
Finding an author who labors for subtlety, one who more than appreciates it but rather writes for and of the reason of subtlety, for it alone, is awfully, awfully rare. Most authors don't seem to fully understand the magic of quiet intelligence, which allows a reader to slip inside a story and synthesize the events and details. As I have learned in school, it is subtlety that allows a reader to disengage from his or her life and suspend disbelief. I have never read any of William Trevor's work before, but I understand now why he is considered a master storyteller. A BIT ON THE SIDE is a remarkable collection indeed.I recommend Paddock's A SECRET WORD, a brilliant novel-in-stories, for the same reasons.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tinkering with Secrets and Other Hidden Things, Feb 21 2005
By Grady Harp - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Bit on the Side: Stories (Hardcover)
William Trevor guides us through streets and dank parlors and weakly lighted public places where his characters guard or choose to unravel those darker aspects of living he understands so well. In A BIT ON THE SIDE Trevor has written twelve short stories that could have been written by no one else. His prodigious gifts as a writer make him privy to the musings we all hold in private, knowing that voicing them would doubtless find misunderstanding glances in parting eyes of the people in retreat from our confessions.Where does Trevor find these thoughts, much less these subtly drawn characters? In lonely corner tables in pubs, in the shy fears of wives of husbands departed in body or in spirit, in expectations of young Irish girls dreaming of better lives in America, or of poor pregnant mothers willing to offer their incipient child for adoption to spare their husband's jobless humiliation?
While William Trevor is a demanding author, one who graces his stories with subtle time lapses or changes that require the reader to be on the alert for the assured nuances of his craft, he is never less than amazing in his ability to paint portraits of people so odd in their ordinariness that ending a short story does not allow us to leave them alone. This is writing of the highest order - challenging, enriching, plangently longing, unforgettable. These are twelve treasures. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, February 2005
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A short-story collection that made me FEEL!, Jan 26 2005
By CoffeeGurl - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Bit on the Side: Stories (Hardcover)
I have read many great short-story collections, but this one is the best I have read in a very long time. A Bit on the Side showcases several of the darkest, bleakest, most thought provoking and haunting short stories out there. William Trevor has delved into human emotion in a way that most short-story writers aren't able to convey in a few pages. Some of the stories touched me, others disturbed me. And that is what I love about this collection. Trevor made me FEEL for the characters. A book is definitely a keeper when the language is so palpable it almost jumps out of the pages. My favorite stories are "Sitting with the Dead," "Justina's Priest," "Traditions," and "A Bit on the Side." I haven't read Trevor's previous efforts, but I will definitely give them a whirl. I cannot recommend A Bit on the Side: Stories enough.
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