A Bit on the Side: Stories

Version: Unabridged
Author: William Trevor
Narrator: Simon Vance , Josephine Bailey
Genres: Fiction
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published In: December 2004
# of Units: 5 CDs
Length: 6 hours
Ratings:
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Overview

William Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age, and a new collection of stories from him is always a cause for celebration. These twelve stories include: The waiter who divulges his shocking life of crime to his ex-wife.A woman repeats the story of her parents' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy.The schoolgirl who regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her.A middle-aged couple meet in a theatre bar for a squalid blind date.The disappointed priest who fears an innocent young girl may run away from home.Two self-certain sisters visit a newly widowed local woman.And, in the volume's title story, a middle-age accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair. From these slender moments Trevor creates whole lives, conjuring up characters marked by bitterness and loss. William Trevor's graceful prose is a wonder in itself, and as convincing when inhabiting the mind of a school lunchmaid, an adulterous Irish country librarian or a murderer on the London st

Selected Reviews

Beautifully written

by Sarah T.
  • Book Rating: 4/5

I prefer reading short stories, I think

by Sarah
  • Book Rating: 2/5

More...

Read All 2

Reviews (2)

Beautifully written

Written by Sarah T. on June 12th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 4/5

William Trevor's writing is direct and evocative, like a collision of a young James Joyce and V.S. Naipaul. Many of the stories are more like vignettes, portraits of a moment that are full of character and mood rather than plot movement, so the collection is not light going, but is well worthwhile.

I prefer reading short stories, I think

Written by Sarah from San Jose, CA on November 1st, 2005

  • Book Rating: 2/5

I kept waiting for something to indicate why these stories were in the same book. They didn't flow from one to another in any way. Also there isn't enough indication that one story has ended and another is about to start, so if you weren't paying close attention, you miss both the conclusion of the last stoy and the opening of the current one. Also, I got confused as to why the current story doesn't seem to meld with the story in I had been following. I think that perhaps short stories work better for me on the page rather than on audio book.

Selected Reviews

Beautifully written

by Sarah T.
  • Book Rating: 4/5

I prefer reading short stories, I think

by Sarah
  • Book Rating: 2/5

More...

Read All 2

Author Details

Author Details

Trevor, William

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork in 1928 and spent his childhood in provincial Ireland. He attended a number of Irish schools and later Trinity College, Dublin. He is a member of the Irish Academy of Letters and was awarded an honorary CBE in 1977 in recognition of his services
to literature. His most recent publication is 'The Hill Bachelors' (2000), and his other books include 'The Ballroom of Romance' (1972), 'Angels at the Ritz' (1975, Royal Society of Literature Award), 'Children of Dynmouth' (1976, Whitbread Award), 'Other People's Worlds' (1980), and 'The News Fro