A Frank O'Connor Reader

Frank O'Connor (1903-1966) is known primarily for his shot stories, and fine ones they are. There are seventeen of them in this Reader, and the best of them, in the words of Richard Ellmann 'stir those facial muscles which, we are told, are the same for both laughing and weeping.' Except for the masterpiece, 'Guest of the Nation, ' the stories included here have been out of print for twenty years, and one story had been previously unpublished.

Library Journal

Edited by one of O'Connor's biographers (Frank O'Connor at Work, Syracuse Univ. Pr., 1989), this volume presents to a new generation the best available sampling of work by a master whose reputation has deteriorated badly of late. A full range of O'Connor's stories (17), poetry translations (four), ``self-portraits'' (seven), and ``essays and portraits'' (eight) are included. At the center of the Irish Renaissance, O'Connor wrote with a friend's authority and the candor of Yeats, but he also offered fresh views on Mozart and New York City. His self-portraits, too, attest to the range of his interests and expertise. But it is his stories that best demonstrate that although he was Irish to the core, O'Connor's literary subject was the whole human condition. Highly recommended.-Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.