The Love Object: Selected Stories of Edna O'Brien
by Edna O'Brien
On This Page
Description
The thirty-one stories collected in this volume provide, among other things, a cumulative portrait of Ireland, seen from within and without. Coming of age, the impact of class, and familial and romantic love are the prevalent motifs, along with the instinct toward escape and subsequent nostalgia for home. Some of the stories are linked and some carry O'Brien's distinct sense of the comical. In "A Rose in the Heart of New York," the single-mindedness of love dramatically derails the show more relationship between a girl and her mother, while in "Sister Imelda" and "The Creature" the strong ties between teacher and student and mother and son are ultimately broken. "The Love Object" recounts a passionate affair between the narrator and her older lover. The magnificent, mid-career title story from Lantern Slides portrays a Dublin dinner party that takes on the lives and loves of all the guests. More recent stories include "Shovel Kings" and "Old Wounds," which follows the revival and demise of the friendship between two elderly cousins. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
3.5 Edna O'Brien is an author I have always wanted to read but until now never have. Her first book Country Girls was banned in Ireland upon its release for its depiction of female sexuality. Her writing is elegantly descriptive and though their are a few stories I didn't really care for, there were some I absolutely loved.
The rug was one, a rug is unexpectedly delivered to a family, or is a beautiful purple rig and they spend time trying to guess who has sent this rug that they now all loves to them. There is of course s catch but it would a spoiler to tell you the rest. In another a young country girl is thrilled to be invited to her first party, but finds out things are not as she thought. And of course the mother, daughter story show more which I am always drawn too.
A wonderful collection of stories of want, love and failed expectations. Now I need to get my hands on Country Girls.
ARC from publisher. show less
The rug was one, a rug is unexpectedly delivered to a family, or is a beautiful purple rig and they spend time trying to guess who has sent this rug that they now all loves to them. There is of course s catch but it would a spoiler to tell you the rest. In another a young country girl is thrilled to be invited to her first party, but finds out things are not as she thought. And of course the mother, daughter story show more which I am always drawn too.
A wonderful collection of stories of want, love and failed expectations. Now I need to get my hands on Country Girls.
ARC from publisher. show less
DNF @52%. Most of these stories, after the first part of the book, are not even three stars. I just couldn't finish it, the stories are boring.
ordinato a menorca e mai arrivato
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
ThingScore 100
added by booksaplenty1949
Author Information
84+ Works 10,475 Members
Writer Edna O'Brien was born in Clare County, Ireland, in 1930 and attended Pharmaceutical College in Dublin. O'Brien, winner of the Kingsley Amis Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Price and the European Literature Prize, has written short stories, novels, plays, television plays and screenplays. She has also written for such magazines as show more Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal and The New Yorker. (Bowker Author Biography) Edna O'Brien's previous works of fiction include "Down by the River", "House of Splendid Isolation", "Time & Tide", & "Lantern Slides", which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her book about James Joyce was published in 1999 & excerpted in "The New Yorker". An honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters, O'Brien grew up in Ireland & now lives in London. (Publisher Provided) show less
All Editions
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Love Object: Selected Stories of Edna O'Brien
- Original publication date
- 2013
- Dedication
- For Philip Roth in long friendship
- Blurbers
- Garner, Dwight; Oates, Joyce Carol; Schwartz, Alexandra; Smiley, Jane; Munro, Alice
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the collection of 31 stories, not the earlier eight-story collection published by Cape (1968) and Penguin (1970).
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 180
- Popularity
- 179,548
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 3
