My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories
by Frank O'Connor
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A child's jealousy of his place in his mother's life erupts when his father comes home from the war, not to subside until a new baby arrives placing his father and him in the same position.Tags
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As with any short story collection, and especially one taking in such a large body of work as this, there are going to be ups and downs. Some of these stories aren't great, sometimes there's too little focus, not enough of a point. However, for the most part this is an excellent volume of stories. O'Connor's writing is always precise and, while no Chekhov or Carver, it's easy to see why he is thought so well of in terms of the short story.
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134+ Works 2,443 Members
An Irish master of the short story, Frank O'Connor was born Michael O'Donovan in Cork. It is not surprising to learn in the first part of his autobiography, An Only Child (1961), that he took his adored mother's name. O'Connor's absorbing interest was the literary treasury of Ireland. He labored tirelessly over masterful translations of ancient show more Gaelic works. O'Connor wrote the well-received A Short History of Irish Literature: A Backward Look and edited an anthology of prose and poetry, A Book of Ireland (1959), which contains some of his own translations from the Gaelic. His Shakespeare's Progress (1960) is an appraisal of the bard. In The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (1963), he examines the work of those he considers the great short story writers of the past. The subjects of his own stories are the middle and lower-middle classes of his beloved Ireland. In his last years, O'Connor lived mostly in the United States, where he taught at Harvard and Northwestern universities. He passed away in 1966. The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award which is named in his honor because he devoted much of his work to this writing form began in 2005. It is an international literary award presented for the best short story collection. The prize amount is $25,000 (as of 2012). Each year, roughly sixty books are longlisted, with either four or six books shortlisted, the final decision is made by three judges. In 2014 the winner was Collin Barrett for his work Young Skins. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories
- Original title
- My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories
- Important places
- Ireland
- First words*
- Vater war während des ganzen Krieges Soldat, deshalb sah ich ihn bis zu meinem fünften Lebensjahr nur sehr selten.
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Denn seit jener Nacht war's mit den bitteren Gefühlen zwischen uns vorbei.
- Disambiguation notice
- This is a short story collection, please do not combine with the short story itself.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 290
- Popularity
- 109,993
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.93)
- Languages
- 6 — Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 7
