Nights at the Alexandra

I seldom reread; I should do it more often. One novella I return to every few years is "Nights at the Alexandra" by William Trevor. This was my first exposure to Trevor's work; I've read much of his writings since. The story is narrated by Harry, now fifty-eight, reminiscesing about his encounters as a boy of fifteen with a couple newly-arrived in his small village in Ireland. Herr Messinger and Frau Messinger emigrated from Germany during the war. He is decades older than she; she is a beautiful young Englishwoman. Frau Messinger utilizes Harry for odd jobs and errands. She develops a friendship with Harry, sharing with him the story of her upbringing and move to Germany where she met and married Herr Messinger. They find in each other show more a closeness that is mature and natural despite the differences in age and social class. Herr Messinger is gentle with Harry and tolerant of his acquaintence with his wife. Harry's interactions with his own family, who are provincial and rigid, stand in sharp relief to the sort of life lived by the Messingers.

Herr Messinger decides to build a cinema in the village as a gift to his wife, who is enamoured with films. The cinema becomes a meaningful reminder of Harry's memories of Frau Messinger, recalled many years later.

I am still captivated by the luminousness of Trevor's prose. Harry writes as an adult decades later but Trevor conveys the perspective and sentiments of a fifteen-year-old boy with sublety and sweetness. His relationship with Frau Messinger has shaped him as an adult. This is not a coming of age story; it is about a brief and unlikely friendship that carries warm memories thoughout his life.

This edition contains two other Trevor short stories: "The Ballroom of Romance" and "The Hill Bachelors". Both stories quietly reveal how the everyday circumstances of family life in rural Ireland limit and determine the choices and outcomes of lives that people are able to live. show less

Two novellas and a story set in Ireland about those left behind. In the title story a teenage boy, Harry, quietly worships a young Englishwoman, Frau Messinger, married to a much older German. They are waiting out the war in Ireland and the husband builds a cinema named after her, The Alexandra. Harry’s parents disapprove of his association with the Messingers and doubly so when he goes to work at The Alexandra instead of the family timberyard. Frau Messinger dies young, Harry is given The Alexandra when Herr Messinger returns to Germany, and she forever haunts his heart. “Fate has made me the ghost of an interlude.”

In The Ballroom of Romance, Bridie, a single woman, lives on a small farm with her one-legged father, who’s show more dependent on her. “You’re lucky to be peaceful in the hills” other women her age, wives and mothers, tell her when she goes to town. Yet she mourns a life that could have been. In The Hill Bachelors the unmarried Paul, Paulie to his mother, returns to the family farm from England after his father dies, leaving behind a girl. “What would I do in a farmhouse!” His brothers are married and living in Dublin and beyond. Like Bridie, Paulie remains behind, and settles. show less