A Bit on the Side - Hardcover

Trevor, William

3.82

1,117 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670915076 ISBN 13: 9780670915071

Publisher: Viking, 2004

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

'Then, for the forty minutes that were theirs, they spoke of love: as it had been for them, as it still was, of its confinement, necessarily so, its intensity too, its pain, the mockery it had so often felt like, how they had never wasted it by sitting in silence in the dark of a cinema or sleeping through the handful of nights they'd spent together in her flat. They had not wasted it in lovers' quarrels, or lovers' argument. They did not waste it now, in what they said....'

Tender, touching, beautifully honest, William Trevor's first collection of stories since the highly acclaimed and award winning The Hill Bachelors (2000), A Bit On The Side explores questions of love and adultery, secret passions, office romances, and the broken and unbroken rules of love.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"Reading the Irish writer William Trevor is like drinking cool water when you are tired. You may think you want something stronger or fizzier than his understated prose and his calm understanding of the human condition; but before long you realise that he is providing the kind of refreshment you really need.... His [10]th volume of short stories shows him at his best.... He holds the attention without any melodrama or cheap tricks." --"The Sunday Telegraph, April 18, 2004 "Beautiful, spartan prose...His characters are concisely drawn. [They] understand the consolations of sympathy. [This] is a suggestion that lends a human quality to his writing." --"Saturday Telegraph, April 24, 2004 "Perfectly crafted stories... In his tenth book of stories William Trevor displays a matter-of-fact mastery. His tone and material are distinctive without any striving-it's rare for him to raise his voice.... Trevor keeps his point of view fluid, so that the reader's impressions of a central character can be enriched by other people's.... Trevor has laid claim to a large stretch of human terrain. He must go on exploring it, even at the risk of turning it into a private and increasingly imaginary country. Call it Trevorland." --"The Observer, April 25, 2004 Praise for William Trevor: "The greatest living writer in English is an Anglo-Irishman named William Trevor. . . . It might seem presumptuous to speak about Trevor in Shakespearean terms, but he is among the few contemporary writers who warrant the comparison." --"The Globe and Mail "One of the pre-eminent writers of his generation. He is arguably the finest story writer from the era that may have seen the form reach itsapex." --"Toronto Star "Often spoken of in the same breath as Joyce and Chekhov, Trevor shares both writers' subtlety, and, like them, is able to create distinct and mysterious worlds." --"National Post "One of the greatest writers alive." --"The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax) "From the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover:

A Bit on the Side - Twelve remarkable stories by the master storyteller William Trevor

'Compassionate, poignant, even heart-rending. Almost perfect works of art by perhaps the greatest short story writer now working in English' Sunday Independent

William Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age. In these twelve stories, a waiter divulges a shocking life of crime to his ex-wife; a woman repeats the story of her parents' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy; a schoolgirl regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her; and, in the volume's title story, a middle-aged accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair. At the heart of this stunning collection is Trevor's characteristic tenderness and unflinching eye for both the humanizing and dehumanizing aspects of modern urban and rural life.

If you enjoyed The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer, you will love this book. It will also be adored by readers of Colm Toibin, George Saunders and James Joyce.

'A treat ... each meditate[s] on the subject of love - adulterous, unspoken, clandestine, sometimes cruel. Whether set in rural Ireland or London, their pages whisper of relished secrets and dreams foolishly clung to' Mail on Sunday

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.