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12 ‘The art of the glimpse’

Cheating at Canasta

Abstract

In his non-fiction survey A Writer's Ireland, William Trevor distinguished short stories from other types of prose fiction by deploying the very same metaphor ('the art of the glimpse'), before suggesting that 'the modern short story deals in moments and subtleties and shadows of grey. Trevor's most recent volume of stories, Cheating at Canasta, exemplifies this point. The collection consists of a dozen short stories, half of which take place in Ireland; of the remaining six stories, four are set in England, one in Paris, and the title story in Venice. Trevor 'has chosen to embrace the pathos and yearning of the human heart as the focus of his fiction'. Jonathan Bloom eloquently declared, in a study which preceded the publication of Cheating at Canasta, 'a choice that makes him an equally elegiac and lyrical artist'.

Abstract

In his non-fiction survey A Writer's Ireland, William Trevor distinguished short stories from other types of prose fiction by deploying the very same metaphor ('the art of the glimpse'), before suggesting that 'the modern short story deals in moments and subtleties and shadows of grey. Trevor's most recent volume of stories, Cheating at Canasta, exemplifies this point. The collection consists of a dozen short stories, half of which take place in Ireland; of the remaining six stories, four are set in England, one in Paris, and the title story in Venice. Trevor 'has chosen to embrace the pathos and yearning of the human heart as the focus of his fiction'. Jonathan Bloom eloquently declared, in a study which preceded the publication of Cheating at Canasta, 'a choice that makes him an equally elegiac and lyrical artist'.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Dedication v
  3. Contents vii
  4. Acknowledgements ix
  5. Notes on contributors xi
  6. List of abbreviations xv
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Part I
  9. 1 Learnt by heart 15
  10. 2 In another country 28
  11. 3 ‘Compassion thrown to the winds’ 43
  12. 4 ‘The battlefield has never quietened’ 55
  13. 5 William Trevor’s screen fictions 76
  14. Part II
  15. 6 The Ireland that we dreamed of? 95
  16. 7 ‘Moments and subtleties and shadows of grey’ 110
  17. 8 ‘Bid me strike a match and blow’ 125
  18. 9 The tragedy of the return of history 134
  19. 10 The power of withholding 145
  20. 11 ‘… as if she were a symbol of something …’ 162
  21. 12 ‘The art of the glimpse’ 180
  22. 13 Character, community and critical nostalgia 198
  23. Bibliography and filmography 213
  24. Index 223
William Trevor
This chapter is in the book William Trevor
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526112392.00021

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Dedication v
  3. Contents vii
  4. Acknowledgements ix
  5. Notes on contributors xi
  6. List of abbreviations xv
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Part I
  9. 1 Learnt by heart 15
  10. 2 In another country 28
  11. 3 ‘Compassion thrown to the winds’ 43
  12. 4 ‘The battlefield has never quietened’ 55
  13. 5 William Trevor’s screen fictions 76
  14. Part II
  15. 6 The Ireland that we dreamed of? 95
  16. 7 ‘Moments and subtleties and shadows of grey’ 110
  17. 8 ‘Bid me strike a match and blow’ 125
  18. 9 The tragedy of the return of history 134
  19. 10 The power of withholding 145
  20. 11 ‘… as if she were a symbol of something …’ 162
  21. 12 ‘The art of the glimpse’ 180
  22. 13 Character, community and critical nostalgia 198
  23. Bibliography and filmography 213
  24. Index 223
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