Book Reviews & Giveaway: Saints and Sinners

Saints and Sinners: Stories

Author: Edna O’Brien

There is nothing to say about Edna O’Brien that has not already been said. Recipient of the Ulysses Medal and he Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Letters, O’Brien’s prose has been described as he voice of the Irish consciousness. Along with Frank Delaney, she remains one of my favorite writers.

In Saints and Sinners, her newest collection of short stories, O’Brien quietly enters the room, takes her pen, and creates the luminosity and dimness in prose that clicks and taunts, relentless and perfect.

“Black Flower” – in a 15 page vignette, describes Shane, out of prison for the first time in 15 years and his mentor, Mona, who taught him art in prison. In cadences that create tension and reveal the terse shallowness of their acquaintance, O’Brien reveals a plethora of emotions: fear, anticipation, tentativeness, hope that a relationship might blossom, and at the end, Mona feels shame and humiliation as she stands at the telephone booth where Shane is murdered. A cop states “What goes around comes around,” as they view.

We all dread the thought of homelessness. It lurks in our very souls, the ghost of fears both psychological and spirtual. In “Shovel Kings,” O’Brien portrays homelessness as a locale as well as a state of being. Irishmen caught between Ireland and London, in the character of Rafferty and an objective narrator. Rafferty arriving in Camden at 15, works digging trenches, like graves, for electric cables. his father abandons him, returning to Ireland. As the later stages of his life, Rafferty returns also – then comes back to London. He belongs in neither world. Like Ireland’s long turmoil with itself, Rafferty is no longer affiliated. He remains neutral with no home. Striking brilliantly, O’Brien plunges the knife into our subconscious, and pulls out the isolation and lack of connection with us all. Brilliant.

“The Assasin’s Dealth.” In micrososmic language, O’Brien delves into past, present and future as her characters watch, so well defined.

Like Raymond Carver in her accuracy and minimalism, O’Brien brings a different language altogether to her locale and characters. Both are great writers – and, somehow O’Brien’s relentless east of characterization and depth of plot reveal many of the same characteristics as “A Small, Good Thing” and “Cathedral” and yet she surpasses in a different manner all her own. “The Shovel Kings” another short story in the collection, is brilliant.

I love short stories. Alice Munro, Carver, Edna O’Brien – to encapsulate entire lives and drama into a small space that enlarges and envelopes us – that is art.

Saints and Sinners: Stories is available in bookstores around the country and include the stories above plus more.

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale

Overall: 5

Review by Broad “A” – Ava

We received a copy of this title for our book review. All opinions are our own.

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