But Come Ye Back: A Novel in Stories

Extraordinarily well-written: Lordan is an excellent craftsman. Nowhere in the whole novel does the style lapse. It is not really a "novel in short stories"--it's really a novel. Few of the chapters would really stand alone. She has a great sense of psychological depth--this is almost like a Virginia Woolf novel, if VW were an Irish-American. Not much in the way of action: no car chases, no conflagrations. But it is a sympathetic and REALISTIC portrait of marriage.

I was brought to this book by a rave review by Ron Charles in The Christian Science Monitor. On the surface, I was a little skeptical about even starting it. The author describes her book as a " novel in stories." And that it is. The general plot outline is about a retired American couple who return to the wife's native Ireland to finish their lives together. This did not seem to bode very well and I was just little reluctant to start the book. But once I got into the first and second of these stories, I could not stop. What Beth Lordan has done is to people her novel with characters so believable and so compelling that I begn to believe that I was now living next door to them. The fourth story, entitled "Digging" is worth the price of the book in and of itself. A glorious and moving story of real people which left me thinking about Kent Haruf's "Plainsong". Highly recommended.

It seems that some of the best books I've read are ones that I have never heard of and buy on a whim, just for something to read. This was one of those. An absolutely beautiful story. Nothing more, nothing less. Wonderfully written characters and beautifully drawn scenes. A minor concern is some of the dialogue between Kevin and Jimmy. There is a bit of it that didn't ring true to the way brothers speak to each other, but not enough of a problem that doesn't make this well worth reading.

Readers will not be disappointed..this is a most enjoyable,exceptionally well written novel..a comforting story of love.

Irish-born Mary Curtin and American Lyle Sullivan met on Lyle's home soil when Mary was working as an au pair, and they spent most of their marital decades in Ohio. Surprising both themselves and their two grown sons, when retirement looms, the couple decides to move to Galway. Mary, long homesick for the small dailiness of Irish life, finds the move as invigorating as the sea air in her new hometown, while Lyle adjusts more slowly and clumsily.The real clumsiness, however, is between them. Lyle, it seems, has been a too-reserved and angry husband, given to odd mannerisms that suggest obsessive-compulsive disorder. Mary, meanwhile, fell into the rut of so many 1960s American housewives of not having a life of her own. When she's back on familiar ground, she begins to wonder if the sacrifices she made for Lyle were worth it. Both husband and wife find themselves drawn to other people, and if those encounters do not result in classic affairs, the consequences for the marriage are no less classic: in the Sullivans' case, extramarital attraction makes their hearts grow fonder --- for each other.The stories that form this novel are remarkable for many reasons, but I was chiefly struck by their stylistic differences. Lordan is known for her mastery of the short story, and here she riffs on that form. "Digging," for example, is all about Mary and Lyle's family backgrounds, but is given the form of a folk tale. "Cemetery Sunday," the first story, uses a familiar trope of short fiction --- take a cultural oddity/tradition and make it a metaphor --- yet here it's remarkably fresh, as if Lordan had invented the steps herself.However, just as they begin to dance to the same rhythm, Mary and Lyle are thrown by her falling ill. The conceit of this being "a novel in stories" allows Lordan to offer windows that open and shut onto their relationship. However, when the last "story" arrives, it is over twice the length of any of the others, and seems as if it might have been the basis for a more traditional novel she was trying to write.This is not a criticism --- the earlier stories in BUT COME YE BACK have their own kind of beauty, including the stunning "The Man With the Lapdog," which won the 2000 O. Henry Award. However, they don't have the same naked honesty that shines through in "But Come Ye Back," the final "chapter" of the book. Here, we discover the power of Lyle's love for Mary and are shown a remarkable faith for long-term relationships, not just marriage but also relationships between other family members --- father and children, sister- and brother-in-law, the newly affianced.In this story/novella/whatever it is, Lyle's grief is stark in its unraveling, his sons' interactions all too true in their small kindnesses and idiosyncrasies. While the first six stories had me nodding my head and stopping to think, "But Come Ye Back" had me forgetting to breathe. --- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick