Mothers and Sons (Picador Collection Book 106)

Excellant and beautifully read.or those of us who have a sight problem. I look forward to reading/listening to more of this authors boks.

A compelling writer and a common theme uniting these stories...the special relationship between mothers and sons. Often dysfunctional, not always likeable characters but the situations are real and as readers we are made to feel their reality. There are no tidy solutions as in life - only uncompromising observation of human nature & the sometimes odd way we behave to one another, the things left unsaid. No happy endings, sometimes no definitive ending...just a moment caught in time. I prefer his longer stories where characters can change and situations be resolved. His descriptions of nature never fail to capture a mood but all rather depressing.

The thread that ties the beautifully written nine stories in this book together is that in each one there is a complex relationship between a mother and a son. I don't think that all of them `focus' on this relationship, as the blurb on the back has it, for only in four of the nine stories is it central. Rather, each one seems to me to focus on either the mother or the son; but whichever it is, we are let deeply into that person's thoughts and see the world through that person's eyes, and mostly it is a sad or even tragic world. A death figures in several of the stories. Some are most evocatively set in various very Irish communities: a criminal one in the first story, an Irish pub in the second, a small village where everyone knows everyone else in others. The long last story is set in the mountains of Spain. All are memorable in their deceptively simple style and in their psychological content.

How is it that so many Irish writers are simply fantastic? (I'm not Irish, so not biased) Especially their short stories!I love a GOOD short story with an ending that doesn't leave you hanging but does make you think.... and these are exactly that.In fact having only recently discovered this author I now adore him - his writing is interesting and absorbing, the style is brilliant and draws you in, the characters are totally believable.... in short, he is an extremely clever man. It's so good to feel you can rely on a writer never to disappoint - I'm moving on to read everything else he has written!

"The story of the night" had such a strong smell, that I got an allergic reaction and had to throw it out. I suppose it had been treated with some stuff against moist or mice, staying maybe in a cellar. Plse look into this matter.

Excellent author, excellent writing however I would have liked more in-depth stories. If you are just looking for short stories to dip in and out of then it hits the spot... I was left wanting more from each story.

I found the stories well written, with interesting insights and twists. I was left wanting more, which is probably the hallmark of a good short story.

Prose superb but a motley collection of stories. Some give impression of being drafts for novels that never came off.