{"description": {"type": "/type/text", "value": "This indispensable volume contains the best of Frank O\u2019Connor's short fiction. From \u201cGuests of the Nation\u201d to \u201cThe Mad Lomasneys\u201d to \u201cFirst Confession\u201d to \u201cMy Oedipus Complex,\u201d these tales of Ireland have touched generations of readers the world over and placed O'Connor alongside W. B. Yeats and James Joyce as the greatest of Irish authors.\r\n\r\nAnalyzing a Robert Browning poem, O'Connor once wrote: \u201cSince a whole lifetime must be crowded into a few minutes, those minutes must be carefully chosen indeed and lit by an unearthly glow.\u201d Each of the sixty-seven stories gathered here achieves the same incredible feat of the imagination, laying bare entire lives and histories within the space of a few pages. Dublin schoolteacher Ned Keating waves good-bye to a charming girl and to any thoughts of returning to his village home in the lyrical and melancholy \u201cUprooted.\u201d A boy on an important mission is waylaid by a green-eyed temptress and seeks forgiveness in his mother\u2019s loving arms in \u201cThe Man of the House,\u201d a tale that draws on O'Connor\u2019s own difficult childhood. A series of awkward encounters and humorous misunderstandings perfectly encapsulates the complicated legacy of Irish immigration in \u201cGhosts,\u201d the bittersweet account of an American family\u2019s pilgrimage to the land of their forefathers.\r\n\r\nAs a writer, critic, and teacher, O'Connor elevated the short story to astonishing new heights. This career-spanning anthology, epic in scope yet brimming with the small moments and intimate details that earned him a reputation as Ireland\u2019s Chekhov, is a testament to Frank O\u2019Connor's magnificent storytelling and a true pleasure to read from first page to last."}, "last_modified": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2020-10-21T08:41:23.412205"}, "title": "Collected Stories", "created": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2009-12-09T20:42:11.538566"}, "covers": [4378417], "subject_places": ["Ireland"], "first_publish_date": "1981", "latest_revision": 9, "key": "/works/OL1195449W", "authors": [{"type": {"key": "/type/author_role"}, "author": {"key": "/authors/OL120686A"}}], "dewey_number": ["823/.912"], "type": {"key": "/type/work"}, "subjects": ["Social life and customs", "Fiction", "Fiction, short stories (single author)", "Ireland, fiction"], "revision": 9}