Beth Lordan Short Stories and Anthologies English

e-Book But Come Ye Back: A Novel in Stories download

by Beth Lordan

ISBN: 0060530367
ISBN13: 978-0060530365
Language: English
Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (December 23, 2003)
Pages: 288
Category: Short Stories and Anthologies
Subategory: Literature

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ePub size: 1686 kb
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Rating: 4.7
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But Come Ye Back: A Novel in Stories. Told in "quiet stories with emotions like old stepping-stones that have sunk beneath the surface" (Christian Science Monitor), Beth Lordan's evocative and heartfelt novel explores the complex emotional terrain of mature marital relationships. Read on the Scribd mobile app. Download the free Scribd mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Publisher: d: Oct 13, 2009ISBN: 9780061865763Format: book.

What Beth Lordan has done is to people her novel with characters so believable and so compelling that I begn . The conceit of this being "a novel in stories" allows Lordan to offer windows that open and shut onto their relationship.

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. 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.

The recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as an O. Henry Award for her short fiction, Lordan teaches fiction writing at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She lives in Carbondale, Illinois, with her husband.

From Beth Lordan, the critically acclaimed author of August Heat and And Both Shall Row comes But Come Ye Back, an evocative and heartfelt novel in stories that explores the rhythms of marriage over three decades. For thirty-some years, Lyle, an impatient and demanding husband, makes a life for them in America. Through those years the accommodating Mary makes a home for them, where they raise two sons

Lordan's stirring novel illuminates the complex emotional terrain of mature marital relationships, providing an unforgettable testament to the lifelong journey . But Come Ye Back: A Novel in Stories.

Lordan's stirring novel illuminates the complex emotional terrain of mature marital relationships, providing an unforgettable testament to the lifelong journey undertaken when lives intersect and intertwine. Masterful in its evocation of character and place, and suffused with the rhythms and flavors of the Irish seaside, But Come Ye Back is an astonishing, and infinitely wise reflection on love. For over 30 years, Lyle, an impatient and demanding husband, makes a life for them in America.

Told in quiet stories with emotions like old stepping-stones that have sunk beneath the surface (Christian Science Monitor), Beth Lordan's evocative and heartfelt novel explores the complex emotional terrain of mature marital relationships.

But when he retires, his Irish-born wife, Mary, wants to leave America and go home - where the ocean is near and the butter has flavor. Somewhat grudgingly, Lyle agrees, but during their years in Galway, they discover that the surprises of life are not over. Told in quiet stories with emotions like old stepping-stones that have sunk beneath the surface (Christian Science Monitor), Beth Lordan's evocative and heartfelt novel explores the complex emotional terrain of mature marital relationships. To read this book, upload an EPUB or FB2 file to Bookmate.

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Mary Curtin, a young Irish nanny, and Lyle Sullivan, an American accountant, meet and fall in love at a picnic. For thirty-some years, Lyle, an impatient and demanding husband, makes a life for them in America. Through those years the accommodating Mary makes a home for them, where they raise two sons. But when Lyle retires, Ireland calls to Mary: she wants to grow old among her own kind, where the ocean is near and the butter has flavor. She wants to go home.

Somewhat grudgingly, Lyle agrees, but during their years in Galway, they discover that the surprises of life are not over. Going home is more complicated than butter and the bay, and thirty contented years does not mean that a couple is immune to romantic intrigue. Their bond is tested when Lyle meets a beautiful American woman and Mary finds a lonely Irish man. Yet for both, marriage is more than romance, home is more than a country. In this new life, Mary and Lyle will rediscover each other and are building a richer life together when an unexpected event forces Lyle to decide where his home truly is.

Lordan's stirring novel illuminates the complex emotional terrain of mature marital relationships, providing an unforgettable testament to the lifelong journey undertaken when lives intersect and intertwine. Masterful in its evocation of character and place, and suffused with the rhythms and flavors of the Irish seaside, But Come Ye Back is an astonishing and infinitely wise reflection on love in all its guises.

Comments:

Berenn

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.

Era

The first 150 pages are a masterpiece. Pure delight. The rest is not as good. The author makes you feel like you are in the room with the characters.

Malahelm

I read this years ago and felt then and still feel that it deserved and deserves much more notice and praise than it's received. Same with Lordan's novel August heat, which stays with me decades after I read it.

Brol

The mark of a good book for me is when I begin to have feelings for the characters, and I hate to see the book come to an end.

This is true for But Come Ye Back, and it touched some nerves with me.

My own mother was born in Ireland, came to the U.S., worked as a nanny and met my Irish, but American born father, who was another Lyle. That said, I found some humor and sadness in reading this book. It is a wonderfully written love story, without the actual word "love" being spoken. It is heartwarming, and I am sure many people will relate to the characters.

deadly claw

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.

Mavegelv

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

Ionzar

But Come Ye Back is a quietly compelling book that drew me in from the start. Its structure of a novel made up of a series of stories is really effective. Each can be read in isolation as a little gem, or taken together, they tell of the life and marriage of Lyle and Mary Sullivan. I had read one of the stories in a compilation of best short stories and noted the author, and sought out this book- and I'm very glad I did. I felt transported into the lives of Mary and Lyle and their lives in Ireland and the US. These characters felt more real to me than most novels I have read (and I read fiction constantly.) I would highly recommend this book, and would just add that you may want to set aside more time than you expect - you may not be able to stop reading once you start. I can't wait to read more of Beth Lordan's work.