Word: connor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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COLLECTED STORIES by Frank O'Connor Knopf; 702 pages...
Frank O'Connor (1903-1966) once described the short story as "the literature of submerged population groups." It is a regional definition with an old-fashioned thump of authenticity. O'Connor, born Michael O'Donovan in Cork, was no innovator. His stories lowered the reader directly into the weedy, half-lit world of Irish town life...
...Connor's literary roots owed much to small-town gossip. His father was a laborer who measured his days in pints. But the future writer had a strong mother figure in Minnie O'Donovan. She put bread on the table by working as a domestic, and acquired a taste for the classics by reading her employers' books. Minnie passed the love of Shakespeare and poetry on to her son. He later returned the love by publishing under her maiden name...
...Connor, too, was largely self-taught. In 1923 he filled the gaps in his education while imprisoned for republican activities during the Irish civil war. Nationalism brought him in contact with other young Irish writers like Sean O'Faolain and Liam O'Flaherty. In 1931 O'Connor made his name with a book of stories entitled Guests of the Nation...
...become rather friendly with their Irish nationalist captors. The order to execute the pair is carried out with misgivings, especially since the condemned men remain amiable to the end. It is not quite believable, and the use of dialect is stagy. Yet the story retains power because O'Connor's honesty as an observer survives his most melodramatic techniques...