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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/599552.Cheating_at_Canasta_Stories?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Cheating at Canasta: Stories" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31OXvdKQqOL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/599552.Cheating_at_Canasta_Stories?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Cheating at Canasta: Stories</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16002.William_Trevor">William Trevor</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18927782?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>Book Review <br/> <br/>Cheating at Canasta <br/>By William Trevor <br/> <br/>Reviewed by Tom Carrico <br/> <br/>The short story evolved from the oral story telling traditions of ancient and medieval times. The modern short story became popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth century when the proliferation of literary magazines created a huge demand for short fiction. Anton Chekhov is viewed as the greatest short story writer of the late nineteenth century. American proponents of this genre include Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, O. Henry, Nathaniel Hawthorne and, in this century, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O’Connor and Ernest Hemingway. Poe wrote of his literary theories in 1846 in an essay entitled “The Philosophy of Composition”, in which he compared and contrasted the demands of the short story versus those of longer fiction. According to Poe, “length, unity of effect and a logical method” are the important considerations for good writing. Further, Poe believed that all works should be short. “There is a distinct limit... to all works of literary art – the limit of one sitting”. He concluded that the limited length of the short story made it a superior literary product than the novel. <br/> <br/>There is less demand for short fiction these days, and writers usually have to have a few successful novels published before anyone will consider publishing their short stories. Despite that, there are several notable and prolific authors publishing short stories today, including T. C. Boyle, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates and others. “The New Yorker” has called William Trevor “the greatest living writer of short stories in the English language today.” His newest collection is entitled Cheating at Canasta and does nothing to contradict that assertion. <br/> <br/>This is a marvelous collection of twelve stories which fulfill Poe’s objective of being able to be read in a single sitting. The stories are so compelling, however, that they stay with the reader for far longer. To me, the most amazing quality of William Trevor’s stories is their ability to elevate common, everyday occurrences to profoundly spiritual experiences. He can create gripping drama from seemingly mundane relationships and common happenings. His prose is compact and each word is precise and perfectly chosen. He can pack more emotional pyrotechnics in fifteen pages than most authors create in a career. I also appreciate a writer who makes me consult a dictionary from time to time. <br/> <br/>If you have read any of this author’s novels (The Story of Lucy Gault or Felicia’s Journey, for instance) then you know that some of his subjects can be macabre. These tones emerge in this collection in “An Afternoon” when a young teen meets a sexual predator she has been conversing with on the internet at a local coffee shop and in “The Dressmaker’s Child” where the town ne’er-do-well kills a youngster in a hit and run accident but escapes detection by the police. <br/> <br/>The highlight of this collection, however, is the story for which the book is entitled. In it a middle aged man named Mallory has to place his wife of thirty years in a nursing home for early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The title comes from the fact that they play cards daily and as she deteriorates he lets her win. During their emotionally charged discussions leading up to the inevitability of her institutionalization, the wife implores her husband to “carry on” without her. She convinced him to even recreate a previous vacation to Italy. The man sits silently alone in their favorite restaurant in Venice. He can’t help but overhear the conversation of a young couple at the next table as they argue over everything. The story concludes: <br/> <br/> “Falling in with this, Mallory asked them if it was their first time in Venice. Embarrassment was still there, but they somehow managed to make it seem like their reproval of themselves for inflicting their bickering on him. <br/> ‘Oh, very much so,’ they said together, each seeming instinctively to know how their answer should be given. <br/> ‘Not yours, I guess?’ the husband added, and Mallory shook his head. He’d been coming to Venice since first he’d been able to afford it, he said. And then he told them why he was here alone. <br/> While he did so Mallory sensed in his voice an echo of his regret that foolishness had brought him here. He did not say it. He did not say that he was here to honor a whim that would have been forgotten as soon as it was expressed. He did not deplore a tiresome, futile journey. But he’d come close to doing so and felt ashamed in turn. His manner had dismissed the scratchiness he’d eavesdropped on as the unseemly stuff of marriage. It was more difficult to dismiss his own sly aberration, and shame still nagged... <br/> “’No, no’ he murmured when the husband said he was sorry too, ‘No, no.’ <br/> He watched the couple go, and smiled across the crowded restaurant when they reached the door. Shame isn’t bad, her voice from somewhere else insists. Nor the humility that is its gift.” <br/> <br/> I can’t recommend this collection of stories highly enough. They are extremely well written, entertaining and thought provoking. As I said earlier, they can be devoured quickly but they stay with you for a long, long time. <br/> <br/> Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor is available in hardcover from Viking publishers. <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/674536?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>