Before he became known as one of the greatest playwrights of the last century, Brian Friel wrote short stories, mainly for the New Yorker. Two collections published in the 1960s were filleted by Friel himself for a Selected Stories in 1979, which is now retitled and reissued – and it is a solid gold treat from top to tail.
Friel as a story writer is funnier than John McGahern, livelier than William Trevor. The model perhaps is Frank O’Connor: witty, short tales of country folk sufficiently larger-than-life to be interesting, but keeping one foot firmly on the ground. The stories take place in Friel’s stamping ground of north-west Ireland – including in the fictional town of Ballybeg, where many of his plays would be set – and filled with people eager to make a mark.
