Guests of the Nation
An inspiration for the film The Crying Game, this is a tale of IRA guerillas and captured British soldiers achieving common ground over the fundamental shared idea of being human beings. Unlike Neil Jordan’s film inspired by it, the story ends with the tragic outcome when the soldiers are marched to their execution.
The Late Henry Conran
So-called because of the announcement of the state of his mortality in a newspaper announcement of his son’s upcoming wedding placed by his wife. Henry returns to Chicago to file suit against his wife for defamation of character considering that his character is still very much alive.
Bridal Night
A strange tale from an old woman to a young man about the woman’s son who is now confined to an insane asylum. The old woman tells of the young woman whom her son loved and how she spend the entirety of his last night before being sent away, finally musing over despite this nobody ever had an unkind word to say about the girl.
The First Confession
An ironic first-person account of young Jackie who must make his first confession to a priest before he can commence with receiving Communion. Jackie’s confessional sin turns out to be thoughts of killing his grandmother, but the irony becomes apparent by the end.
Song without Words
A second story in the collection about the confession of misdeeds. The title references the two main characters: two monks who have taken a vow of silence. Because of this, they must rely upon gestures only as each tempts the other into committing minor sins.
The Sentry
A comedic tale built upon a bizarre triangle of three men, a couple of lies and some onions. The title character has stolen onions from Father Michael’s garden and lies about it which stimulates the priest to hit the soldier. When the sentry confesses to an officer, Father Michael lies in order to protect the younger man.
The Frying Pan
A bizarre love triangle in which an unhappily married couple appeal to Father Fogarty to keep their marriage together. Things are complicated, however, since the priest has long been in love with the wife. A bittersweet ending on the priest’s awareness than in the end, nothing will have changed for any of them.
The Cheapjack
A story which reveals the hidden dangers of teaching. An instructor finds a diary and reads from it to his class, unwittingly divulging a secret romance between a female teach and a new teacher nicknamed Cheapjack. The consequences of this scandal are, perhaps surprisingly, that the teacher who read from the diary is the one force to leave town.
The Lady of the Sagas
Another story of a different kind of teacher. In this one, the title character is a teacher whose head is so deeply lost in the clouds of the great romantic sagas that she winds up rejecting a man she actually would have liked to marry because he represents exactly the kind of provincialism that conflicts with the fantasies the sagas have led to think she desires.
Don Juan’s Temptation
A story which seems to turn “The Lady of the Sagas” on its head. This time the girl is too provincial for the would-be Don Juan and his failed conquest convinces him that he has been cruel for trying to destroy her illusions. Except it ultimately turns out that his illusions are the ones which have been toyed with.
The Little Mother
A bitterly sardonic story of transformation. When their mother dies, the eldest of three daughters who enjoy living on the wild side becomes an absolute despot in the face of the new responsibilities of authority which becomes her inheritance.
The Story Teller
The wistful tale of a granddaughter who learns that the exciting stories told by her grandfather were not quite the true accounts that she assumed them to be.
Christmas Morning
A story that reveals the impact of lies adults tell children from a different perspective. A complex tale about a young boy named Larry who plans to stay up on Christmas Eve and get advice from Santa on how to deal with the fact that he thinks his mother likes his younger brother Sonny more. Larry falls asleep before Santa arrives, however, and when he wakes up before anyone else in the family he realizes Santa has made a mistake by putting a popgun in his brother’s stocking while leaving for him only a book. Larry’s decision to switch the presents on the logic that only Santa will know has far-reaching consequences.
