Lantern Slides (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)

Whenever I finish a book of short stories, I like to place it back on the shelf. After a few days have elapsed, I test myself to see which of the stories have "stuck." These are not always the most well-written or exciting, but rather the ones that touched a chord. With "Lantern Slides," I find that I most remember the stories that speak of that moment in an otherwise happy time when there is the recognition that a dark cloud lurks just beyond the sunshine. Not surprisingly, most of these stories take place in Ireland, where the skies change as quickly as these plot lines. In "Dramas," for instance, a man comes to a village, sets up a shop, organizes a drama society, and becomes the toast of the town. His fall is just as swift as was his rise. "A Demon" finds an excited young girl out for a day's excursion with her parents and the local doctor's wife. As the day progresses, young Meg begins to feel the winds shifting and knows in her soul that disaster is around the bend. And the setting for the title story, the last in the book, is a birthday celebration. The reader gets to meet all the guests and the celebrant herself. Each of them has had his or her moments of joyous expectation and each has experienced the disappointments that inevitably follow. The characters may all have Irish roots, but the emotions depicted are universal to the human experience.