Classic Irish Short Stories, Volume 1

I have rented and purchased many audio books from many different sources over the years. This is one of my all time favorites. The writing is captivating; the narration is elegant; and the music and sound effects actually add to the production (unlike most sloppy attempts to which I've been subjected).

This is a book I will listen to many times.

Anyone who is bored with these stories obviously needs to stay away from classic literature. These are some of the best Irish short stores ever written. In particular, the Joyce and O'Connor works were extremely entertaining. All of the pieces in this collection are superbly written. The narration is perfectly matched to the stories, as is the music and sound effects.

I thought this might be a good introduction to Irish writers. Well, if Irish writers are dull and boring, I guess it is. I simply could not get into the stories. One is about an innkeeper who gets her daughter married off to a guest; one that was sort of cute involved a father whose son was getting ready to go to his first confession -- and the father's memories of the first time he confessed to something bad; another story was about a man who goes back to Ireland to get his health back, promises to marry a local girl and then heads back to the States; and the last one is about trying to find a grave in an old graveyard. Perhaps these are really wonderful works and I am just not able to get them. But I really do like short stories; and I had hoped for so much more from these. On the positive side, the narrator did a good job.