More William Trevor

After reading yet another strong review of William Trevor's new story collection A Bit on the Side by Lynn Freed in the New York Times ("Year after year they come, novels, collections of stories like these--treasures of gorgeous writing, brilliant dialogue and unforgettable lives."), I browsed through the Times' "First Chapters" archive, hoping it would include a story from this collection.

No luck, but I did stumble across first chapters from two Trevor novels, Death in Summer and The Hill Bachelors. I found both rather intriguing, particularly the former. "Gorgeous writing," indeed; both excerpts are well worth going through the Times' free (and generally non-invasive) registration process.

(10/8/04) Upon further review, The Hill Bachelors is a short story collection, not a novel, and the NYT excerpt is a complete short story entitled "Three People." Highly recommended.