Two Lives of William Trevor
Real Estate

Two Lives of William Trevor

In Two Lives, William Trevor offers two stories: Reading Turgenev and My House In Umbria. They are not mere stories, however, and they read like substantial novels. Both have women as central characters. Reading Turgenev introduces Mary Louise Dallon, an Irish Protestant whose parents support her decision to marry, though on the surface at least the couple may be less than perfect. In My House In Umbria, someone who calls herself Emily Delahunty recounts her checkered personal story against the backdrop of totally unforeseen events that change the lives of everyone she invites into her home. In both stories, William Trevor examines the gap that might exist between lived reality, remembered reality, and imagined reality. The writers create seemingly fictional worlds that, when embraced by characters who are also fictional, come much closer to desired realities than reality itself.

Mary Louise Dallon is a young woman in an almost terribly normal Irish Protestant household. There are movie visits and suitors of various ages and types, and a job that will always be local and probably predictable. Predictable, that is, until someone does something quite unexpected. Mary Louise Dallon does the unexpected. Turgenev’s reading thus examines the consequences, predictable or not, of this deviation from the expected norm. And of course the Turgenev you read is itself fiction. But, for Mary Louise, her imagined world becomes perhaps more important than the strange reality that surrounds her. The people who share her life ignore reality or, when she does not follow her bias, they recreate it almost as if it were her own fiction. The effect on Mary Louise is devastating, or perhaps the consequences of her were unavoidable, the product of her own misunderstandings or misunderstanding of reality. As a result, reading Turgenev becomes an almost viscerally moving experience, in which actual violence is inflicted on the central character without a finger being raised in threat. Everything is done with words. And eventually, those words are themselves a fiction.

My House In Umbria features a writer known as Emily Delahunty. The name may be unlikely. Perhaps much of what she tells about herself is of the same type. She has been here and there: Idaho, Africa, Umbria, English towns. She has been confused by her parents and probably abused, she has been exploited in the US and has had business in Africa. But of course, she is also a creator of romantic fiction, perhaps sentimental. A seemingly random event sparks equally random encounters when people who seem to need each other congregate at Emily’s home in Umbria. Throughout her she confuses the real facts with those of her own fiction. She cannot deny reality, but it can also be created. She is clearly presenting to others her own version of reality that is far from the frame of a confident older woman she projects herself into. What version of reality will cause the belief?

Throughout William Trevor’s book, the real joy is the author’s resplendent prose. surprise. Decorate, twist, turn and celebrate. These fictional characters become completely real. Completely believable, despite his propensity to live in imaginary worlds. The overall concept is impressive. The detail is diabolical, the consequences of these fictions apparently real.

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