Frank O'Connor was an Irish storyteller. The only son of a hardworking mother and a hard-drinking father, he was born in humble circumstances in Cork in 1903. He was largely self-educated.

   O'Connor fought on the Republican side in the Civil War and later was director of the Abbey Theatre.

   He is remembered for his short stories, which capture both the quirks of Irish life and the basic humanity of its people. His best stories contain a wisdom about life and its purpose.

   From Collected Stories, Wayne and Tamara recommend two tales: "The Impossible Marriage" and "The Mass Island."

   In "The Impossible Marriage," a man named Jim Grahame is slowly turning into a confirmed bachelor. "Then, by the seaside in Crosshaven, one Sunday, he went for a walk with a girl called Eileen Clery who lived in the same quarter of Cork as himself, though he had never noticed her before."

   Jim and Eileen marry, but aren't free to live together because of obligations to their parents. The marriage becomes something of a scandal and a joke to the townspeople. Yet by the end of the story people realize this marriage, which seemed like a parody of the real thing, was so complete and so perfect that beside it their own marriages appear hollow.

   "The Mass Island" is about an impractical, unclerical priest named Jerry Fogarty. It is a tale about why some lives touch us and live in our memory.

   Frank O'Connor concisely captured the nature of each of his characters, and his stories beg to be read aloud.