The William Trevor Reader: “Attracta”
“Attracta” combines several now-familiar Trevor subjects: a virginal lifelong spinster, a fixation on the past, an awkward social blow-up, and The Troubles. This is not to say it isn’t good—it’s a quite good story, elegantly structured and told, and manages to combine these pieces in a way that feels new. But taken on their own, these four elements are beginning to feel like well-trodden ground, and so I’d like to focus on a smaller and very effective writing choice that Trevor makes midway through
