A scandalous woman, and other stories.

This is a new collection of short stories and by now we know what to anticipate from a writer as consonant, worldly wise and bedevilled as Edna O'Brien with her country girls and unattached women. ""Over"" says it in a word--the love affair which was mutually destroyed or ""contravened""; or everyone's ""Favorite""--born on Sunday, fair and wise and good and gay, whose life is cloudless until she hits forty when her children go off and her husband strays--and ""is this how it is when one begins to be unhappy?""; or the lovely young gift who becomes ""A Scandalous Woman"" after she's found in a limekiln in a most ""satanic position"" with a bank clerk; or the marginal relationship in ""A Journey"" between a woman and an undemonstrative, tentative working man. Ten in all, a few that are evanescent, but read ""The House of My Dreams"" for the essential Edna O'Brien where the past can never be repossessed. As always, Miss O'Brien writes like an angel exorcising hellfire spirits and lapsed loves that rankle with regret. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.