SOURCE: Kerrigan, Michael. “In the World of Men.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4876 (13 September 1996): 25.

In the following review, Kerrigan asserts that Tóibín fails to fully connect the personal and public stories in The Story of the Night.

The most striking moment in Colm Tóibín's new novel [The Story of the Night] occurs only a few pages in, when the narrator-protagonist, Richard Garay, recollects a homosexual encounter in the Bũenos Aires of the Generals. Hearing the loud yet unaccountable sound of “car engines revving over and over,” he asks his partner of the hour what the noise is. “He brought me to the window to show me the police station opposite and the cars outside, driverless, but still revving. They need power, he said, but I still did not understand. They need extra power for the cattle prods, he said.” As disturbing as the fact...