SOURCE: "Mary Lavin, 83, Wove Tales of Irish Experience," in The New York Times, March 27, 1996, p. D21.

[In the following obituary, Clarity provides an overview of her life and career and comments on the style and major themes of her fiction.]

Mary Lavin, whose short stories and novels about the conflicts in the hearts of her fellow Irish men and women transcended mere tales of life in Ireland, died on Monday at a nursing home here [Dublin, Ireland]. She was 83.

Ms. Lavin was the author of 19 collections of short stories and three novels. She won three Guggenhelm Fellowships and a number of literary awards, including the Katherine Mansfield Prize, in 1961. Her stories appeared regularly in The New Yorker.

Her death was front-page news in The Irish Times, whose chief book critic, Eileen Battersby, called her "one of modern Irish fiction's most subversive voices" and said, "Her art explored often...