SOURCE: A review of The Collected Stories, in Irish Literary Supplement, Vol. 12, No. 2, Fall, 1993, pp. 11-12.

In the following review, Sampson traces the development of McGahern's short fiction.

Nightlines. Getting Through. High Ground. In retrospect, the titles of John McGahern's three volumes of stories seem to light up the stages of his development as an artist—images which evoke the atmosphere of each book and at the same time suggest the energy and movement of a talent discovering itself and then growing towards maturity. These three volumes are reprinted with little change in The Collected Stories, and to them is added a brief, late story, "The Creamery Manager," and a novella, "The Country Funeral"—34 stories in all. This novella is a tour de force written in the afterglow of Amongst Women and occupies a place in this world of the stories much like that occupied by "The Dead...