There is a body of opinion that has it that Edna O'Brien is overrated as a writer; that her success is due to the sex and Irish blarney in her work, and that any serious criticism of her books is out of place….

If I am daft enough to put my head on the block again, it is because there really is something about the Edna O'Brien phenomenon that is worth defining.

With the passing of time, her settings have become more sophisticated…. In this collection of classic O'Brien stories … ["A Rose in the Heart"], there is an awareness of death not generally associated with this elegiac but most life-loving author. Graveyards are dwelt on, and the barriers between life and death are thin. In "Ways," the Vermont cemetery "seems integral to the town as if the living and the dead are wedded to one another." In "Baby...