SOURCE: "The Terrorist and the Lady," in New York Times Book Review, June 26, 1994, p. 7.

The following is L'Heureux's generally laudatory review of House of Splendid Isolation, in which he notes some faults in the novel but asserts that O'Brien's "attempt nonetheless merits praise."

This is a fascinating and disturbing novel—fascinating because it marks a dramatic departure for Edna O'Brien in both subject matter and in style, disturbing because for the first time we see her audacity fall and her elegant prose run badly out of control. Still, where she succeeds, she succeeds handsomely.

In House of Splendid Isolation Ms. O'Brien attempts to isolate and anatomize the human aspects of Irish history. She succeeds, poignantly, when she explores the relationship between an Irish Republican Army terrorist and the elderly Irish woman who is his hostage. They taunt each other, they fight and in time they achieve a tentative...