Church, Margaret, “Social Consciousness in the Works of Elizabeth Bowen, Iris Murdoch, and Mary Lavin,” in College Literature, Vol. 7, No. 2, Spring 1980, pp. 158-63.

In this comparative study, Church examines Lavin's attacks on habit and social rigidity in her stories. She studies how Lavin's characters rethink social roles in their efforts to forge better relationships with each other.

Dunleavy, Janet Egleson, “Mary Lavin, Elizabeth Bowen, and a New Generation: The Irish Short Story at Midcentury,” in The Irish Short Story: A Critical History, edited by James Kilroy, Twayne, 1984, pp. 145-68.

Dunleavy explores the Irish context of Lavin's work in political and social terms and compares it to that of other Irish writers.

Gibbons, Luke, Transformations in Irish Culture, University of Notre Dame Press, 1996.

In this collection of essays, Gibbons examines the political and cultural influences on Irish life and the tensions that ultimately arise between the...