This is an amazing and brilliant collections of stories, by a writer completely in control of his material. I read this book like a novel rather than a short story collection, because, although the stories are about a wide variety of characters and situations, the common theme of families and the various pressures they are subject to holds the book together with a real sense of unity. The situations in this book are so familiar to all of us, and yet O'Sullivan draws the tensions and responses so well, that we learn more about ourselves. You can't ask for more than that. Anyone who has read any of O'Sullivan's novels should not hesitate to read this on the grounds that stories don't satisfy. There is as much to think about in this collection as in any novel.