A Painful Case

John Banville takes issue with James Joyce, who counted "A Painful Case" among the weaker stories in Dubliners; Banville finds it powerful, moving and beautifully written. Mr. James Duffy is arid: he lives outside the city to avoid people, in a room with a bed, a chair, a bookcase and a few books. At a concert he meets Mrs. Sinico, late thirties, with a little southern blood, and a friendship grows through walks and talks. Her husband assumes Duffy wants the daughter. Then, one twilight, she presses his hand to her cheek, and Duffy is horrified.

Banville stops there to keep the ending, but he gives you the scale: there's no such thing as a little tragedy, all tragedies are the same size. Duffy comes to see himself excluded from the feast of life, outside in the cold while it goes on elsewhere. She could have saved him, could even have been an adventure, a weekend in Brighton, and that was against every principle he had. The poor, sad creature.