Counterparts

John Banville calls "Counterparts" the most savage story in James Joyce's Dubliners and says he finds it painful every time. Farrington, a lawyer's clerk, spends his life making counterparts, copies of other men's documents, under Mr. Alleyne, a little man with a little bit of power who nips at him like a turkey cock. Banville explains the two-hats trick for slipping out to the pub, and follows the evening through Davy Byrne's, the Scotch House and Mulligan's, a pub crawl he rates among the best in literature, paid for by pawning a watch.

The turn is that the drink brings no joy. The more Farrington drinks the more joyless he gets, and Banville reads this as a Dublin trait, a self-contempt only assuaged by alcohol. There's one moment of light, a smile from Miss Delacour, before an ending Banville won't give away, the most savage and pathetic scene in the book. He leaves you unable to pity a man whose desperation you now understand.