SOURCE: A review of A Lazy Eye, in Salon (online publication), September 18, 1996.

[In the mixed assessment below, Marcus discusses thematic and stylistic aspects of A Lazy Eye.]

The Irish have always had a gift for depicting blighted lives, and Mary Morrissy, whose novel Mother of Pearl won a Lannan Foundation award in 1995, is right in the tradition. Even a quick scan through the stories in A Lazy Eye is enough to make you grateful for your own, comparatively unblighted existence.

In "Bookworm," a tightly-wound kleptomaniac makes a career of stealing books and shredding them to pieces in the privacy of her apartment. "Rosa" revolves around an unwanted pregnancy, and concludes with the baby being abandoned in a department store Christmas display: "When they dismantled the crib in the new year they would find the creature as dead and as frozen as the one originally placed there."

After a...