In this collection of short stories, A Slanting Of The Sun, his many gifts are foregrounded — chiefly his ability to delineate the human capacity for selfishness and greed, as well as love and mercy. Standouts include the titular story, about a fatal robbery on a farm, and ‘Aisling’, the tale of a man going through a series of emotions as he watches his ex-girlfriend with her new partner.
In ‘The Squad’, meanwhile, a revenge pact made between friends has fatal consequences, and in ‘The Passion’, the developing relationship between a young man and the mother of his dead ex-girlfriend is explored.
Ryan chronicles loss, anger, forgiveness and desire with a skill few writers could hope to match.
_Anne Sexton