Sacred Statues by William Trevor, 2002
The magic trick:
Laying out one family’s struggle with such broad symbols as to beg more expansive interpretation
We close our William Trevor week with the excellent “Sacred Statues.” Whereas most of the week’s stories have been relentlessly insular, this one can pretty easily be interpreted into more expansive meanings.
At its core, Nuala and Corry are young parents struggling to make enough money to live. Corry has a gift for carving figures – he has specialized in carving saints and religious figures. But his gift isn’t useful enough, or the world isn’t receptive enough to his talents. Either way, they are desperately poor.
If that isn’t a rich ground for you to analyze and interpret, then I’m not sure why you’re reading short stories!
And that’s quite a trick on Trevor’s part.
The selection:
Corry’s saints had become her friends, Nuala sometimes thought, brought to life for her, a source of sympathy, and consolation when that was necessary. And Jesus Fell the Second Time were the words beneath the Station that was her favourite. Neither saints nor Station belonged in a concrete shed, any more than the figures of the Virgin did, or any of the other carvings. They belonged in the places they’d been created for, the inspiration of their making becoming there the inspiration for prayer. Nuala was certain that this was meant to be, that in receiving his gift Corry had been entrusted with seeing that this came about. “You were meant for other times, Corry,” a priest had remarked to him once, but not unkindly or dismissively, as if recognizing that even if the present times were different from those he spoke of, Corry would persevere. A waste of himself it would be otherwise, a waste of the person he was.
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