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Sat 03 Mar 2007A regal rural collectionShort StoriesOccasionally a description is overdone, from time to time a wisecrack is superfluous, but this is perhaps the inevitable result of generosity; you will be hard pressed to find a dull paragraph in Kevin Barry's very stylish and witty first collection of short stories.Barry is at his very best when writing of the tedium and evasions of small-town life in an Ireland now blessed with just enough money and freedom to support a fine dose of disorientation. "I had a go off yours, you had a go off mine," a neighbour tells midlands poultry farmer John Martin, the protagonist of the hilarious Animal Needs - and they're not discussing the repercussions of trying out each other's bicycles.