Mavis Gallant’s “Poor Franzi”

2017-03-26T10:12:05-04:00

At one table, we have the Wrights, on the crowded hotel terrace, with the Austrian mountains playing picture-postcard for the family, who has journeyed from Baltimore. They're a cranky lot, with daughters Coralie and Joan having had a different set of expectations for their travels, which neither their mother nor

Mavis Gallant’s “Poor Franzi”2017-03-26T10:12:05-04:00

“What Is Remembered” Alice Munro

2015-02-23T10:24:45-05:00

It's inescapable, this sense of "What Is Remembered" being an alternate version of "Tricks". (If you want to avoid general spoilers, best not to click on that link, for you will intuit the sort of ending which that story has and thus the contrasting tone herein.) Once again, our narrator is reflecting upon

“What Is Remembered” Alice Munro2015-02-23T10:24:45-05:00

Shani Mootoo’s Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab (2014)

2014-10-07T15:08:06-04:00

Shani Mootoo sidles up to her story. Random House Canada, 2014 A novel like Padma Viswanathan’s The Ever After of Ashwin Rao is more openly preoccupied with questions of grief and loss. One like Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts explores family relationships and the passage of time in

Shani Mootoo’s Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab (2014)2014-10-07T15:08:06-04:00

“Family Furnishings” Alice Munro

2014-03-29T21:02:31-04:00

Alfrida's apartment is crowded. “'I know I’ve got far too much stuff in here,' she said. 'But it’s my parents’ stuff. It’s family furnishings, and I couldn’t let them go.' The story about her parents, the loss of her mother, the other family with whom she visits only half-heartedly after

“Family Furnishings” Alice Munro2014-03-29T21:02:31-04:00

Graeme Gibson’s Five Legs (1969)

2014-03-20T15:35:24-04:00

Five Legs, perhaps surprisingly, is a novel of two -- not five -- parts. The first is in the voice of Professor Lucan Crackell. Take "stymied creativity" and a "failed imagination": an "amiable hypocrite who consoles himself with power in the institution, getting drunk with his students, and

Graeme Gibson’s Five Legs (1969)2014-03-20T15:35:24-04:00
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