Dear Reader: What’s Told? Or, the Telling of It?

2020-05-15T15:05:12-04:00

In my recent reading, it’s been as much about how the story is told as it’s been about the story itself. This certainly isn’t a new idea—these examples span three decades—but sometimes the phenomenon is more prevalent in my stacks. Maybe you’ve read some of these, or maybe

Dear Reader: What’s Told? Or, the Telling of It?2020-05-15T15:05:12-04:00

Mavis Gallant’s “In the Tunnel” (1970)

2018-08-27T12:36:30-04:00

Having had such a difficult relationship with her mother, Mavis Gallant must have hoped for more from her father. But think of the separateness of the child and father in “Wing’s Chips” (a story with outward similarities to some of Gallant’s childhood experiences). And the outright conflict in “The Rejection”. She

Mavis Gallant’s “In the Tunnel” (1970)2018-08-27T12:36:30-04:00

Beth Powning’s A Measure of Light (2015)

2021-06-04T15:00:40-04:00

If you recognize Mary Dyer as being one of the Boston Martyrs, you will expect Beth Powning's tale to be a harrowing one. To some extent, this is the case. Knopf - Penguin Random House, 2015 But even if the historical record considers the most remarkable aspect of Mary

Beth Powning’s A Measure of Light (2015)2021-06-04T15:00:40-04:00

Two Chilling Reads: The Dark and Secrecy

2014-05-13T15:03:24-04:00

Rupert Thomson's Secrecy is suffused with deliciously disturbing images and scenes. A thin, dark ribbon of sky. Bared teeth with clumps of hair. A dead bird that dangles from a girl’s first like a flower needing water. A snake skin shed in a doorway. A secret passage. A stabbed countess. A

Two Chilling Reads: The Dark and Secrecy2014-05-13T15:03:24-04:00
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