Mavis Gallant’s “August”

2020-08-17T17:41:02-04:00

“August” picks up the thread from 1959’s “Travellers Must Be Content” (a story which was also collected in The Cost of Living/Going Ashore). Just as time has passed between publications, time has passed for Bonnie and her daughter, Flor, too. The stories read like bookends, all-of-a-piece, but occupying

Mavis Gallant’s “August”2020-08-17T17:41:02-04:00

Two Summer Debuts: Swimming and Malt Shops

2020-07-21T15:44:18-04:00

When variations on the 30-something-°-day populate the ten-day forecast, summer reading is ON. (That’s 80s and 90s, for those of us who still get hotter in °F.) Books like Daven McQueen’s The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones and Taylor Hale’s The Summer I Drowned rise to the top of

Two Summer Debuts: Swimming and Malt Shops2020-07-21T15:44:18-04:00

Mavis Gallant’s “Vacances Pax” (1966)

2020-01-13T15:42:46-05:00

Dedicated short story writers make choices with every sentence. Short stories aren’t novels that ended too soon. They’re not short because there’s a paper shortage or a deadline. Short fiction is short on purpose. So, when a writer like Mavis Gallant chooses her words, it’s a deliberate process. Last

Mavis Gallant’s “Vacances Pax” (1966)2020-01-13T15:42:46-05:00

Mavis Gallant’s “A Question of Disposal”

2019-12-03T21:19:41-05:00

In other Mavis Gallant stories, we have met characters whose hold on life is more tenacious than expected. In “The Remission” (1979), for instance. Everyone has made plans with an exit in mind, but nothing goes as expected. And in “The End of the World” (1967), we have a

Mavis Gallant’s “A Question of Disposal”2019-12-03T21:19:41-05:00

Mavis Gallant’s “Jeux d’Ete”

2019-11-13T14:04:05-05:00

Another writer might have titled this story “Summer Games”. But in using a French title, Gallant’s English readers are immediately, if only for a brief moment, inhabiting an unfamiliar place. We have a hint of what’s to come. We are to expect something like the collection’s first story, “By

Mavis Gallant’s “Jeux d’Ete”2019-11-13T14:04:05-05:00
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