This feels like a quintessential Mavis Gallant story: expectations and disappointments swirling around a young girl's form, as she begins to assemble a set of truths about the world. The town in "Wing's Chips" would never make it onto a postcard of Valley-living(Click for source details) Although the setting appears
There's some Irish in me and some on my bookshelves, too, but this March, with Reading Ireland hosted by Cathy at 746 Books and memories of reading Irish short stories with Mel at The Reading Life, I went for a library browse to add to the volumes I'd pulled from my shelves.
If the story were titled "Les Deceptions de Marie-Blanche", it might be translated as "The Disappointments of Marie-Blanche": an apt choice. San Francisco Earthquake, 1907 - Click for source details And, yet, as it stands, there is the added implication that Marie-Blanche has not only been disappointed by
Sometimes it's not so much about a list. More about ideas and possibilities. Either way, my notebook is busy this month. With Kinna's 2017 Africa Reading Challenge, I'm eyeing the possibilities. Maybe some Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo or Buchi Emecheta, some Chinua Achebe or Brian Chikwava, or maybe, finally, Tsitsi Dangarembga. Sometimes it's very
The weight of the brooch pulls the fabric of young Margaret Marshall's picnic frock. It always hangs just fine off her navy blue shorts, but the light-weight dress doesn't provide a suitable backdrop. How disappointing for young Margaret, who so treasures this gift from Madame Pégorin, the photo of the woman's beloved
