“Although an epidemic of haunting, widely reported, spread through the Fifteenth District of our city last summer, only three acceptable complaints were lodged with the police.”

Having read about half of Mavis Gallant’s short stories now, and never yet having met a ghost, imagine my surprise at finding three in this eponymous tale.

But, of course, as you will have guessed, these are not ordinary spectres.

They are a notch above, the kind of hauntings which pass muster with the authorities. Even with the police.

Only recently did I learn that there is no fifteenth district in Paris, not beyond Gallant’s stories.

This fact alone was surprising enough.

And, then, the hauntings.

This piece is short – only six pages – and it is character-soaked. Immediately readers are plunged into detail.

It reminds me of two pieces which appear in Going Ashore (titled The Cost of Living in the United States): A Revised Guide to Paris (1980) and La Vie Parisienne (1981).

But, here, the focus is not on the city per se.

The focus is on the ghosts.

Then again, not on the ghosts either.

Rather, on their backstories.

Then again, not on their backstories.

Instead, on the ties which remain.

Ties to memory and history and war and love and loss and betrayal and family and lovers and children and religion and minimum wage and mortality and drugs and silk and…

…oh, never mind. It’s about Paris after all.

Note: This is part of a series of posts on Mavis Gallant’s stories, as I read through her short fiction. This is the sixth story in From the Fifteenth District. Please feel free to check the schedule and join in, for the series, or for a single story; I would love the company. Next story: “Potter”. Next collection: Home Truths, beginning Feburary 5th with “Thank You for the Lovely Tea”.

The Four Seasons / The Moslem Wife / The Remission / The Latehomecomer / Baum, Gabriel, 1935 — NOV28 / From the Fifteenth District DEC5/ Potter DEC12 / His Mother DEC19 / Irina DEC26