It begins in darkness. South side of the Luxembourg Gardens "Louise, my sister, talked to Sylvie Laval for the first time on the stairs of our hotel on a winter afternoon. At five o’clock the skylight over the stairway and the blank, black windows on each of the
For last year's Canadian book challenge, I chose to read on a theme: indigenous authors, inspired by some past favourites. But I neglected the northern natives. This reading trio will serve as a bridge into this year's Canadian book challenge. And, hey, it's not too late to join! The Shanawdithit spread
At nearly one hundred pages long, it's unsurprising that this is the most complex of Mavis Gallant's stories I've read this year. It's neither the length nor the breadth of the story which complicates it, but the intricate arrangement of details, as readers are gradually immersed in the narration of
Miss Horeham seems to have walked straight out of a Barbara Pym novel: an older woman with standards which are disappointed with some regularity. She has lived in this pension for long enough to see families come and go, long enough to recognise the rhythms of the seasons there, and
Alice Munro's hired girls like to read too.In "Sunday Afternoon", Alva asks Mr. Gannett if she could borrow "King Lear" and, also, Stendhal's The Red and the Black. Mr. Gannett agrees to share his books with Alva, just as Mr. Montjoy gifts the young Alice with his copy of Seven Gothic Tales at the end of
