Walter is just a kid, in comparison to the elderly widows with whom he spends most of his time. And perhaps when he's driving his sporty little Singer, he's not thinking about ending things. But in quiet moments, despair sneaks up on him. Promenade des anglais, Nice, 1960
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
When you've looked up a book title, have you ever been tempted by the other books you've found with the same title as the book for which you were searching? In adding Lori McNulty's debut short story collection to my online TBR list, I discovered several other books with the same
Although the last of the Jalna books written, Morning at Jalna is only the second in the sequence. It is set while the civil war is raging in the southern United States, and readers are immediately informed that the Whiteoaks are sympathetic to the southerners. In school, during the 1970s
As with Tracks, the primary voices in Four Souls are Fleur's and Nanapush's. So, although it was published more than ten years later, I opted to read Four Souls next, to keep these characters fresher in mind and heart, hoping for a deeper understanding. Two other women play significant roles
