Those of you who are reading here now, but not reading Alistair MacLeod’s short stories, will probably only be interested in the first couple of paragraphs after this introduction. Feel free to skip past the section that I've titled The Underneath, written with those who know the story-or other
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
He’s middle-aged and the father of a grown woman the same age: no wonder Stella thought Henry was a catch, a great romance. Really? A catch? Did Stella really think so? And, even if she did, at one time, once she met his daughter, Peggy, in person, did Stella
In Iris Murdoch’s Henry and Cato (1976), Henry Marshalson inherits the family estate when his brother Sandy dies. Henry returns to the home where his mother Gerda still lives, with her kinda-sycophantic admirer, Lucius. Cato lives nearby. So does Colette. Stephanie does not, but, because of her pre-existing
Although following Finch’s Fortune directly, the fortune only recently received and dispensed, Master of Jalna was actually published more than twenty years before Finch’s Fortune. It’s easy to imagine why the author would have wanted to revisit the Whiteoaks before the events of Master of Jalna play out, to
