Margaret Millar’s A Stranger in My Grave (1960)

2017-05-23T16:24:06-04:00

Here, the figurative language of Millar's 1950s novels (like Vanish in an Instant and  Wives and Lovers) is replaced by a cleaner style which often focuses on extremes. "But Fielding’s pity, like his love and even his hate, was a variable thing, subject to changes in the weather, melting in

Margaret Millar’s A Stranger in My Grave (1960)2017-05-23T16:24:06-04:00

Mavis Gallant’s “About Geneva”

2017-03-26T12:44:34-04:00

Even the shortest story in The Other Paris provokes a strong sympathy on the part of readers. Bill Perlmutter: "Through A Soldier's Lens. Europe In The Fifties".Click for source details At the heart of the story are two young children, Ursula who is older than seven and Colin who

Mavis Gallant’s “About Geneva”2017-03-26T12:44:34-04:00

Mavis Gallant’s “The Deceptions of Marie-Blanche”

2017-03-26T11:05:36-04:00

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

Mavis Gallant’s “The Deceptions of Marie-Blanche”2017-03-26T11:05:36-04:00

Margaret Millar’s The Listening Walls (1959; 2016)

2017-03-06T16:21:14-05:00

Although some of the characters in the Margaret Millar mysteries I have read answer their own phones, many answer other people's phones instead: the telephones of older or more privileged relatives or those of their bosses. There's even a switchboard operator in the mix, along with a woman better known

Margaret Millar’s The Listening Walls (1959; 2016)2017-03-06T16:21:14-05:00

Mavis Gallant’s “Autumn Day” (1955)

2020-09-29T16:34:35-04:00

I laid in with this story, while on a brief holiday in a small town outside Toronto. Outside, the sound of other people's everyday morning scurried past, but I was not required to be anywhere in particular that day. Salzburg Austria, Prison overlooking town [Piotr Bozyk, Click for credit]

Mavis Gallant’s “Autumn Day” (1955)2020-09-29T16:34:35-04:00
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