“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
When readers meet Gabriel it is 1960 and he is twenty-five years old, fresh from having served in the French army for twenty months in Algeria. “War had never been declared. What Gabriel had engaged in was a long tactical exercise for which there was no compensation except experience.”
So many of Mavis Gallant’s characters inhabit between spaces. Netta, too. Which is strange, because so many of Mavis Gallant’s other itinerant women are staying in hotels, but Netta is running one. And she is just as between as the rest of them. Once she said yes and, then,
Today marks the launch of another Mavis Gallant short story collection): From the Fifteenth District. (Apologies for the double-post, but both Mavis Gallant and Margaret Atwood were scheduled to appear today: what a power-house duo!) The first story in this collection is billed as a novella, which is curious
Yes, I am that person who has a WWJJD magnet on the fridge: What Would Jane Jacobs Do? So of course, when I learned of Susan Hughes’ new illustrated children’s book about Jacobs, Walking in the City (Illus. Valérie Boivin, 2018), I sought out a copy. The bulk of
