Mavis Gallant’s “The Cost of Living”

2020-05-21T15:57:47-04:00

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

Mavis Gallant’s “The Cost of Living”2020-05-21T15:57:47-04:00

How Much Happiness, Really

2024-05-31T19:07:12-04:00

Is it too much? Or, just enough. What am I to make of this final story in my Alice Munro reading project. (I read her last collection, Dear Life, in 2012.) While rereading Too Much Happiness, I was constantly aware of the references to being happy, to happiness, in the

How Much Happiness, Really2024-05-31T19:07:12-04:00

“Wood” Alice Munro

2017-07-25T11:20:34-04:00

Strangely enough, although I read this story twice earlier this year as well, when I scanned the table of contents I could not place it. Planning to reread for a third time this morning, I had no idea; it wasn't until the talk of the truck and Roy's need to gather the wood

“Wood” Alice Munro2017-07-25T11:20:34-04:00

“Child’s Play” Alice Munro

2024-05-31T19:08:25-04:00

On the list of 10 Perfect Alice Munro sentences, recently selected by CBC, this is the first: "Every year, when you’re a child, you become a different person." It begs the question, "When does one stop becoming somebody new every year?" Perhaps after an event like the incident described in this

“Child’s Play” Alice Munro2024-05-31T19:08:25-04:00

“Some Women” Alice Munro

2024-05-31T19:08:58-04:00

Unsurprisingly, “Some Women” offers readers a panoply of images of womanhood. It begins by hearkening back to an earlier time, when “girls wore waist cinches and crinolines that could stand up by themselves”. But then locates the narrator as being so old that even she is amazed by the number

“Some Women” Alice Munro2024-05-31T19:08:58-04:00
Go to Top