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
For last year's Canadian book challenge, I chose to read on a theme: indigenous authors, inspired by some past favourites. But I neglected the northern natives. This reading trio will serve as a bridge into this year's Canadian book challenge. And, hey, it's not too late to join! The Shanawdithit spread
In another collection, this story is called "One Morning in May", and I wonder if anyone thought about renaming it "The Other Menton". For as surely as the title story takes a young woman's expectations of Paris and examines how they conflict with her real experience of the city, this
This feels like a quintessential Mavis Gallant story: expectations and disappointments swirling around a young girl's form, as she begins to assemble a set of truths about the world. The town in "Wing's Chips" would never make it onto a postcard of Valley-living(Click for source details) Although the setting appears
Because I forgot my key one day, I had to wait in the neighbourhood library for Mister BIP to finish work, before I could go home. I suppose I could have waited in the subway station. But it was only a 20-minute walk. Of course I walked: wouldn't you? One
