Since I began this project of rereading through Mavis Gallant’s stories, in January 2017, I’ve had this story in the back of my mind, unable to place it. I should have suspected it would reside here, in my first Gallant collection. Instead, I had begun to wonder if it
Rereading Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony (1995) is a blatant act of homage. When I first heard Choy read from his work, he was promoting his memoir Paper Shadows (1999) at a Pride event. He was reading with Marnie Woodrow and Sky Gilbert: one, a curly-haired slightly messy young
Having published one hundred and sixteen stories in The New Yorker, Mavis Gallant’s regular readers would have had to wait from April 15 until July 8 in 1985, to learn how life has been for the Carette sisters. The story opens like this: “The family’s experience of Raymond was
Shortly after I was old enough to peruse the magazines and newspapers that came to the houses of older family members, I discovered the wonders of the Columbia House Record Company and the Quality Paperback Bookclub via their advertisements. Both of these catalogue businesses offered tantalizing deals to new
As a sharp observer and as a chronicler of wartime and revolutionary foment, there are a lot of good and serious reasons to read Mavis Gallant: she is also wickedly funny. The humour in this story’s title is only accessible to readers after we have finished reading. But nevermind,
