A single-sitting read, a summer road-trip, and Sesame Street: good reading. Margriet De Moor’s Sleepless Night (1989; Trans. David Doherty 2019) “Sleepless night succeeded sleepless night – agonized day followed agonized day.” This, from L.M. Montgomery’s 1918 journal, came to mind when I was reading Margriet De Moor’s Sleepless Night
At first glance, it seems as though who is more – or less – Canadian matters in this story. Because I am Canadian, I latch on to the idea of whether Douglas’ father is more “reticent” than his mother, whether he is “cautious and single-minded”, whether I myself exhibit any
Faust, Gallant, Hawley, Madsen and Ross Short Stories in October, November and December "It was a long time - a long time watching him the way you watch a finger tightening slowly in the trigger of a gun – and then suddenly wrenching himself to action
At first it is surprising. To come across the word ‘defenestration’ in a Mavis Gallant story. Often these are inward-looking stories, detailed and expansive glimpses into the interior lives of quiet – and often solitary – characters. Someone drives too quickly or protests the contents of a sermon, someone
Much of September and October were occupied by reading books which appeared on prizelists and a few which I thought might appear there. Most of these I’ve already discussed (a quick way to locate them is through my Autumn 2018 Prizelists and Events page, which collects the relevant posts
