Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net (1954) and The Sandcastle (1957)

2018-01-29T17:02:50-05:00

The winter months are good reading months for me, especially when snug indoors with a view of the snowy cityscape. I've been reading more than I've been reviewing here, so here's a peek into the recent stacks. Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net (1954) and The Sandcastle (1957) were read with

Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net (1954) and The Sandcastle (1957)2018-01-29T17:02:50-05:00

Louise Erdrich’s The Beet Queen (1985)

2018-01-17T15:28:33-05:00

The longer the books in the Love Medicine cycle, the harder it is to recall that Louise Erdrich began with short fiction, stories which linked, interconnected, taking their own time to draw in their circles before spiralling outward once more. Tracks and Four Souls were slim volumes, but readers

Louise Erdrich’s The Beet Queen (1985)2018-01-17T15:28:33-05:00

Mavis Gallant’s “Thieves and Rascals” (1956)

2018-02-06T14:51:31-05:00

Not his daughter. Not Joyce. Charles Kimber didn’t think she had it in her. But the headmistress has written to say that sixteen-year-old Joyce vanished from St. Hilda’s School and spent the weekend in Albany in a hotel with a young man. A young man from a good family

Mavis Gallant’s “Thieves and Rascals” (1956)2018-02-06T14:51:31-05:00

Mavis Gallant’s “The Wedding Ring” (1969)

2018-01-29T15:25:08-05:00

In “Madeline’s Birthday”, Madeline was sent to the Tracy family’s summer home: her divorced parents are elsewhere, living Madeline-free lives. “The Wedding Ring” tells a similar story, but from the daughter’s perspective: a first-person chronicle of the only child of a happily-divorced couple. The story begins quietly, as though

Mavis Gallant’s “The Wedding Ring” (1969)2018-01-29T15:25:08-05:00

Mavis Gallant’s “Madeline’s Bithday” (1951)

2018-01-23T14:39:25-05:00

In “Madeline’s Birthday”, the sadness slips to the background, like it does in an Elizabeth Taylor story, with a hint of darkness besides. Madeline is a guest in the Tracy family’s summer home, and her seventeenth birthday affects every resident. Readers briefly inhabit the perspective of most inhabitants (even

Mavis Gallant’s “Madeline’s Bithday” (1951)2018-01-23T14:39:25-05:00
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