The collected letters of Flannery O’Connor, edited by Sally Fitzgerald, in The Habit of Being: they’ve been on my bookshelves for a couple of decades. They date to the time when I gave less thought to the number of inches that a book required for storage. To the
In the previous story, we have Harold’s mother reminiscing about her earlier trips to the mountains, when it was just her and her husband, Harold’s father. She observes that it was one thing to think of skiing down the slopes into town when she was a young woman; now
It seems to me that Mavis Gallant must have spent an inordinate amount of time on terraces. As places that seem associated with a view, this seems appropriate for a writer with a penchant for observation and acuity. But even while terraces seem related to looking outward – especially
Borra, Gallant, Gospodinov, Rogers and Tomine Short Stories in October, November and December Whether in a dedicated collection or a magazine, these stories capture a variety of reading moods. This quarter, I returned to a favourite writer and also explored four new-to-me story writers. (I've read
Dedicated short story writers make choices with every sentence. Short stories aren’t novels that ended too soon. They’re not short because there’s a paper shortage or a deadline. Short fiction is short on purpose. So, when a writer like Mavis Gallant chooses her words, it’s a deliberate process. Last
