Mavis Gallant’s “Paola and Renata” (1965)

2017-11-21T15:27:35-05:00

The widow has let her hair go. It is half mahogany and half dull grey. Not only grey, but dull grey. Paola and Renata's listening that summer One has the sense that being a widow might have brought this about. The simple act of inhabiting widowhood. But that

Mavis Gallant’s “Paola and Renata” (1965)2017-11-21T15:27:35-05:00

Rachel Cusk’s Outline (2014) and Transit (2017)

2017-10-25T16:47:19-04:00

Readers meet a woman up in the air. Literally. She is flying to Athens, where she will teach a course in creative writing. This is Outline. Perhaps partly because she could instruct in the art of outlining, demonstrate for her students the art of constructing a framework on which

Rachel Cusk’s Outline (2014) and Transit (2017)2017-10-25T16:47:19-04:00

Lisa Moore’s Flannery (2016)

2020-07-29T09:30:35-04:00

Lisa Moore builds folks from the ink up: she is standout at characterization. Groundwood Books, 2016 One of the elements that makes her characters so convincing is the echo effect, the reverberations off seemingly extraneous details (in images, in descriptions, in settings) to construct multi-faceted individuals. Readers who have

Lisa Moore’s Flannery (2016)2020-07-29T09:30:35-04:00

“Child’s Play” Alice Munro

2024-05-31T19:08:25-04:00

On the list of 10 Perfect Alice Munro sentences, recently selected by CBC, this is the first: "Every year, when you’re a child, you become a different person." It begs the question, "When does one stop becoming somebody new every year?" Perhaps after an event like the incident described in this

“Child’s Play” Alice Munro2024-05-31T19:08:25-04:00

Shani Mootoo’s Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab (2014)

2014-10-07T15:08:06-04:00

Shani Mootoo sidles up to her story. Random House Canada, 2014 A novel like Padma Viswanathan’s The Ever After of Ashwin Rao is more openly preoccupied with questions of grief and loss. One like Shyam Selvadurai’s The Hungry Ghosts explores family relationships and the passage of time in

Shani Mootoo’s Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab (2014)2014-10-07T15:08:06-04:00
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