About this title: The complexity and uncertainty of the idea of home are very much at issue in the stories Gallant writes about Canada, her home country. Included in this new collection are the celebrated Linnet Muir stories, wonderfully wise and funny investigations into the difficulties of growing up and breaking free.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781590170601ISBN:1590170601
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Tiny stain on bottom edge, else as new, never read. 1st thus w full # line. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 324 p. New York Review Books Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very good. Publishers Overstock. A Good copy with a Remainder Mark and wear to the covers and the extremities. Buy with confidence from an Independent Bookstore where the owners, a husband and wife team, have over 25 years of combined bookselling experience. read more
Description: Fair. 1590170601 Books in acceptable condition may show significant wear and may have lots of writing/underlining. Will be shipped promptly! read more
Description: Fair. 1590170601 Books in acceptable condition may show significant wear and may have lots of writing/underlining. Will be shipped promptly! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Date Published: 2003-11-30
ISBN-13:9781590170601ISBN:1590170601
Description: Excellent text, unmarked nice an in Paperback jacket. Paperback in like new condition. Excellent text/images unmarked nice and clean. BUY IT NOW! . Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
Description: Like New. Book appears unread, but may have a publisher's mark or minor shelf wear. We are the Twin Cities' largest independent book store. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781590170601ISBN:1590170601
Description: The complexity and uncertainty of the idea of home are very much at issue in the stories Gallant writes about Canada, her home country. Included in this new collection are the celebrated Linnet Muir stories, wonderfully wise and funny investigations... read more
Description: Very Good. 2003 Paperback. Orders usually ship on or before next business day. May have highlighting. We send best copy available. read more
"Absolutely fell in love with Mavis Gallant here. I'd highly reccommend it to anyone interested in short stories, she hasn't got nearly as much exposure as she deserves.
Its a collection of fantastic short stories about people apart, or outside, or in some way, well, exiled. They're set in canada, which adds another interesting element... i had no idea the dynamics in quebec...."
"This book took me forever to finish. Even now, I feel like I haven't truly read this book, despite taking my time on each individual story. As Gallant herself says, "Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one after another, as if they were meant to follow along. Read one. Shut the book. Read something else. Come back later. Stories can wait."
However, this collection really should be read cover-to-cover, as many of the stories follow after one another: 3 stories focus on Linnet Muir, 3 on the Carette sisters, and 3 by a man who sometimes goes by "Burney."
The stand-out stories for me were: "Let It Pass," "In Youth is Pleasure," and "Between Zero and One." Still, I could take weeks reading these stories, distracted by the amazing tidbits of information and sentence structures. The book just feels so dense; it's as if the characters themselves walk around with their entire lives hanging over their head, and many of them do just that.
I was sent this book because a friend who traveled with me to India had read another story of Gallant and thought I would find inspiration in a traveling female writer. In a way, Gallant lives a life I could only dream of, having abandoned everything to go and live in France for the sole purpose of writing fiction. And yet, after seeing her in a video interview, I wonder how she can be so fragile, so humorous herself, with all these deep and interesting characters plaguing her through the years. And what of the fact that she's a "writer's writer" who's sold over 100 stories to The New Yorker, yet still overshadowed by most of her peers?
I identified so much with Linnet, even in her less desirable traits. I don't think I've ever read a character who sounded so much like me. The lines within her stories could have been taken from my own writing; at times they read like poetry, each story an innovative quilt Gallant has painstakingly sewn together by hand with golden thread, bits of hard-working flannel there, laughing pink tulle here.
Moral of the story: Gallant is hard to read. There is a reason for this. She's a genius."
"I first read the collection "Paris Stories" and thought perhaps I was a wee-bit in love with Mavis Gallant because of the Paris backdrop of her stories. But no. Paris, Quebec, Florida, she can take me wherever, and I am just as as enthralled."
"I love Mavis Gallant. I can't believe it took me this long to discover her stories. A new favorite. I especially love the Linnet Muir stories. Gallant manages to do things in her stories that I have been trying (but failing) to do in my own. Her work resonates with me on so many levels that I wish I could fly to Paris right now and talk to her."
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