Mavis Gallant

Almost 3 months ago, driving home from work listening to "The World" on PRI, I learned that Mavis Gallant had died. Until that day, I had never heard of this woman, but am so grateful that this is no longer the case. For those of you who don't know, Mavis Gallant was born in Canada, but just before turning 30 decided to upend her life and move to Paris to become a fiction writer (she had up to this point been working as a journalist). Her adventure was a triumphant success; she won numerous literary awards for her short stories, many of which were featured in The New Yorker.

The story I heard on the radio described the strength and beauty of her writing in such a beautiful way, that her name ran across my mind almost daily afterwards, and about a month ago I raced into my library and stepped out with a copy of Paris Stories. Published in 2002, Paris Stories is " Michael Ondaatje's new selection of Gallant's work gathers some of the most memorable of her stories set in Europe and Paris, where Gallant has long lived. Mysterious, funny, insightful, and heartbreaking, these are tales of expatriates and exiles, wise children and straying saints. Together they compose a secret history, at once intimate and panoramic, of modern times." (Amazon's description).

Whenever I read a book and come across a line or passage that I find particularly intriguing I often underline those words, so that I can easily find them whenever, if ever, I am tempted to do so. Unfortunately libraries have a tendency to frown on patrons doing this to the books they borrow (I can't imagine why), so whenever reading a library book I am forced to place sticky tabs over the words I would normally underline and copy them out later. I finished reading Paris Stories last night, and am now holding a book littered with such stickies.

Every page held my attention, captivated my imagination, and left me eager to find out what happened next. Her descriptions delighted my love of language. The characters in her stories were so real they could have stepped out of the pages and walked down Maine Street in Brunswick without skipping a beat. I disliked some of them, was confused by others, loved many. Knowing their lives made mine richer. I will definitely be looking for more of her stories, and highly recommend that everyone do the same.