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Paris Stories

by Mavis Gallant, Michael Ondaatje (Introduction)

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06 · rating details · 405 ratings · 58 reviews

A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS ORIGINAL

Mavis Gallant is a contemporary legend, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker for close to fifty years who has, in the words of The New York Times, "radically reshaped the short story for decade after decade." Michael Ondaatje's new selection of Gallant's work gathers some of the most memorable of her stories set in Europe and Paris, wher...more

Paperback, 400 pages

Published October 31st 2002 by NYRB Classics (first published January 1st 2002)

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Apr 01, 2012 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-contemporary-lit

Magnificent. I read this collection of short stories over the course of several months in the manner suggested by the author herself: "Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one after the another, as if they were meant to follow along. Read one. Shut the book. Read something else. Come back later. Stories can wait."

It turned out to be advice worth taking. Rather than blast through the book at once, in a week or so, I was able to absorb each short story on its own. I frequent...more Magnificent. I read this collection of short stories over the course of several months in the manner suggested by the author herself: "Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one after the another, as if they were meant to follow along. Read one. Shut the book. Read something else. Come back later. Stories can wait."

It turned out to be advice worth taking. Rather than blast through the book at once, in a week or so, I was able to absorb each short story on its own. I frequently found myself thinking of a last story after I'd moved on to a completely different book. These stories stay with you.

Mavis Gallant's language is somehow at once sumptuous and spare. Gallant, a Canadian-born writer who has lived the bulk of her life in Paris, is successful in all the elements that make for good narrative, but it is the richness of her sentences that stand out. Consider a few gems -- with a caveat that some of the power is lost to lack of context -- but which reveal sadness and hilarity, simultaneously.

From "The Moslem Wife": "She was the only person Netta had heard who could make Mozart sound like an Irish jig. Presently Iris began to say that it was time Jack gave a concert. Before this could turn into a crisis Iris changed her her mind and said what he wanted was a holiday. Netta thought he needed something: He seemed to be exhausted by love, friendship, by being a husband, someone's son, by trying to make a world out of reading and sense out of life. A visit to England to meet some stimulating people, said Iris. To help Iris with her tiresome father during the journey. To visit art galleries and bookshops and go to concerts. To meet people. To talk. [...] She suddenly knew to a certainty that if Jack were to die she would search the crowd of mourners for a man she could live with. She would not return from the funeral alone. Grief and memory, yes, she said to herself, but what about three o'clock in the morning?"

Or from "August": "These perceptions, which came only when he was alone, when creaking or mournful or ghostly sounds emerged from the stairs and the elevator shaft and formed a single substance with the walls, curtains, and gray light from the courtyard, he knew were only the lingering vapors of adolescent nostalgia--that fruitless, formless yearning for God knows what. It was not an ambiance of mind he pursued."

From "Speck's Idea": "Walter in search of the Eternal was like one of those solitary skippers who set out to cross an ocean only to capsize when barely out of port."

Oh, were I able to write half as well as Mavis Gallant.(less)

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Feb 27, 2013 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

"his real life a secret so splendid he could share it with no one except himself." (p.11)

"They are white-hot Protestants, and they live with a load of work and debt and obligation." (p.12)

"If she had been foreign, ill-favored though she was, he might have flirted a little, just to show that he was friendly; but their being Canadian, and suddenly left together, was a sexual damper." (p.13)

"Angels are created, not born. Nowhere in any written testimony will you find a scrap of proof that angels ar...more "his real life a secret so splendid he could share it with no one except himself." (p.11)

"They are white-hot Protestants, and they live with a load of work and debt and obligation." (p.12)

"If she had been foreign, ill-favored though she was, he might have flirted a little, just to show that he was friendly; but their being Canadian, and suddenly left together, was a sexual damper." (p.13)

"Angels are created, not born. Nowhere in any written testimony will you find a scrap of proof that angels are 'good'. Some are merely messengers; other have a paramilitary function. All are stupid." (p.124)

"For a time her letters were like the trail of a child going ever deeper into the woods. He could not decide whether or not to follow; while he was still deciding, and not deciding, the trail stopped and the path became overgrown behind her." (p.177)

"A woman can always get some practical use froma torn-up life....She likes mending and patching it, making sure the edges are straight. She spreads the last shred out and takes its measure: 'What can I do with this remnant? How long does it need to last? A man puts on his life ready-made. If it doesn't fit, he will try to exchange it for another. Only a fool of a man will try to adjust the sleeves or move the buttons; he doesn't know how." (p.183)

"he suddenly recalled his dismay when as a young man he had looked at a shelf in his room and realized he had to compete with the dead- Proust, Flaubert, Balzac, Stendhal, and on into the dark. The rivalry was infinite, a Milky Way of dead stars still daring to shine." (p.241)

"Grippes believed in the importance of errors. No political system, no love affair, no native inclination, no life itself would be tolerable without a wide mesh for mistakes to slip through." (p.244)

"It was remarkable...the way litrate people, reasonably well traveled and educated, comfortably off, could live adequate lives without wanting to know what had gone before or happened elsewhere." (p.262)

"No present horror equaled the potential suffering of the past. Reliving the past, with full knowledge of what was to come, was a test too strong for their powers. It would have been too strong for anyone; they were not magical; they were only human beings." (p.304)

"The distinction between journalism and fiction is the difference between without and within. Journalism recounts as exactly and economically as possible the weather in the street; fiction takes no notice of that particular weather but brings to life a distillation of all weathers, a climate of the mind. Which is not to say it need be exact and economical: It is precision of a different order." (p.366)

"..there is no such thing as a Canadian childhood. One's beginnings are regional." (p.373)(less)

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Nov 24, 2009 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gallant is one of the few writers, like Proust and Nabokov, whom I approach with utter delight and dread. Delight because her writing is so beautifully crafted and each phrase a treat; dread because as a writer reading her is so intimidating one feels that, not only could one never hope to write a story as good as hers, but even a sentence. Her images are precise and perfect in a way that renders them all familiar and identifiable, yet unexpected and fresh. Sentences such as, "All the fat men of...more Gallant is one of the few writers, like Proust and Nabokov, whom I approach with utter delight and dread. Delight because her writing is so beautifully crafted and each phrase a treat; dread because as a writer reading her is so intimidating one feels that, not only could one never hope to write a story as good as hers, but even a sentence. Her images are precise and perfect in a way that renders them all familiar and identifiable, yet unexpected and fresh. Sentences such as, "All the fat men of comic stories and of literature were to be Willy Wehler to me, in the future," and "Sociable elderly ladies, such as Mme. Obier, no longer roamed the aisles looking for someone to stand them a drink but were stopped at the entrance by a charming person holding a clipboard and wanting to know if they were expected," are tossed off with as much ease and naturalness as a person taking off a coat. Toward the end of the collection, the stories delve into the territory of the political and offer some keen insights into the cultural shift that occured in Europe during the 60's and 70's. But in my opinon the real standouts are the stories toward the beginning of the collection that deal with the Europe of and around the World Wars. "The Latehomecomer," about a young man returning to Germany after being taken prisoner and kept in exile in Paris as a teenager in the Nazi army is a moving rumination on family, becoming an adult, and fate, and is a brilliant exercise in humanizing the seemingly deplorable. And my favorie story of the lot, "The Moslem Wife," about a pair of cousins who marry and run a hotel together until the husband embarks on a romantic tryst abroad just at the outbreak of World War II, leaving the wife saddled with a hotel full of foreign troops in the South of France, is one of the most devastating depictions of how experience -- particularly experience of war -- unites and divides us that I have ever encountered. It may be a cliche, but Mavis Gallant truly is a "writer's writer" and this is a collection to be savored by any and all fans of short fiction. (less)

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Dec 12, 2011 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read a few of the short stories in here before I got derailed. Really, really love this writer.

I picked this up when I saw that Michael Ondaatje, one of my favorite authors, writes the introduction to this collection and I noticed that Russell Banks, another one of my favorite authors, wrote the intro to her other collection of Canadian stories. She also wrote observations about the student protests of '68 in Paris that I'm meaning to read.

A fantastic short story writer who opens her chara...more

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Mar 19, 2008 Charlotte rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the IRS, expats, slow readers

Shelves: best-of-the-best, short-stories

It took me forever to finish this book, and I loved it so much. The stories aren't dense, exactly, but they do completely create worlds that you have to put it down for awhile after each one to really think about what just happened. Someone take me to Paris. Please? I think my favorite story was actually "Grippes and Poche" about a self-centered, aging writer and a French tax bureaucrat. I know, it was a surprise to me, too. Also loved "The Remission".

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Jun 17, 2009 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was listed at the back of Francine Prose's How to Read Like a Writer. Years ago I added the first page or two of suggested reading from Prose's list to my Amazon Wishlist. Last Christmas someone gave me Gallant's Paris Stories and I've only now read all the stories in the collection. I'm not certain I've read more beautiful, direct declaritive sentences. Gallant's prose is so clean it's perfect. Her ability to slip from one character's thoughts to another's, sometimes within the same s...more

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Jul 08, 2010 K.M. Soehnlein rated it 5 of 5 stars

This year I rediscovered Mavis Gallant's sharp, smart short stories. This collection brings together just a few of the dozens and dozens of stories she has published over a nearly 60 year career. I like in particular "The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street," which has an epic quality, covering years of a couple's life together in flashes of scenes and bits of wisdom.

The Afterword written by the author is a version of the introduction she wrote to her much thicker Collected Stories. She advises here...more

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May 23, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

For some reason I did not even know the name "Mavis Gallant" and so what a delightful surprise to listen to this collection of short stories -- courtesy of the local library -- and find such a fine writer! The range in settings and moods is broad and her writing style incredibly masterful. I loved the insight into the lives of so many ex-pats of different nationalities. I only half-listened to a few stories, but for the most part they kept me enthralled for hours and hours and many seem the kind...more

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Dec 12, 2010 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

These stories have something of an acquired taste quality to them. They require some effort, but are worth it. They were all written while the writer, a French-Canadian, was living in Paris as a correspondent for The New Yorker. They take place in various cities in Europe and the common theme is the alienation of people who, in one way or another, have been uprooted. "The Ice Wagon Going Down The Street" and "Speck's Idea" were my favorites-wryly humorous and poignant.

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Mar 15, 2009 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Her stories are very good. Her style: protean. She's got a lot of different voices and rhythms. Maybe that's why she's not well known. (Because you couldn't peg a story as being "Gallant-ish.") Her peripatetic characters satisfy the wanderlust in me. Good if you like short stories. But her most well known story, "When We Were Nearly Young" is not in here which is a such shame.

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Aug 09, 2012 Marti Graham rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Marti by: Laura

I'm thrilled and just going to repeat Brian's review because it's so on target:
" These stories have something of an acquired taste quality to them. They require some effort, but are worth it. They were all written while the writer, a French-Canadian, was living in Paris as a correspondent for The New Yorker. They take place in various cities in Europe and the common theme is the alienation of people who, in one way or another, have been uprooted."

If you love anything about Paris at all - and wan...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Christopher rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

Just "finished" this book by skipping the last two short stories. I tried, but couldn't get into them. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy most of the short stories presented here. Gallant's sparse prose at times seemed an incantation that rendered time into a tenuous, fluid element. Actors playing WWII soldiers, in postwar Paris, played soldiers as legitimately as prewar Parisians playing soldiers. Time is irrelevant. Individual characters are replaced by other characters when they die. The...more

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May 20, 2012 Maria Paiz rated it 2 of 5 stars

In her afterword (which by the way it's so long, it's almost a short story in itself), Mavis Gallant says, in her last paragraph: "Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one after the other, as if they were meant to follow along. Read one. Shut the book. Read something else. Come back later. Stories can wait". Well... I wish she had mentioned that at THE BEGINNING of the book and not the end! In fact, reading one story after the other was tiresome. So much in fact, I had dro...more

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Jan 23, 2009 Eileen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, nyrb

These stories were good, but at about the midpoint my pace slowed down pretty dramatically. In part I blame the subway. I think these just require you to be On; the subway doesn't let that happen for prolonged periods. I would get halfway through a story and have to reread the whole thing the next time I picked up the book. In part I wonder if I just don't like short stories. I certainly like novels. It's a strange and interesting question considering my creative writing has been mostly poetry....more

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Feb 18, 2013 Louise rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian-lit, short-stories

I really really REALLY wanted to like these stories but I didn't :-(. I was so bored that I gave up halfway through. Maybe I'll pick it up again at a later date to finish the rest of the stories, and see if I enjoy them more when I'm in a different frame of mind.

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Jan 04, 2009 Natanya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely delightful. I just discovered Gallant. She is witty and devastating. Her characters have become friends of mine; or, perhaps, they were always friends of mine, who I forgot I knew. Read her, read her, read her.

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Dec 13, 2011 Chris Mcmanaman marked it as to-read

Shelves: literature-canadian, literature-french

One GoodReads review of this book...

Gallant is one of the few writers, like Proust and Nabokov, whom I approach with utter delight and dread. Delight because her writing is so beautifully crafted and each phrase a treat; dread because as a writer reading her is so intimidating one feels that, not only could one never hope to write a story as good as hers, but even a sentence. Her images are precise and perfect in a way that renders them all familiar and identifiable, yet unexpected and fresh.

.....more

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May 17, 2012 Ted Cornwell rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great introduction to some of Gallant's best writing. The NYRB series of story collections sort of serves as a career retrospective "selected stories" in my opinion, showcasing her wit and insight.

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Jun 24, 2012 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars

Title is a bit misleading, as these really aren't Paris-centric. However, they are damned good short stories and it's so fun to watch a new-to-me author flex her muscles with a variety of settings, plots, characters, and themes.

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Nov 07, 2012 Kenneth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11512899

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Jun 04, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was fascinated by the author's wit. These stories are not happy ones, but they are incisive, intellectually challenging and fun.

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Nov 16, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Speck's Idea: the Art World trembles before the insightfulness of this brilliant short story. Fun, fun, and fun.

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Jan 07, 2011 Sarah added it

What I learned from this book is the possibilities of the short story. There are stories here I will never forget reading and that I will come back to for an encore ("The Latehomecomer," "The Moslem Wife," "Speck's Idea"...). Mavis Gallant is one of the best short story writers of all time. Is it because I was born in Canada I feel I must declare this? And in my secret life I am an ex-pat in Paris? When I read her...well, you should read her! She is one of the best teachers for what your (or any...more

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May 19, 2011 Gail rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: couldn-t-finish, short-stories

I finally gave up on this book. Most of the stories had no point and most were depressing.

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Jan 13, 2011 Christine Mccullough rated it 5 of 5 stars

Simply one of the best volumes of short stories I have ever read. Mavis Gallant is genius!

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Sep 23, 2011 Saxamaholly rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'd never read Mavis Gallant before, but as a Canadian living in Paris, I thought I should. I'll definitely read more of her, love her writing!

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Mar 10, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Superb! She is a favorite. I never get tired of reading Mavis and often recommend her.

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Sep 03, 2010 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Read this years ago. Forgot that I had read it until I saw Margene was reading it!

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Jan 04, 2010 Alexandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this because I read a story by the author in the New Yorker and liked it.

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Nov 15, 2009 David Cerruti rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: no-finish-no-like, paris

It wasn't bad, but it didn't capture my attention. I moved on to something else.

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About Mavis Gallant

Canadian journalist and fiction writer. In her twenties, Gallant worked as a reporter for the Montreal Standard. She left journalism in 1950 to pursue fiction writing. To that end, always needing autonomy and privacy, she moved to France.

In 1981, Gallant was honoured by her native country and made an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contribution to literature. That same year she also receive...more

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