Other Paris: Stories

by Mavis Gallant

HARDCOVER NO DJ, EX LIBRARY SELLER LOC 090805

Genres: Short Stories, Canada, Fiction, 20th Century

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

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 received the Governor General's Award for literature for her collection of stories, Home Truths. In 1983-84, she returned to Canada as the University of Toronto's writer-in-residence. In 1991 Queen’s University awarded her an honorary LL.D. In 1993 she was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada.

In 1989, Gallant was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2000, she won the Matt Cohen Prize, and in 2002 the Rea Award for the Short Story. The O. Henry Prize Stories of 2003 was dedicated to her. In 2004, Gallant was awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship.

With Alice Munro, Gallant was one of a few Canadian authors whose works regularly appeared in The New Yorker. Many of Gallant’s stories had debuted in the magazine before subsequently being published in a collection.

Although she maintained her Canadian citizenship, Gallant continued to live in Paris, France since the 1950s.

On November 8, 2006, Mavis Gallant received the Prix Athanase-David from the government of her native province of Quebec. She was the first author writing in English to receive this award in its 38 years of existence.

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Maybe there are one or two less satisfactory stories here ('Picnic' and 'A Day Like Any Other' spring to mind as treating themes she would revert to again and again, but with more subtlety in later years), but on the whole Gallant's first collection is any bit as good as her later ones, and in certain respects it may also be a little more accessible than some of her later work.

Two or three stories here stand out because they have an autobiographical feel for me, notably 'Going Ashore' and 'Wing's Chips'. (In the first case that impression of mine is purely speculative; in the second it is borne out by her own comments about a Chinese fish and chips shop in a fascinating tv-interview she gave in 1965, available for online viewing here.)

Another story that stands out me, for a completely different reason, is 'The Legacy': it's about the brother of a lower class Catholic family returning to Quebec with his wife to attend the funeral of his mother. The meeting with his sister (from whose viewpoint the entire story develops) and his criminal elder brothers reminded me of nothing so much as Harold Pinter's terrific play Homecoming, published nearly ten years later. To be sure, there are some important differences in the setup and definitely also in the way Pinter develops his material. But the basic idea, of a boy from a poor background who has turned out well, gone to university and become respectable, returning home to a shady family, and his brothers trying to drag him back into the mire, saying 'you're not so different' – that resemblance is striking. It does make me wonder if Pinter had maybe read her story at some point, either in the New Yorker or in book form, and was consciously or subconsciously influenced by it when he wrote his play. In any case, thought Gallant's version of this story, although it was never reprinted in any of various anthology collections of her stories, was quite strong too.

[Kansas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carol es una chica americana que tiene una visión romántica de Paris pero cuando se va alli a vivir, no ve otra cosa que rutina, normalidad y aburrimiento, incluso se embarca en un matrimonio sin amor esperando que el hecho de estar en Paris, vaya a cambiar esa rutina con el novio y futuro marido, y se convierta en una novia idealizada de pelicula. Sin embargo, por mucho que Carol se esfuerze, no es capaz de ver un Paris luminoso y brillante, todo lo contrario.

Las reflexiones que podemos hacer de este relato son varias: por una parte, esa visión tan poco excitante y aburrida que tiene Carol de Paris, quizás no sea culpa de la ciudad, sino de ella misma, de como ella ve la vida. Carol tiene una actitud de superioridad blanca, que llega a una Europa todavía traumatizada y devastada por la 2ª Guerra Mundial, es una Europa tratando de sobrevivir y no la Europa del cine, Paris es en este caso la visión que tiene Carol de lo que es Europa.

Y por otra parte, otra reflexión es la memoria, los recuerdos, y ella misma espera que en un futuro, cuando ya esté casada viviendo en Estados Unidos, sus recuerdos de Paris sean maravillosos, ya que la memoria se distorsiona y es tanto el deseo de Carol de creer en un Paris excitante y luminoso, que algunos aspectos del pasado parecen mejor en el recuerdo de lo que fueron en realidad.

Un relato magistral sobre lo que esperamos, sobre la visión idealizada que tenemos de personas y lugares que nos viene a través sobre todo del cine y de la literatura, y de la realidad pura y dura que no se puede corresponder con esa visión romántica, en este caso de Paris.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ooooof, I know I read this! I remember one or two details! But on the whole it has entirely faded from memory, which is unfortunate since I do like Gallant's work -- maybe the forgettability is why this early volume of her short stories is so hard to find? Really, though, it's me -- I'm just not the best reader of short stories; I do remember a lot of unhappy children and some unhappy older people too, but so well written about that I was able to enjoy the craft more than I minded all the misery.

[Frabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

In questi bei racconti di Mavis Gallant scritti tra il 1953 e il 1974, recentemente tradotti, c'è un'atmosfera dominante di attesa, prima, e di tristezza, poi, legata ad aspettative non soddisfatte - in amore, soprattutto -, a compromessi al ribasso da dover accettare.
Mavis Gallant è una canadese - come Munro e Atwood, ma più vecchietta (classe 1922) - che vive da molti anni a Parigi: davvero una piacevole scoperta.
(N.B: Note scritte nel 2010; Mavis Gallant ha lasciato questo mondo nel 2014)

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mentioned recently in the WSJ, it’s a series of short stories. Many take place in Europe just after WW 2. The title story is the best with great observations and wit. The ending that predicts a future fond recollection of time spent in Paris, rather than the actual disappointment is cleverly on point for many

Good memories live on or sometimes manufactured

[Elizabeth Strauch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mavis Gallant has become a favorite writer for me. Her characters are so often sad, disappointed, trying to understand their status in life, and take in the world in ways that make me view it differently myself. I loved each one of the stories in this collection.

[Siffy Torkildson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful written short stories about Paris and Europe set after WW II. I learned about history through her well developed characters trying to survive in post-war Europe. Highly recommended.

[madeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should not have forced myself to finish this after first picking it up all the way back in April of last year. It became tiring and only a few of the stories were enjoyable. Most were vaguely racist and about little children with no plot. Oh well, it’s over!

[Kerri]

Stories written 1952-1956: Americans wishing for a romantic Europe confronted with postwar horrible gray Europe. Also plenty about why one should not have children and how parents excuse themselves.

The best:
POOR FRANZI
-an American woman loves an Austrian man who has had the emotions bombed out of him. She, the American occupier, is concerned with manners and proper behavior in front of the Europeans. The Austrian man is concerned with getting out of work, with a meal, with pleasing himself.

"What will happen to me if I marry him? she wondered; and what would become of Franzi if she were to leave him?" (68)

[dead letter office · Rating 3 out of 5]

a book of short stories. they seem to all be about just-married, or almost-married, or unmarried-but-marriagable young ladies in the decade after world war 2. they're good, in a kind of old-fashioned way. there's not much really for me to relate to in them, except for the fact that i briefly lived off one of the streets that is mentioned in several of the stories (many of them are set in montreal).

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories takes you inside the lives of women in the years surrounding World War II. You'll find yourself thinking about the characters long after you finish the book.

[Christine Brennen-leigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

One word. Yuck. Depressing stories set in Paris.

[Rebecca Rosenblum · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no one better than Gallant. This book is brilliant.

[icaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

è bellissimo, molto più di quanto le mie grezze osservazioni potrebbero dire. Lascio perciò solo questo modesto "bellissimo" come invito alla scoperta