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Alan Bray
- Sep 15, 2022
- 3 min
Friends Till After The End
As described last time, Mavis Gallant’s Forain begins with the funeral of Adam Tremski, an eastern European author whose writing Blaise...
Alan Bray
- Sep 8, 2022
- 3 min
Forain - Mavis Gallant
This week, let’s continue our exploration of the stories of Mavis Gallant, focusing on Forain, her June 1991 piece published in the New...
Alan Bray
- Sep 1, 2022
- 3 min
We Have The Balenciaga
Let’s continue our exploration of the work of Mavis Gallant, in particular her 1963 story, The Ice Wagon Coming Down The Street. Okay....
Alan Bray
- Aug 25, 2022
- 4 min
The Ice Wagon Coming Down The Street - Fun With Metaphor
“Now that they were out of world affairs and back where they started, Peter Frazier’s wife says, “Everybody else did well in the...
Alan Bray
- Aug 18, 2022
- 4 min
The Resurgence Of The Implied Author
This week, let’s examine the style of Mavis Gallant’s short story, “Voices Lost In Snow.” Style is the way an author writes a story; it...
Alan Bray
- Aug 11, 2022
- 3 min
When Is Now? - Voices Lost In Snow
We’ve noted the intriguing structure in Mavis Gallant’s Voices Lost In Snow, how the story contains an apparently autobiographical...
Alan Bray
- Aug 4, 2022
- 3 min
Dad Rehabilitated - Voices Lost In Snow
Last week, I began a look at Mavis Gallant’s Voices Lost in Snow, remarking on how the theme of the story is that parents may be...
Alan Bray
- Jul 28, 2022
- 4 min
Voices Lost In Snow
This week, a new story, a short story, Mavis Gallant’s Voices Lost In Snow, first published in the New Yorker in March of 1976. It is...
Alan Bray
- Jul 21, 2022
- 5 min
Are You A Woman Or A Tree?
A lot of contemporary fiction can be viewed as a confluence of plot and character. An important concept is the character arc—the...
Alan Bray
- Jul 14, 2022
- 4 min
The Game - Primeval and Other Times
A strong thread in the episodic stream of threads in Primeval and Other Times concerns Squire Popielski and the Game. In mid-life, the...
Alan Bray
- Jul 7, 2022
- 3 min
I Am, I Said - Primeval and Other Times
The title—Primeval and Other Times—refers to a central concept in fiction, time, although the word can have more than one meaning. Each...
Alan Bray
- Jun 30, 2022
- 5 min
Primeval And Other Times
This week, a new story, Olga Tokarchuk’s 1996 Primeval and Other Times, originally written in Polish and translated to English by Antonia...
Alan Bray
- Jun 23, 2022
- 3 min
What A Coincidence Bumping Into You Like This - Station Eleven
Coincidence plays a significant role in Station Eleven. We’ve talked about coincidence before in regard to other novels—let’s plunge in...
Alan Bray
- Jun 16, 2022
- 4 min
Once More Into The Abyss
Last time, I said that the Dr. Eleven graphic comic, created by Miranda, is so central to Station Eleven that it deserves its own post....
Alan Bray
- Jun 9, 2022
- 4 min
Science Fiction? - Station Eleven
Narratives are a balance of mimetic, thematic, and synthetic threads. Mimetic threads are those that present convincing characters and...
Alan Bray
- Jun 2, 2022
- 4 min
You Got The Time? - Station Eleven
How is time handled in Station Eleven? I can say straight off that time is discontinuous and episodic, two terms we’ve looked at before....
Alan Bray
- May 26, 2022
- 3 min
What If Thinking - Station Eleven
One of the central questions Station Eleven asks its readers is: what would you do in a world without technology? No electricity, no...
Alan Bray
- May 19, 2022
- 5 min
Station Eleven
This week, a new novel, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. This acclaimed book was published in 2014 and has been adapted into a...
Alan Bray
- May 12, 2022
- 6 min
Finally Normal - Normal People
This week, I want to finish looking at Normal People, although this rich book could easily yield more discussion. However, certain...
Alan Bray
- May 5, 2022
- 6 min
Safe Sex - Normal People
Sex is an integral part of Normal People. Let’s get a definition. (Wait…what? A definition of sex?) Yes, we all “know” what sex is, but I...