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Alan Bray
- Oct 13, 2022
- 5 min
That Old Green-Eyed Monster - The Sun Also Rises
Of all the male characters in The Sun Also Rises, Robert Cohn is conspicuous for having not fought in WW1, and so, is not technically a...
Alan Bray
- Oct 6, 2022
- 4 min
Iceberg Ahead! - The Sun Also Rises
Well. Last week’s post caused quite a stir. It did say that the characters in Sun are largely static, that Sun lacks the transformational...
Alan Bray
- Sep 29, 2022
- 5 min
Ahoy, Matey - The Sun Also Rises
Some critics say The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway’s best novel. The writing, the style—something we will delve into more deeply—is...
Alan Bray
- Sep 22, 2022
- 4 min
The Sun Also Rises
“Kay, this week a new story, Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises. Whoa. Yes, best beloved, Hemingway’s first novel, highly...
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 17, 2022
- 1 min
The Vaccination
Narrative Magazine has agreed to publish my story "The Vaccination" as part of their story of the week series. It's a story set during...
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...