There is much to savour . This was a favourite paragraph:
“There’s so much I love about “Irina.” Let me count the ways. I love how it’s dense but airy, a study of a woman in her own domain - the flat is hers - ministering gladly, also ironically, to the requirements of an old man and a man in the making. I love how here MG does that thing she sometimes does and names a specific date, not because it’s important in the context of world history - Pearl Harbour, or the JFK assassination, or the Edict of Nantes or whatever - but because it’s meaningful, for small, private reasons, to her characters, and, I would wager, to MG, too. “
Your speculation and understanding truly plumb the intimacy that can occur when reader and writer are conjoined .
Thanks, Bill. A wonderful piece! The Chevalier number sent me to Bing Crosbie and Ethel Merman singing Dearie. And that Joni Mitchell rendition of my all-time favorite among her songs. Wow, eh? A paen to Leonard, surely. Keep 'em coming.
Thank you for this meditation on Mavis Gallant and "Irina". I read the story last night, a masterpiece, and this was such a beautiful coda to that experience.
An incredible piece of analysis: "it was her particular gift to find disappointment wherever it malingered, however well it might be camoflauged. She excelled at sniffing out the creeping rot in all those human contrivances and endeavours that are fete-like, that centre happiness and delighted surprise: country weekends, birthday parties, seaside holidays, the city of Paris itself. Christmas, so susceptible to tarnish, was the perfect site for her to set up her hunting blind; something always crept out of the woods and into her crosshairs."
Beautiful, incisive figuration -- feels like something I might read in MG herself.
There is much to savour . This was a favourite paragraph:
“There’s so much I love about “Irina.” Let me count the ways. I love how it’s dense but airy, a study of a woman in her own domain - the flat is hers - ministering gladly, also ironically, to the requirements of an old man and a man in the making. I love how here MG does that thing she sometimes does and names a specific date, not because it’s important in the context of world history - Pearl Harbour, or the JFK assassination, or the Edict of Nantes or whatever - but because it’s meaningful, for small, private reasons, to her characters, and, I would wager, to MG, too. “
Your speculation and understanding truly plumb the intimacy that can occur when reader and writer are conjoined .
Nancy - everyone wants a reader who's a good writer which is what you are. How lucky I am to have you as a friend.
Thanks, Bill. A wonderful piece! The Chevalier number sent me to Bing Crosbie and Ethel Merman singing Dearie. And that Joni Mitchell rendition of my all-time favorite among her songs. Wow, eh? A paen to Leonard, surely. Keep 'em coming.
Thanks, Ken, so much appreciated. Merry Christmas to you and yours. B
Thank you for this meditation on Mavis Gallant and "Irina". I read the story last night, a masterpiece, and this was such a beautiful coda to that experience.
An incredible piece of analysis: "it was her particular gift to find disappointment wherever it malingered, however well it might be camoflauged. She excelled at sniffing out the creeping rot in all those human contrivances and endeavours that are fete-like, that centre happiness and delighted surprise: country weekends, birthday parties, seaside holidays, the city of Paris itself. Christmas, so susceptible to tarnish, was the perfect site for her to set up her hunting blind; something always crept out of the woods and into her crosshairs."
Beautiful, incisive figuration -- feels like something I might read in MG herself.