My favorite of the 11 short stories in ACROSS THE BRIDGE is the euponymous tale set in Paris sometime around the mid-20th Century. One is never sure of the exact date of one of Mavis Gallant's stories as they are so timeless. In "Across the Bridge" the heroine is engaged to be married, and at the last moment persuades her parents to call off the ceremony. The picture Gallant paints of white wedding invitations floating away in the Seine is quite startling and could have taken place at any time over the past 150 years.

Gallant's writing has been compared with that of Alice Munro with some justification. Both authors write short stories, sometimes linked to each other (as are several of the tales in ACROSS THE BRIDGE), frequently told from a woman's point of view, about family matters -- engagements, enduring and/or barely endured marriages, children wanted and unwanted, money worries, daughters whisked off to nunneries or other out-of-the-way place, unrequieted love, revenge -- and faith or lack of it.
Both women are Canadian authors, though Munro tends to write about the non-Gallic mostly Scots-descent Canadians whereas Gallant's stories are most often about French Canadienne or Parisienne protagonists. Munro and Gallant are both frequently published in the New Yorker Magazine, and most of the stories in ACROSS THE BRIDGE appeared in the New Yorker before being added to this collection.

Each of the tales told by Gallant this book is about rejection and acceptance. For example, in "A State of Affairs" the refugee status of a very elderly Polish Jew living in Paris following a WWII Nazi prison camp internment becomes imperiled when 'normal' relations are restored between Poland and France. In "The Fenton Child" a baby is both wanted and unwanted.

Gallant's writing is literate and compelling, and I find myself reflective after reading one of her stories. She does not feel a need to tie up loose ends or make the world seem better or worse than it really is. She has a gift for arousing empathy. Often, it seems to me, her stories include a relatively positive note. In "Across the Bridge" for example, at one point the young narrator says "It was a small secret, insignificant, but it belonged to the true life that was almost ready to let me in. And so it did, and yes, it made me happy."

This collection of wonderful short stories is THE book to take on vacation, or have at hand when you're stuck sick in bed, or sitting waiting for that delayed flight. Mavis Gallant tells readers they should read one of her stories, "[s]hut the book. Read something else. Stories can wait." And that's the best way to read a collection of short stories as good as this. Dip into one story -- then randomly let it fall open to another. This is not a cheap box of chocolates with hidden pink creme fillings: these stories are Godiva truffles. Perfect, beautifully balanced, each unique but equally satisfying. In this collection, written across 40 years of her life, Mavis Gallant gives us windows that allow us to really feel the inner worlds of her characters. A Swiss grandmother turns an obligatory visit into a revelation. A young Canadian girl discovers her self worth in the shallow reflection of expatriot Englishmen. A sophisticated couple on a foreign posting realize they value their lives on a yardstick of social invitations. A Spanish town weighs the value of a crushed arm. How can one writer know the hidden souls of so many different kinds of people? Well, all that matters is that she does. Treat yourself to a 10 lb. box of Godiva chocolates. Treat yourself to a modern de Maupassant. Treat yourself to the Collected Stories of Mavis Gallant.

I read this book based on an excellent review of it (a good primer for Mavis Gallant newbies, btw) in the April (or May?) Harper's (a great store room for hidden gems.) I had never heard of Ms. Galant before I read the review and her book, but after reading Paris Stories, all I gotta say is, Where the hell have I been since she's been writing for the past 30+ years? Actually I'm only 30, but still. Her writing is magical on so many levels that I'll only mention a couple of them: the consistency and the sublime richness of her prose - it's like really rich fudge, a phrase or two of one of the 15+ stories is often enough for one sitting; the hauntingly subtle rendering of European life; the authority and command of her voice - there is no doubt in my mind that Mavis Gallant was put on this earth to write fiction as her job, and she writes like she knows it. I love that.

2 recommendations: read Michael Ondaajte's intro (in it he mentions that he knows other writers who intentionally refrain from reading Mavis Gallant when they are writing themselves, so they don't lose confidence in themselves); read the afterward, written by the auther herself (in it she makes the wise suggestion to the reader NOT read the stories in the book back to back, but to take one's time and savor every morsal - I concur. Read this book very slowly pausing to read other stuff perhaps - you don't want to miss a word, it's that good.)

Lovers of sublime artwork in literature, read Mavis Gallant. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I can't wait for Volume 2 to come out this fall!

This book, like a more recent one by WG Sebald, The Emigrants, gives a speaking, stunningly well-written account of what it was like to be a Jew in central Europe in the first half of the 20th century. But it is a book that would fascinate anybody, even a deracinated Irishman like me.

This author is an excellent one! She does a great job... I can read her books for the whole day.