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Where'd She Go?
It is near the end of Justine that the reader is shown the “how” of Justine’s disappearance, as well as other plot points previously...
Alan Bray
Mar 30, 20234 min read


My Style Is Ba-Roque
First, an apology for posting this a day late on Friday vs. Thursday. We were away on a trip, and the post was not ready. Great regrets,...
Alan Bray
Mar 24, 20236 min read


Sex And The City - Justine
The history of the city of Alexandria, Egypt is one of frequent conquest by different empires. The British took over in 1881 and remained...
Alan Bray
Mar 16, 20234 min read


Justine
Today, let’s talk about Justine, Lawrence Durrell’s 1957 book that begins his four-novel opus, The Alexandria Quartet. The other novels...
Alan Bray
Mar 9, 20235 min read


The Moved Heart - The Cat's Table
If you wanted to write a story about the adventures of an eleven-year-old boy taking a journey to a new home on an ocean liner in the...
Alan Bray
Mar 2, 20234 min read


The Seductiveness Of Cigarettes and Coffee - The Cat's Table
So in The Cat’s Table, is one of the memories that the narrator has about his younger self a memory of sexual awakening—the time when he...
Alan Bray
Feb 23, 20235 min read

Punched Out Available
Greetings. My short story, "Punched Out" was, as you know, short-listed for the Hammond House International Literary Prize. It is now...
Alan Bray
Feb 20, 20231 min read


View Out The Back - The Cat's Table
Last time, we talked about the omniscience of the narrator in Cat’s Table. The narrator, the older Canadian writer originally from Sri...
Alan Bray
Feb 16, 20233 min read


Ark of the Story Arc. Ack! - Cat's Table
The Cat’s Table, like other stories by Michael Ondaatje, is episodic in structure. The term episodic fiction refers to a set of episodes...
Alan Bray
Feb 9, 20233 min read


The Cat's Table
This week, a new novel, Michael Ondaatje’s 2011 The Cat’s Table. It is the story of an adult narrator telling the story of a voyage taken...
Alan Bray
Feb 2, 20234 min read


Breakfast On The Morning Train
The Unconsoled begins with Ryder, a famous pianist, arriving in an unnamed European city to perform a concert. Through more than five...
Alan Bray
Jan 26, 20234 min read


The Unconsoled Narrator
One of the features of Ishiguro’s Unconsoled is that it makes use of two forms of narration. The story begins with close first-person...
Alan Bray
Jan 19, 20235 min read


Is Anyone Listening?
When I began this blog almost three years ago, I set out to write about particular features of stories I enjoyed, their narrational...
Alan Bray
Jan 12, 20234 min read


Crisis? What Crisis?
In Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled, just who are those who are unconsoled? The definition of the word “unconsoled” is a person or group...
Alan Bray
Jan 5, 20234 min read


What A Character!
My friends, what of the narrational style of The Unconsoled? After all, that’s what I typically write about. Most simply put, Unconsoled...
Alan Bray
Dec 29, 20223 min read


The Unconsoled
This week, a new story, best beloved, Kazuo Ishiguro’s 1995 novel, The Unconsoled. It is, essentially, the story of a concert pianist,...
Alan Bray
Dec 22, 20224 min read


Who Am I This Time?
In a further refinement of our journey with Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers, let’s look at some of the meanings the story contains. To...
Alan Bray
Dec 15, 20224 min read
Forgotten Melodies
'Kay, my happiness continues! I'm very happy to report that Narrative Magazine will publish my story Forgotten Melodies in the new year....
Alan Bray
Dec 13, 20221 min read
Punched Out
I'm delighted to say that my short story Punched Out, has been short listed for the Hammond House International Short Story Awards. This...
Alan Bray
Dec 12, 20221 min read
The Vaccination
As promised, my short story, The Vaccination, has been published on the Narrative Magazine website as their story of the week. I'm...
Alan Bray
Dec 12, 20221 min read