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Alan Bray
Oct 20, 20225 min read
You Are Some Kind Of Woman
On the surface, Sun would seem to be about male bonding promoted by such activities as bullfighting, fishing, and heavy drinking. Brett...
Alan Bray
Oct 13, 20225 min read
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, 20224 min read
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, 20225 min read
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, 20224 min read
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, 20223 min read
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, 20223 min read
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, 20223 min read
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, 20224 min read
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, 20224 min read
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, 20223 min read
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, 20223 min read
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, 20224 min read
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, 20225 min read
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, 20224 min read
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, 20223 min read
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, 20225 min read
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, 20223 min read
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, 20221 min read
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, 20224 min read
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....