Review
Characterized by an almost sparseness of detail and an elegance of style,
The Pegnitz Junction comprises a novella and five short stories that evoke a vivid picture of post-World War II Europe. Mavis Gallant's writing is precise and pointed, yet opens doors to larger questions of identity and freedom in a world devastated by war. In the multi-voiced narrative of the title piece, a young woman on a train is conscious of the thoughts and feelings of her fellow passengers. Nearly all the "interference" she receives from those around her concerns moments in their lives they cannot move beyond: old grudges, wounds that won't heal. "Decide what the rest of your life is to be. Whatever you are now, you might be forever..." she silently advises a man returning to the scene of a childhood memory. Mavis Gallant beautifully illustrates the idea that sometimes, in a passing glance, we can tell everything about a person's life and, at the same time she explores the paralysis that such a vision can leave us with. In her stories, she explores the ways in which people deal with pain and betrayal: the concentration camp victim in "Old Friends," the compromises of marriage in "Alien Flower." She suggests, with subtlety and gentle acceptance, that in order to live we must also endure a thousand small deaths. Mavis Gallant's portrait of these moments is both moving and full of respect.
-- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. --
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Sonja Larsen
From the Inside Flap
In these dazzling stories, Mavis Gallant immerses us in the lives of ordinary people swept up in the upheaval and displacement that followed in the wake of the Second World War. A bitter yet stubbornly pragmatic woman prepares for what promises to be another disastrous Christmas with her mother, her aunt, and her would-be-war-hero uncle. Engaged to another man, a woman travels to Paris with her older lover and his young son. A wife recollects her complicated relationship with the refugee woman who had a brief affair with her husband. Small mercies form the backbone of a friendship between an actress and a police commissioner. A career soldier, now discharged and stranded in France, makes his first adjustments to life as a civilian. In elegant, diamond-sharp prose, Gallant distills the vanities, absurdities, and contradictions that lie at the heart of human behavior and fashions stories of rare power and insight.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
