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Paris Stories

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Paris Stories

By: Mavis Gallant
Narrated by: Lorna Raver, Yuri Rasovsky
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Mavis Gallant is a contemporary legend, a frequent contributor to the New Yorker for close to fifty years, and the undisputed master of the short story. Her peerless prose captures the range of human experience while evoking time and place with unequaled skill. This superb collection of fifteen of Gallant's stories, edited and with an introduction by bestselling author Michael Ondaatje, gathers the best of her many stories set all over Europe, all written in Paris where she has long lived.

Mysterious, funny, insightful, and heartbreaking, these are tales of expatriates and exiles, wise children and straying saints. Together they compose a secret history, at once intimate and panoramic, of modern times.

Besides an introduction by Michael Ondaatje, this book includes the following stories:

"The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street"
"Irina"
"The Latehomecomer"
"In Transit"
"The Moslem Wife"
"From the Fifteenth District"
"Speck's Idea"
"Baum, Gabriel, 1935-( )"
"The Remission"
"Grippes and Poches"
"Forain"
"August"
"Mlle. Dias de Corta"
"In Plain Sight"
"Scarves, Beads, Sandals"
Afterword: About the Stories, by Mavis Gallant

©2002 NYREV, Inc. © 2002 by Mavis Gallant. Introduction and selection © 2002 by Michael Ondaatje (P)2006 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Anthologies & Short Stories Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Psychological Short Stories Women's Fiction
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Critic reviews

“Ms. Gallant…has dared to drift in a disorienting century, always trusting her own imaginative compass. Her fiction, never fooled into trying to keep up with history, will last a long time.”

(New York Times Book Review)

“Mavis Gallant writes some of the most superbly crafted and perceptive stories of our time.”

(Globe and Mail)

“Mavis Gallant’s finely honed prose captures the small details that illuminate a life.”

(Publishers Weekly)

“Gallant’s stories are filled with insights and wonderfully crafted sentences…A 2007 Audie Award Finalist.”

(AudioFile)
All stars
Most relevant
I suggest subsequent listeners find an alternative to this audiobook in order to enjoy the wonderful writing of Mavis Gallant. Unfortunately, both performances damage ones enjoyment of her writing. It was difficult to complete this book. Eventually I had to skip any story read by the male reader entirely. The female reader was barely tolerable although I got used to her somewhat.

Performances Damage Actual Writing

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Would you listen to Paris Stories again? Why?

I am a big fan of Mavis Gallant, her writing is incomparable - I was pleased to discover Paris Stories had been turned into an audio book. The performance, however, is just a bit over the top for Gallant- this is especially true in the Ice Wagon Going Down the Street. Gallant deserves a much more subtle reader/performer, one that teases out the subtext of her writing. Compare these recordings to writer Margaret Atwood reading Gallant's Voices Lost in the Snow in a New Yorker podcast and you'll see the difference!

What other book might you compare Paris Stories to, and why?

Dear Life

What three words best describe Lorna Raver and Yuri Rasovsky ’s voice?

Over the top

Flawless writing, performance ok

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Superb stories that are both revealing and very funny. Brilliantly narrated by Lorna Raver and Yuri Rasovsky. The recording was a tad quiet but it's not a deal breaker.
Highly recommend. Extremely enjoyable.

Pure listening pleasure

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