The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories

Mavis Gallant is one of the unsung heroes of the short form in literature. This collection is a wonderful showcase of her early works, most of which appeared in The New Yorker. That should instantly alert you. She holds her own alongside the more well-known American giants like John Updike. She is a realist, but less a psychologist. Her work is concrete, her worlds real, not fanciful, but they are just as artfully drawn. She has Updike's knack at poetic language and captures the beauty of simplicity. Also, a bit of Parisienne sensibilities infects all her writings. More love of life, if you will, to offset that Cost of Living. Do yourself a favor, read Mavis Gallant's stories. Your inner reader will rejoice.

"I don't know why we came at all."

I never heard of Mavis Gallant before this book. She's not one of the authors you usually find in school--Raymond Carver and Anthon Chekov and JCO, among some others, but not Mavis Gallant. And apparently she's prolific. All of the works here, including her first published story, were published in the New Yorker, that magazine that all writers only dream of writing for. Gallant also won the 2002 Rea Award, which is given every year to a writer who has significantly influenced the short form. Yet, I have never heard of her until I was stumbling around looking for masters of the short form and that search brought me to this collection published by NYRB and introduced by Pultizer Prize winner Jhumpa show more Lahiri.

I was plesantly surprised. Collected here are 20 stories to dazzle you and excite you. Everything here is a gem to savor and cherish. Among the highlights is of course, the first story, Gallant's first story, "Madeleine's Birthday," which exquistedly captures a day in the life of the title character, who stays with her mother's close friend, after her mother (after a divorce) decides she couldn't cope with it anymore. Likewise, the two sisters in the title story move to Paris after their parents' deaths, and learn that they might not be able to cope as the artists they had dreamt of being. The key word in these stories seem be cope. All Gallant's stories are about coping as travelers: her extended metaphor for those of us who are lost, left drifting in life, mixed in a schism between what we're supposed to be and what we actually are, like the mother in "Going Ashore," or the alwaying failing husband in "The Burgundy Weekend." In such a way, Gallant is an expert of the human experience and carefully observant realist.

Her prose is poetic yet at the same time, concretely detailed. "The Wedding Ring" is a perfect example of Gallant's materialism as it describes the oridnary objects of her characters' lives, moving from one to the next in order to make some sense of these people.

Among other highlights are "A Day Like Any Other," "Autumn Day,""Travelers Must Be Content," "Thieves and Rascals," yet read them all. These stories are the type of stories that make you shiver, the type of story that pulls at the human heart strings and magnifies the human condition. The collection, as a whole, is one of the few books I was sad to see end. And luckily, Gallant has a long list of stories, and NYRB has already published two other collections of Gallant's work. I cannot recommend this highly enough; anything read after this would be absurdly disappointing. show less

Mavis Gallant writes of dislocation, expatriate angst, and Post-WWII European ennui better than anyone I have come across in years. This short story collection (most previously published in "The New Yorker") of Canadian-born, Paris resident Gallant takes us from tense domestic scenes set in New York apartments and surrounding suburbs to cruise ships and the European student protests of 1968. Gallant inhabits her characters and settings effortlessly, unlike the characters themselves who often struggle with unfamiliar surroundings and customs. Stand outs include the namesake selection, "The Cost of Living," set in a Paris hotel around a pair of Australian sisters and "Thieves and Rascals," a NYC tale of a father coming to terms with a show more rebellious teen daughter and the wife that he thought he knew. Highly recommended overall. show less

Short story fans: run, do not walk, to your nearest bookstore or library and get a copy of this book. You will not be disappointed. This is a wonderful collection of short stories by a writer who should be much better known. Mavis Gallant was a Canadian who has spent much of her life in Paris, and many of the stories reflect this expat existence. My favorites include "The Cost of Living", about two sisters living in a hotel in postwar Paris, and "Autumn Day", about a woman who joins her husband (a soldier) who is stationed in rural France. Most of her characters are a little bit lost, and the stories themselves are a bit melancholy, but in a good way. The writing is fantastic - I will definitely be looking for more of her stories. Thank show more goodness that the NYRB keeps publishing them! show less

So, so glad that I saw this while browsing not buying at Galignani and decided to put a hold on it via SPL. Because I didn't know what I was missing by having never read Mavis Gallant before. She's lovely and crisp and completely ahead of the curve. I cannot wait to read more.

I had never heard of Mavis Gallant before receiving a copy of this book, and I'm so glad I got a copy. Gallant's short stories are about people after World War II, mostly in Europe. She has shown me a time and place that I never would have been able to experience otherwise. Her characters all are adrift in the world in some way. This isn't the book to read when you want to be jollied out of a bad mood. Read it when you want to luxuriate in a rainy day. Her use of the English language and the details she chooses paint a remarkably vivid picture. I really enjoyed the short-story format. It's a fast read, but you can put it down and pick it back up again for another story without losing anything.

I am a huge Mavis Gallant fan and snapped up this new collection of her stories, mostly early ones, as soon as it was released. In any collection, some stories are better than others, but almost nobody has better insight into people who are in some way estranged from their families, the world, their relationships than Gallant.