Overhead in a Balloon
Twelve Stories of Paris
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The City of Lights, as seen by one of its greatest citizens and admirers
Paris has been inspiring writers for centuries. Its neighborhoods and people make for a never-ending flow of potential stories. Mavis Gallant, Canadian by birth but Parisian since the 1950s, has created an incredibly loving and accomplished tribute to her adoptive home.
In this collection, Gallant illustrates the surprising sense of interconnectedness that comes from living in a big city, as characters from one story drift into another, disappearing only to pop up again much later. The book’s longest work depicts a wily art dealer looking to revive his business by “discovering” an obscure painter, despite the fact that the artist is both Canadian and no longer living. Other tales depict the experiences of the Pugh family, as its American relatives attempt to connect with their French roots.
Overhead in a Balloon weaves together the threads and experiences of a multitude of Parisians, each story suffused with Gallant’s feel for detail and atmosphere.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gallant ( Home Truths, etc.) sets these adroit stories (11 previously appeared in the New Yorker, one in Harper's in Paris, her home since 1950, binding them with droll, sometimes poignant humor and an assemblage of characters who pop up repeatedly, along with their relatives, neighbors and colleagues. Least successful is the title story, a dense confection combining an aged, confused mother, her exasperated brood, a rambling apartment and a morose tenant in a flurry of shifting focuses. Far more enjoyable is a trio of stories involving a testy French novelist and British author, once proteges of a singularly misguided, rich American, who aim literary potshots at each other across the years. Gallant is a master at montage; the overlapping angles of lives on view here hint deliciously at the full picture, yet never sate by tediously filling in all the details.
