Overhead in a Balloon - Hardcover

“To take up residence in the mind of Mavis Gallant, as one does in reading her stories, is a privilege and a delight....In the taut, high-wire literary performance in this volume, Mavis Gallant is at the top of her form.”
–New York Times Book Review

“This is a splendid collection...to be savoured and passed around to friends who appreciate slyness and who know about the little sadnesses which scar but do not kill.”
–Washington Post Book World

“Mavis Gallant’s fiction is among the finest ever written by a Canadian.”
–Books in Canada

“One of the great short story writers of our time.”
–Bookseller (U.K.)

“Mavis Gallant’s stories are so tightly constructed, their tone so wry that they need to be digested a little at a time, like a large piece of rich cake. And it’s hard to leave even a bit untasted.”
–Newsday

“Each story is a gem.”
–Virginia Quarterly Review

“Mavis Gallant is a master of contemporary prose and Overhead in a Balloon is a superb and triumphant collection.”
–Chapel Hill Newspaper

“[An] authority of presence coupled with Gallant’s Chekhovian eye for the intricacies of personal relationships has made Overhead in a Balloon an outstanding addition to her previous books.”
–Pittsburgh Press

From the Trade Paperback edition.

The accomplished author of these stories, all but one of which appeared in The New Yorker, is a Canadian settled in Paris. Here she portrays cultivated, comfortable Parisians whose preoccupations and preconceptions keep others at a distance. The droll lead story, "Speck's Idea," is the most entertaining. In it an aging art gallery owner hopes to exhibit a neglected artist for whom the world is now readyif he can think of such an artist. The title story describes a lonely lodger who is never accepted as part of the family with whom he boards. In "The Assembly," a group of residents meet about building security but talk past one another about personal trivia. The Paris locale, the quirky Gallic mentalities, and the rich detail evoke a foreign atmosphere, and certain characters emerge in more than one story, as in a novel. Recommended. William A. Donovan, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.