Disclaimer: Arc via Netgalley.

                Thomas Keneally is most famously known, at least outside of his homeland, for his novel Schindler’s List.  This is re-issue by Open Road Media is a Keneally novel set in another World War I.

                Keneally focuses Petain and Matthias Erzberger as they journey to history and the Treaty of Versailles.  He reminds that not only are the men human but that perhaps history has been unfair to them.  For if anything, Erzberger comes across as the better man. 

                The title of the book comes from the style, for the story is relayed in an almost chatty tone with little asides.  The central characters themselves are more focused, in some cases, on their personal lives.  There is an also a disturbing trend of how some of the characters think about war.  The Second World War also hovers overheard, and nowhere is this more haunting than in Keneally’s portrayal of Petain – who comes across as almost dislikable.

                Yet, there is something about the novel that is cold.  It is an anti-war novel, an anti revenge novel, retreading in some degree the conclusion about the treaty.  It is powerful, but slightly off putting. 

                I almost didn’t buy this book.

                But I’m glad I did.

                I don’t think I have read Gallant before picking up this book, unless it was in college during the Canadian Literature course I took.  But wow.

          Paris Stories is somewhat of a misnomer as half the stories don’t take place in Paris.  The overarching theme of these stories seems to be that what people see and what actually is – in terms of relationships, reality, or anything else.  They are about creative beings.

              Many of the stories are just so stunningly beautiful and can turn so suddenly. 

               In terms of style, Gallant seems to be the love child of Austen and Twain (if Twain had actually liked Austen).

                The stories focus on families, for the most part.  A couple with children, a grandmother, a honeymoon couple, a woman and her tenet who is more than a tenet.

              It’s a good thing that the stories are so good that I have trouble deciding which one of them is my favorite.  There is “Mlle Dias De Corta”, a story told in letter form.  The narrator is one of those catty and endearing women.  Then there is “The Moselm Wife” which really isn’t about a Moselm wife.  It has the sentence, “He read steadily but cautiously now, as if every author had a design on him” (102).

             The stories are like Chinese boxes and Russian dolls.  Hidden parts, rich food, and great wine.

             Perhaps it is “From the Fifteenth District” a story about haunting but not in the way you think.  It is somewhat “Irina” about grandmother who is not what she appears to be.

                This review is crap because I cannot write about how truly wonderful this collection is.

Robin Klein is an author I remember from my younger years, spending hours between my school's library and the local one. I remember that I read a few of her books, the only problem being that aside from Hating Alison Ashley, I couldn't remember any of the titles of the ones I read and when I look at Klein's list of MG/YA works I'm not sure if the titles seem familiar because I read them or just because I saw them on the shelves a lot. So when I came across (as I do!) Came Back To Show You I Could Fly in one of my secondhand store haunts for a dollar, I thought why not?

Seymour is eleven years old and stuck with a friend of his mother's for the summer holidays. While escaping some unfriendly kids in the neighbourhood, Seymour finds himself in the yard of 20-year-old Angela, by whom he is immediately captivated. She brings colour into his dull, boring world just by her presence. But there's a lot more going on in Angie's world than Seymour realises.

This novel shows a different view of drug addiction from the eyes of a naive young boy. Seymour is smitten by Angie but he also notices her mood swings, her strange sleeping habits where she seems 'sick', her tense relationship with her family and her erratic personality. It takes Seymour a little while to realise what's really going on in Angie's world and when he does, his personal development is outstanding. He shows the courage needed to confront someone who uses drugs as Angie does, and then the progress made in his own life, read in Postscript, is heart warming. Its as if his friendship with Angie, even as unstable as she was, gave him the courage to be a more active participant in his own life. Remarkable.