A Fairly Good Time

by Mavis Gallant

The heroine of this bittersweet novel, Shirley Perrigny lives a respectable, but disordered, life and has trouble communicating with, and relating to those about her

Genres: Canada, Fiction, Novels, France

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Canadian journalist and fiction writer. In her twenties, Gallant worked as a reporter for the Montreal Standard. She left journalism in 1950 to pursue fiction writing. To that end, always needing autonomy and privacy, she moved to France.

In 1981, Gallant was honoured by her native country and made an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contribution to literature. That same year she also received the Governor General's Award for literature for her collection of stories, Home Truths. In 1983-84, she returned to Canada as the University of Toronto's writer-in-residence. In 1991 Queen’s University awarded her an honorary LL.D. In 1993 she was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada.

In 1989, Gallant was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2000, she won the Matt Cohen Prize, and in 2002 the Rea Award for the Short Story. The O. Henry Prize Stories of 2003 was dedicated to her. In 2004, Gallant was awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship.

With Alice Munro, Gallant was one of a few Canadian authors whose works regularly appeared in The New Yorker. Many of Gallant’s stories had debuted in the magazine before subsequently being published in a collection.

Although she maintained her Canadian citizenship, Gallant continued to live in Paris, France since the 1950s.

On November 8, 2006, Mavis Gallant received the Prix Athanase-David from the government of her native province of Quebec. She was the first author writing in English to receive this award in its 38 years of existence.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's a woman to do when her French husband leaves her? All sorts of things apparently. I have to say that I found Gallant's short fiction to be better, but there are some beautiful passages in this novel about Shirley as she tried to find her way in Paris as she moves among confusing French people.

[1.1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mavis Gallant being the author, I knew the writing would be immaculate, so there was no question of the book being an unreadable mess. I found the narrative was not very interesting and hard to follow, but the characters and situations were often enough to keep me reading. This reminded me of her nearly interminable short stories, which are masterful but I find I need to be in a certain state to really enter and enjoy them.

I was frustrated at times by my inability to focus and follow but in the end I'll chalk that up to masterful construction - life isn't neat, the processes of thought aren't always clean or logical, and other people are almost always frustrating to deal with and filled with inconsistencies and stubborn courses of action. That, or the book was not exactly what I enjoy, or, finally, my mind is rapidly falling apart and my ability to read fiction is disappearing.

So, yeah, this novel was worth the (admittedly long) time I spent reading it, and I did enjoy it, and it exceeded or escaped my expectations.

[Nicholas George · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those densely-written literary novels that has a story buried somewhere inside but which only occasionally peeks around the corners or through the cracks. Essentially it's about Shirley, a 27-year-old Canadian in the throes of a dissolving second marriage with a Frenchman in Paris in the early 1960s. We witness a lot of scenes between Shirley and her husband's difficult family (mother and sister), her mother (through letters) as well as her own social circle. Shirley comes across as something of a mess, unsure of what she wants out of life, unable to hold a job, suspicious of everyone's motives. I was never able to tell if I was on her side or not. It was clear the novel was trying to make some feminist statement about the burdens and disadvantages given to women, even in a "modern" society. But most of it went past me.

[Tinta de limón (IG: tinta_limon) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Después de conocer la vida de Mavis Gallant una se da cuenta que esta historia y su protagonista tienen mucho que ver con ella.

Gallant nos cuenta la historia de Shirley, una joven canadiense expatriada en París, despreciada por los parisinos y cuestionada por sus compatriotas.

En esta novela pasan muchas cosas, pero lo más relevante es observar cómo su protagonista va evolucionando y empoderándose página a página. Hay un claro punto de salida y de llegada, un acompañamiento emocional que hace que sea difícil no sentir afecto por Shirley y tener ganas de darle un gran abrazo.

“Cuando te levantes por la mañana, di para ti misma: Por lo pronto, yo; los demás, ya veremos”. (Mavis Gallant. Una vida aceptable)

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meandering, like her short stories, but A Fairly Good Time is 300 pages, so it seems aimless.
The plot (such as it is) is too expansive to cram into a short story (although some of the chapters I felt could nearly stand alone as a story), but drawn out to novel length, it sort of loses its punch. I'll read anything by Mavis Gallant cause she can describe a situation or a character like no other, I am happy Ms Gallant wrote a novel, however, and I am glad I have read it. . . Yes I'd say I had a fairly good time reading it.

[Kallie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am reading this novel for the second time (decades between times). Before, I admired the writing as I do any writing by Mavis Gallant; this time I feel how real it is to circle yet avoid grief and loss, regarding both with dread and fascination. This is in no way a conventional narrative. Why should it be? The character is too messy for that, and too wise (though others in the story are not honest enough to recognize her wisdom) to pretend a neat character. And of course there is the voice. Mavis Gallant's is like no other.

[Nimbex · Rating 2 out of 5]

No he podido conectar con este libro ni con su protagonista, la mayor parte del tiempo me parecía que la historia no iba a ninguna parte. Hacia la segunda mitad de la narración las cosas empiezan a avanzar pero me ha resultado un poco demasiado tarde.

[Yvonne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly good read.

[Ixone · Rating 2 out of 5]

al principio interesante pero pa la pagina 150 me aburria

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Whenever I thought I was exercising a talent for irony he thought I was being intolerably arch." Perfectly captures the interminable North American / French divide.

[Katia]

Vacillated between pmo and being genuinely insightful

[Michèle Demoete · Rating 2 out of 5]

i am currently reading it. her main character reminds me of Françoise Sagan's characters or even life... not in a hurry to finish it.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was going to be better than it was, after reading The Other Paris, which I loved. I just couldn't get into it.

[Jill Olswanger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complicated, rich, funny and tragic- in 270 pages, Gallant covers it all- mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, men and women, friendship, love, class, culture. Communicating her characters inability to communicate in fabulous prose, she updated Henry James in much more succinct, psychologically nuanced form than he could ever muster. Holly Golightly goes to Paris.

[Judy Hilvers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definite book club book. Could not have enjoyed without a lively discussion and shared views and perspectives. Author has become widely acclaimed. Her story is pertinent to how and why she writes.

[Cuồng Say]

good and depressing