My Heart Is Broken

by Mavis Gallant

My Heart Is Broken, an anthology of several stories and a novella, examines the despair of a variety of exiles who inhabit a series of run-down hotels in Europe.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Female Authors

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

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

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of her best stories ('The Cost of Living', 'The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street', 'Bernadette'), a few very entertaining but slighter pieces ('The Moabitess', a very Katherine Mansfield-like story about an impoverished spinster stranded for life on the Riviera -- incidentally one of Gallant's favourite haunts, at least in her fiction), a few weaker stories (at least to my taste: 'Acceptance of Their Ways', 'Sunday Afternoon'), and one very long piece, designated as 'a short novel' in the table of contents: Its Image on the Mirror.

At a hundred pages this tale is indeed at least a novella. But although it's been called 'an unqualified success' by some reviewers, I tend to agree with the New York Times reviewer who wrote, on this collection's first appearance, that 'the elements never quite coalesce, never seem more than preliminary notes for a novel which was never written'. The narrative of this novella is so condensed, presented in such an elliptical way, that I just couldn't get into it. In much of her fiction, Gallant always seems to be at one remove from her characters, maintaining a certain kind of intellectual distance that sometimes makes it hard for the reader to identify with any of them or see them other than as insects crawling around under Gallant's lens. That's usually offset by her wit and intelligence, but here that aloofness seems to get the better of her, or get the better of the narrative. At least it did for me.

[Aaron Ambrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gallant’s specialty is the Stray - the person who never quite finds a home, just a series of branches to land on. Ambitious, pragmatic, steely eyed, deluded, often living off the fumes of a dwindling inheritance, or the kindness of an unreliable benefactor - we pity these poor saps and, moments later, recognize ourselves in them. The predictable thing rarely occurs in Gallant’s stories, except for the most predictable thing that can ever occur - that is, everybody gets on with living.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Mavis Gallant herself, several of the short stories in this collection are from Canada, mostly during the 1940s, and the rest are in Europe during the 1950s. The one novela, “Its Image on the Mirror” follows two Canadian sisters for the whole period, including World War II when they got “war jobs” in Montreal while their husbands were abroad in the armed services. In Geneva, a character recalls her Canadian childhood when she woke up early enough to hear “The Ice Wagon Coming Down the Street.” Americans, Australians, South Africans, and other wanderers try European life, and many settle into the most run-down hotels and off-season pensions in order to get by. Whatever the setting, the ease with which Gallant’s narrative shifts among her characters’ thoughts builds intensity even in the quietest drawing room.

[Mark Edlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Canadian Fiction - first of all, I did not know this was a collection of short stories. I don't like short story collections so am biased already. This book has not aged well. The stories are written about Canadians just after WWII in various countries or situations. Woman are given short shrift; the men are whiny and struggling to convince people they are successful. I just read it to say I had.
Canadian references - most stories are set in Canada or have Canadian characters. One tolerable young woman is from Saskatchewan.
No pharmacy references

[Ellice · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a couple of stories in this collection (including the longest, a novella called "The Image on the Mirror") that I found a bit tedious, but for the most part, they were enjoyable. Gallant draws her characters with a razor blade and uses language the same way. The plot of each story is almost negligible in the face of her writing and characterization--but it doesn't matter.

[Monzenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The twist proper is notable, one can see the impact of that heinous act

[Linda Leith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of eight short stories, including some favourites like "Bernadette" and "Acceptance of their Ways," and a fascinating short novel called "Its Image on the Mirror," which is otherwise hard to find. Set in a small Quebec town called Allenton and in Montreal, mostly in the war years and the 1950s, "Its Image on the Mirror" tells the story of the Duncan family. The eldest, Jean Price, is the narrator, and the main focus of her attention is her beautiful sister Isobel. Eleven-year-old Poppy Duncan is a minor character, the unhappy daughter of Jean and Isobel's brother Frank, who was killed in England near the end of the war. Poppy is one of the characters who has something in common with Gallant herself. Like Gallant herself, like Linnet Muir (the main character in the six quasi-autobiographical Montreal stories), Poppy has a history of running away from school.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mavis Gallant is a wonderful short story writer. This is a collection of some of her earlier stories, mostly published in the New Yorker. This really is a "collection," not a coherent work in its own right - there is a novella somewhat awkwardly included in the middle of the book - so I think it's better dipped into than read from cover to cover. If you're going to read just one, "Bernadette" is Gallant at her best.

I would highly recommend the New York Review Books Classics compilations of Gallant's stories, selected and introduced by writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri and Michael Ondaatje. The strongest stories in My Heart is Broken, including Bernadette and The Cost of Living, are included in the new early stories collection selected by Lahiri.

[Mary Westbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how I've gone this long without ever reading Mavis Gallant. "My Heart is Broken" is excellent, but part of my excitement about the book is also finding an author I like so much with such a deep body of work. The writing reminds some of Munro, a little of Edith Pearlman. The stories feel natural, vital and true. I can't wait to read more.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of sharp short stories from Canadian author: precise, well-chosen details; acerbic, coolly detached voice; critical; true master of craft.

[Monica]

More short stories...

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ummmmm. Short stories by Mavis Gallant. An amazing Canadian woman who has lived and worked in Paris since the 1950s.

[Manjunath.V]

it was nice