{"product_id":"a-fairly-good-time-and-green-water-green-sky-9781590179871","title":"A Fairly Good Time and Green Water, Green Sky","description":"\u003cb\u003eAN NYRB CLASSICS ORIGINAL\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Mavis Gallant's novels are as memorable as her renowned short stories. Full of wit and psychological poignancy, \u003ci\u003eA Fairly Good Time\u003c\/i\u003e, here with \u003ci\u003eGreen Water, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eGreen Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, encapsulates Gallant's unparalleled skill as a storyteller. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Shirley Perrigny (née Norrington, then briefly Higgins), the heroine of \u003ci\u003eA Fairly Good Time\u003c\/i\u003e, is an original. Derided by the Parisians she lives among and chided by her fellow Canadians, this young widow--recently remarried to a French journalist named Philippe--is fond of quoting Jane Austen and Kingsley Amis and of using her myopia as a defense against social aggression. As the fixed points in Shirley's life begin to recede--Philippe having apparently though not definitively left--her freewheeling, makeshift, and self-abnegating ways come to seem an aspect of devotion to her fellow man. Could this unreliable protagonist be the unwitting heroine of her own story?\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eGreen Water, Green Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, Gallant's first novel, is a darker tale of the fractured family life of Bonnie McCarthy, an American divorcée, and her daughter, Flor. Uprooted and unmoored, mother and daughter live like itinerants--in Venice, Cannes, and Paris--glamorous and dependent. With little hope of escape, Flor attempts to flee this untidy life and the false notes of her mother.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMavis Gallant \u003c\/b\u003e(1922-2014) was born in Montreal and worked as a journalist at the \u003ci\u003eMontreal Standard\u003c\/i\u003e before moving to Europe to devote herself to writing fiction. In 1950, after traveling extensively she settled in Paris, where she would remain for the rest of her life. Over the course of her career Gallant published more than one hundred stories and dispatches in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. In 2002 she received the Rea Award for the Short Story and in 2004, the PEN\/Nabokov Award for lifetime achievement. In addition to \u003ci\u003eA Fairly Good Time\u003c\/i\u003e, New York Review Books Classics publishes three collections of Gallant's short stories: \u003ci\u003eParis Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVarieties of Exile\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003ePeter Orner\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of two collections of stories, \u003ci\u003eLast Car Over the Sagamore Bridge\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEsther Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, and two novels, \u003ci\u003eLove and Shame and Love\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo\u003c\/i\u003e. He is also the editor of two books of oral history, \u003ci\u003eUnderground America\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives\u003c\/i\u003e. His book of nonfiction \u003ci\u003eAm I Alone Here?\u003c\/i\u003e will be published in November 2016. Orner has received Guggenheim and Lannan Foundation fellowships, and two Pushcart Prizes. He teaches at San Francisco State University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51475164365074,"sku":"9781590179871","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5cf354e7-351a-446c-9553-fad3bab4c09e.jpg?v=1752589053","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-fairly-good-time-and-green-water-green-sky-9781590179871","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}