Four gems from Gallico

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 24

Four gems from Gallico

The Best of Paul Gallico. Michael Joseph, 1989. 216 pp. $39.95. (Reviewed by Margaret Quigley) Paul Gallico was born in 1897 and after serving in World War 1 he worked as a journalist on the New York “Daily News.” In 1939 his first novel, “The Adventures of Hiram Halliday,” appeared; in the three decades after that a new Paul Gallico was a regular and welcome literary event.

Almost all his works were well received, his name was well-known, and some of his novels were transformed into charming films. His character, Mrs Harris, who first appeared in “Flowers for Mrs Harris” and subsequently featured in several other adventures, became a well-loved personality. Yet the score or so stories and books on which his fame rested were of a varying standard of excellence so it was with some trepidation that I studied the contents of this selection entitled “The Best of Paul Gallico”; and it was with considerable relief I found that the four stories contained here are, in my opinion, really the

best work that the author produced. This “omnibus edition” contains four slight but nearly perfect stories (and those adjectives probably encapsulate Paul Gallico’s talent as a writer.) “The Snow Goose,” Galileo's most famous work, tells of the friendship forged between a lonely artist and a timid young girl as they tend an injured snow goose; it is set on the desolate Essex marshes at the time of Dunkirk. “The Small Miracle" concerns the

simple belief of a small Italian boy, Pepino, that St Francis will cure his beloved donkey; “The Love of Seven Dolls” is a moving story of the redemptive power of love; and "Ludmila,” the slightest of the four, tells of a small cow in Liechtenstein, who achieves her greatest wish. In all of them the widely different settings are beautifully realised and the miracles of human and animal love and faith are touchingly portrayed with true sentiment, but without saccharine sentimentality. This handsomely produced edition should prove an excellent introduction to Paul Gallico’s writing for a whole new generation of readers.