The Pegnitz Junction by Mavis Gallant
"The Pegnitz Junction" by Mavis Gallant is a nuanced novella that explores the internal struggles of Christine, a young German woman at a pivotal moment in her life. Engaged to a theology student, Christine embarks on a holiday to Paris with her lover Herbert and his son Bert, viewing the trip as a measure of their compatibility. The narrative predominantly unfolds on a train journey back to Germany, where the focus is largely on Christine's introspection and imaginative musings rather than external events. Through her reflections, she creates fictional scenarios about other passengers that reveal her dissatisfaction with her own life and relationships.
Gallant contrasts Christine’s perceptions with the realities around her, highlighting themes of communication barriers and the weight of past memories that influence the characters. As the story progresses, Christine's frustration with Herbert’s tendency toward analysis and control becomes evident, reflecting broader themes of alienation and longing. The interplay between her imagined stories and the reality of her situation underscores the novella's exploration of love's complexities and the human condition. Ultimately, Christine’s desire for autonomy and clarity emerges as a critical aspect of her character, encapsulating her struggle to find meaning and connection amid the chaos of her thoughts and experiences.
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The Pegnitz Junction by Mavis Gallant
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1973
Type of work: Novella
The Work
Christine, a young German woman, is at a junction in her life. Although engaged to a theology student, she travels with her lover, Herbert, and Bert, his son, to Paris for a holiday. She considers the trip a test of how well she and Bert can get along. Most of the novella, which takes place after World War II, occurs not in Paris, but on the train back to Germany. Most of “what happens” is internal, rather than external. Although the narration leads to Christine’s marital decision, which she does not make, The Pegnitz Junction also concerns the creative process, which is capable of inventing a reality more “real” and interesting than reality. As the three travel on the train, Christine’s imagined scenarios regarding other passengers and people she sees make her own story pale in comparison. Gallant uses italics, for the most part, to distinguish Christine’s scripts from her own story.
Christine prefers Herbert to the theology student because she believes Herbert does not create “barriers”—the second thoughts, self-analysis, and talk that paradoxically prevent true communication. Before the end of the story, however, Herbert veers off into analysis, the language people use to control others. Small gestures and details add up; together they imply the dead end that Christine will eventually reach. When the drunken porter verbally abuses them in Paris, Herbert only contemplates action. On the train, he begs her to marry him and vows to put Bert in a boarding school, but later “it was as if nothing had been said.” Herbert, like so many other characters in Gallant’s fiction, is controlled by memories of his past, his failed marriage, and his mother.
Christine, who is bored and annoyed with Herbert, begins to retreat from the present, creating a stream-of-consciousness story which seems to emanate from an elderly woman passenger. That story, involving German immigrants in the United States, is full of envy, resentment, paranoia, greed, and revenge. It culminates in the woman’s petty triumph over relatives. Another invented scenario concerns a family and ends with the violent death of one of the characters. Another passenger remembers his childhood loss of Marie and the flight of his family; Christine believes that he knows that she knows about his memory. Her unspoken question to him, “Why spend a vacation in a dead landscape?” also applies to her own Paris holiday. In fact, all of Christine’s invented stories relate to her situation: the doomed search for love, the plight of the refugee, the violence felt but not expressed. At the end of the novella, Christine’s desire to have “the last word, without interference” reflects her need to take control.
Bibliography
Besner, Neil K. The Light of Imagination: Mavis Gallant’s Fiction. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1988.
Clement, Lesley D. Learning to Look: A Visual Response to Mavis Gallant’s Fiction. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000.
Coté, Nicole, and Peter Sabor, eds. Varieties of Exile: New Essays on Mavis Gallant. New York: P. Lang, 2002.
Gunnars, Kristjana, ed. Transient Questions: New Essays on Mavis Gallant. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004.
Hancock, Geoffrey. “An Interview with Mavis Gallant.” Canadian Fiction Magazine 28 (1978): 18-67. An issue devoted to Gallant.
Irvine, Lorna. “Starting from the Beginning Every Time.” In A Mazing Space: Writing Canadian, Women Writing, edited by Shirley Neuman and Smaro Kamboureli. Edmonton, Alta.: Longspoon Press, 1986.
Keefer, Janice Kulyk. Reading Mavis Gallant. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Moss, John. A Reader’s Guide to the Canadian Novel. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981.
Schaub, Danielle. Mavis Gallant. New York: Twayne, 1998.
Smythe, Karen E. Figuring Grief: Gallant, Munro, and the Poetics of Elegy. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992.