Books
by Alice Munro
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Dear Life |
Short stories, therefore a challenge. I was new to Munro but when she won this year's Nobel prize for literature, I felt I must read her. This is her latest volume: vignettes of small-time life in rural Canada. Each like a novel pared down and down leaving not much more than the skeletal remains. Read once to get the gist, then read again slowly to decipher their meaning. Like fine wine or malted whisky!
(Jenny Baker - bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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Selected Short Stories |
A stunning collection sketching Canadian lives from settlers to the mid 20th Century, many of them country folk: turkey farmers, muskrat trappers, salesmen, various oddballs, bookshop owners, refugees from marriages and extended families. We are drawn irresistibly into their worlds through Munro's sympathy and detail, and by her scarily acute insight into the emotional forces at work behind the social and financial constraints. Some surprising twists as well - should appeal to Margaret Atwood/Anne Tyler fans!
(Victoria Grey-Edwards - bwl 14 July 2002) |
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The View from Castle Rock |
Is this non-fiction? Not really, but then it's not fiction either, rather a personal embroidering of the story of Munro's ancestors, up to her own life. She talks about 'the need to turn your life into a story' and this she does, her story-teller's imagination fleshing out the bare facts, depths, nuances, insights conveyed with the lightest touch. Having not read her before, I was interested to see why she won the Nobel Prize. Now I know.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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Too Much Happiness |
Another book of short stories, darker with hints of menace which reveal how we all deal with what life throws at us. The final story takes Munro away from her familiar Canadian landscape as she weaves a tale about Sophia Kovalevsky, the 19C female Russian mathematician who immigrated to Sweden. I found this particularly fascinating as it was a departure for her. The stories and writing are as good as ever.
(Christine Miller - bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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