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moolissabarney's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
marialianou's review against another edition
4.0
A great collection of short stories. My favorite by far was The Bear Came Over The Mountain. A very powerful story about the Alzheimer's disease. Also, I really enjoyed the stories: Post and Beam, and Nettles. Alice Munro has a unique way of writing with a completely honest way about all the simple and quite not so insignificant, after all, things and aspects of everyday life.
betweenbookends's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
Munro's stories were a revelation. She shows you how a short story can be so much more than what you would expect. There are lot of writers writing about ordinary life in an extraordinary way, but Munro's writing has an unexpected intelligence to it. Her stories are deceptively deep and run the entire gamut of human emotions. Beyond the families, character dynamics, relationships and circumstances, all explored with an incredibly observant, clear eyed understanding of human nature, there is still something more to her stories. Something that can't quite be quantified or even described easily. Every story in this collection is a gem. But ofcourse, every collection has particular standouts.
The title story is one of the best opening stories I've read charting the serendipitous formation of a relationship between two unlikely people in unlikely circumstances.
Comfort follows a middle aged woman in a kind of spiritual conundrum following the death of her husband, a vehement atheist who took his own life, wondering if he is in a 'better' place now.
Nettles follows childhood sweethearts reunited perchance decades later and the looming tragedies of their independent lives.
Post and Beam is another beautifully haunting story that is impossible to encapsulate in a single sentence.
The Bear Came over the Mountain follows a husband having to put his wife in a care home following the onset of dementia and each finding love and solace in the unlikeliest places.
The rest of the stories were just as good. It's the kind of collection that must be included in any short story writing / literature course as the mastery and craft at play here is just on a whole other level.
The title story is one of the best opening stories I've read charting the serendipitous formation of a relationship between two unlikely people in unlikely circumstances.
Comfort follows a middle aged woman in a kind of spiritual conundrum following the death of her husband, a vehement atheist who took his own life, wondering if he is in a 'better' place now.
Nettles follows childhood sweethearts reunited perchance decades later and the looming tragedies of their independent lives.
Post and Beam is another beautifully haunting story that is impossible to encapsulate in a single sentence.
The Bear Came over the Mountain follows a husband having to put his wife in a care home following the onset of dementia and each finding love and solace in the unlikeliest places.
The rest of the stories were just as good. It's the kind of collection that must be included in any short story writing / literature course as the mastery and craft at play here is just on a whole other level.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
Canadian Nobel Laureate & short story master Alice Munro is inevitably compared to Chekov for her skill at illuminating ordinary lives. Not bad company! Both also favor plainspoken realism over the sparse staccato of Hemingway & Carver. She first started scribbling stories while her children napped—“My writing simply distressed me, it was so bad”—& stuck with the form even as she longed to write a D.H. Lawrence-like opus. “I can’t do it yet. And believe me, I’m always trying,” she said—at 90! This 2001 collection veers into dark terrain (cancer, Alzheimer’s), complicated emotions & lousy husbands. “It was a long time ago that this happened. In North Vancouver when they lived in the Post & Beam house. When she was 24-years-old, & new to bargaining.”
lord_al's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ckiyoko's review against another edition
5.0
Almost all of these circle affairs, cheating (either physical or emotional), and/or the bounds of a relationship, but in such varied ways. And what rich worlds we enter in such short page-spans. I've read Munro before, but getting to read an entire collection and see the stories in conversation with one another is such a treat. Hell yeah.
karenreads1000s's review against another edition
3.0
OK. Short stories are not my favorite format and I struggled to find a flow or theme amongst these.
amibunk's review against another edition
Alice Munro's writing is brilliant. However, I have the same problem with these stories as I do with "Olive Kitteridge." I can't overcome the ingrained and innate sadness in each story.