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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Alice Munro is known for her realistic depictions of everyday life in Canada in the 1940s. This book of short stories are slice-of-life vignettes, often with an unexpected twist. They show how random events can have a big impact on your life. The stories certainly were well-written. They were told in a calm matter-of-fact way, without emotion, which probably is appropriate for the time. The stories caused me to think about life circumstances far different from my own. I look forward to discussing these stories at my next book club meeting! I'm sure others will have insights to share to make them even more compelling.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
There are some at least four star stories in here and, now I’ve finished the whole book, I can kind of see why she was given a Nobel Prize, but, unfortunately, the collection is front-loaded with overlong unresolved stories about young women inexplicably forming relationships with unattractive, charmless men who don’t seem to like them.
The semi-autobiographical pieces at the end are fascinating and charming. Her conversational tone, which fell flat or irritated me on occasion in the earlier stories, worked better for me here, although they did get repetitive at points. I am left wondering whether I should have started with some of her earlier writing because perhaps she was past her peak and less sharp than she had been by the time she wrote these stories.
The turning point, when I started to respond to the stories, was Gravel. My favourites were Train, Dolly and Pride (in that order). There’s a real sense of time and place to all of the stories, and some gently lovely descriptions and character reveals.
She has a couple of verbal habits which annoy me. There’s an inexplicable jumping between tenses every so often. More gratingly, she — Alice Munro — does that thing they — writers — sometimes do of using pronouns and explanations the way I’ve — Rue — done three times in this sentence. If a pronoun leaves the meaning ambiguous then don’t use one! Just go straight to using the person’s name instead of adding it in parentheses! I think these are both intended to give a conversational, natural feel to the narration in Munro’s case, but for me they broke the flow.
The semi-autobiographical pieces at the end are fascinating and charming. Her conversational tone, which fell flat or irritated me on occasion in the earlier stories, worked better for me here, although they did get repetitive at points. I am left wondering whether I should have started with some of her earlier writing because perhaps she was past her peak and less sharp than she had been by the time she wrote these stories.
The turning point, when I started to respond to the stories, was Gravel. My favourites were Train, Dolly and Pride (in that order). There’s a real sense of time and place to all of the stories, and some gently lovely descriptions and character reveals.
She has a couple of verbal habits which annoy me. There’s an inexplicable jumping between tenses every so often. More gratingly, she — Alice Munro — does that thing they — writers — sometimes do of using pronouns and explanations the way I’ve — Rue — done three times in this sentence. If a pronoun leaves the meaning ambiguous then don’t use one! Just go straight to using the person’s name instead of adding it in parentheses! I think these are both intended to give a conversational, natural feel to the narration in Munro’s case, but for me they broke the flow.
Reminded me how much I love Alice Munro and short stories. Brilliant writing.
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Some stories are good, some stories are bad and some are worth skipping. This is a collection of all those. I believe I was disappointed because I had such high expectations off this one.
I think this was a mixed bag for me; I remember being slightly bored at times, but it was still a good first-time Alice Munro experience (and it took me 4 years post-UVic exchange to get there!)
fast-paced