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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
I couldn't read any further than the first paragraph because I dislike anything to do with the fur trade; therefore my opinion is bias of that of an anti-fur-trade believer.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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:
Yes
i adored this. Alice munros writing is just so amazing, so well crafted, often times breathtaking. i realised reading this that all the stories, as far as I can recall, are about women and girls, mothers and daughters, sisters, friends, and i loved that. so many complicated relationships and flawed characters that are so fully realised in just 20 pages, u feel like u have met them. Munro has the ability to put feelings that I have always felt into words in a way that I could never. her sentences are so beautifully constructed that u see and feel everything and the simplest thing seems profound. she understands and writes human emotion in its complexity so well.
i have so so many lines in this book underlined. and it wasn't a challenging read either. the language, though brilliant, isn't complex to understand, and she paints the clearest images of scenes and nature and these rural towns of Ontario. i will definitely be reading more of her collections. this is such a strong debut. some feminist themes too in this collection! i just loved it and am so excited to absorb more of her brilliant intelligent beautiful prose.
i have so so many lines in this book underlined. and it wasn't a challenging read either. the language, though brilliant, isn't complex to understand, and she paints the clearest images of scenes and nature and these rural towns of Ontario. i will definitely be reading more of her collections. this is such a strong debut. some feminist themes too in this collection! i just loved it and am so excited to absorb more of her brilliant intelligent beautiful prose.
Many words far better than the ones which I can put together into a sentence have been said about Alice Munro’s extraordinary talent. Many of those words have been directed at this book, her first collection of stories, and how remarkable it is for being a first collection of stories. Having read it one wonders why there haven’t been more words devoted to it or its author, why she, unfortunately, remains hidden away from most readers for no reason other than her chosen form. Alice Munro is a wonder, a treasure, the best living writer in the English language.
I read her books slowly, as I do with most short story collections, picking up stories and then putting the book down for a week or maybe longer at a time, and so I often spend four or five or six months reading the same collection. With other authors this doesn’t work, it seems, breathing so much between the stories, but with Munro it is the only way I can steal away enough determination to make it through her work. One doesn’t steal away determination for Munro because they are unpleasurable - in fact, I often want to read many of her stories back to back and force myself to put her work down, because you don’t rush your way through Munro anymore than you would rush your way through Beckett - but because they require attention. Not an inordinate amount, the magic of Munro being that the stuff happens and develops without the reader knowing it, but enough that you can’t half-ass your way through her stories.
But everything you give to Munro she gives back to you many times over. I read several of the stories in this collection many times, and with each reading I acquired a new and deeper understanding of her art, her characters, the fine, precise shaping of their humanity and surroundings. I would start stories, put them down feeling I couldn’t handle the tension, pick them up and in the first paragraphs discover some new sorcery, and both the first reading and the second would be startled by the end result of the story. And I would be quite unexpectedly weakened by that end results at times. The Office, for example, left me wandering the streets of Colombia for a few days with some inexplicable weariness, almost crying for a moment or two without realizing that I was almost crying for a moment or two. The Peace of Urtecht made me wonder at the borders of independence of servitude in family life. Images and Walker Brothers Cowboy made me wonder at the unknown and unknowable aspects of the world around us. Boy and Girls, have you read Boy and Girls?, because Boys and Girls is perhaps the greatest short story I have ever read about a young person confronting reality - which is, I suppose her central theme, the human spirit confronting and contorting their self to the demands of a unrelenting and unforgiving reality.
There are some astonishing classics here, as there are in any book by Munro, but here, as they often are with Munro, the stories are relentless in their consistent quality, hence why I needed space between them to recuperate and breathe. Red Dress-1946, Postcard, Sunday Afternoon, Dance of the Happy Shades, The Shining Houses. You could name nearly every single story in this collection and recommend it as a stellar example in the art of crafting and shaping literature.
Unfortunately, Munro has retired from writing, and so I don’t anticipate receiving any more of her wisdom in the coming years, and I wonder if she will allow her family to release the unreleased after she passes. Fortunately, I have enough books by her to keep me thrilled to read for years to come. Damn near too many, perhaps. I float in a sea of riches, or I drown in them; either way I am, with Munro, in a rare state of admiration and euphoria. Read this book, or any of her books, especially if you don’t like short stories, and especially if you like short stories.
I read her books slowly, as I do with most short story collections, picking up stories and then putting the book down for a week or maybe longer at a time, and so I often spend four or five or six months reading the same collection. With other authors this doesn’t work, it seems, breathing so much between the stories, but with Munro it is the only way I can steal away enough determination to make it through her work. One doesn’t steal away determination for Munro because they are unpleasurable - in fact, I often want to read many of her stories back to back and force myself to put her work down, because you don’t rush your way through Munro anymore than you would rush your way through Beckett - but because they require attention. Not an inordinate amount, the magic of Munro being that the stuff happens and develops without the reader knowing it, but enough that you can’t half-ass your way through her stories.
But everything you give to Munro she gives back to you many times over. I read several of the stories in this collection many times, and with each reading I acquired a new and deeper understanding of her art, her characters, the fine, precise shaping of their humanity and surroundings. I would start stories, put them down feeling I couldn’t handle the tension, pick them up and in the first paragraphs discover some new sorcery, and both the first reading and the second would be startled by the end result of the story. And I would be quite unexpectedly weakened by that end results at times. The Office, for example, left me wandering the streets of Colombia for a few days with some inexplicable weariness, almost crying for a moment or two without realizing that I was almost crying for a moment or two. The Peace of Urtecht made me wonder at the borders of independence of servitude in family life. Images and Walker Brothers Cowboy made me wonder at the unknown and unknowable aspects of the world around us. Boy and Girls, have you read Boy and Girls?, because Boys and Girls is perhaps the greatest short story I have ever read about a young person confronting reality - which is, I suppose her central theme, the human spirit confronting and contorting their self to the demands of a unrelenting and unforgiving reality.
There are some astonishing classics here, as there are in any book by Munro, but here, as they often are with Munro, the stories are relentless in their consistent quality, hence why I needed space between them to recuperate and breathe. Red Dress-1946, Postcard, Sunday Afternoon, Dance of the Happy Shades, The Shining Houses. You could name nearly every single story in this collection and recommend it as a stellar example in the art of crafting and shaping literature.
Unfortunately, Munro has retired from writing, and so I don’t anticipate receiving any more of her wisdom in the coming years, and I wonder if she will allow her family to release the unreleased after she passes. Fortunately, I have enough books by her to keep me thrilled to read for years to come. Damn near too many, perhaps. I float in a sea of riches, or I drown in them; either way I am, with Munro, in a rare state of admiration and euphoria. Read this book, or any of her books, especially if you don’t like short stories, and especially if you like short stories.
This is Alice Munro's first published collection of short stories, and the book that put her, Alice Munro, Nobel Prize for Literature recipient, and winner of Every Major Canadian Writing Award, EVER, on the map.
It was originally printed in 1968.
I can’t even imagine the shock of picking up this collection of short stories and being blindsided by this sheer genius for the first time. To not know it was coming, and then just getting to sink down into her expertly imagined worlds.
She can tell you more in two paragraphs than some authors can in a whole lifetime of writing.
She writes about ordinary people in ordinary small towns in ordinary Canada. In my opinion, this is the hardest kind of fiction to write; to make interesting; to make propulsive. And she just breathes it out of her being.
You will recognize yourself and everyone you know in these stories. Although they were all written over 50 years ago. Change a few descriptions here and there, and these could be stories about today.
I read 2/day, so I could savour them. I’m now committed to reading all of her work, and I’m giddy, like I’m going to DisneyWorld giddy, about getting my hands on her next collection.
There is a blurb on the back from Atlantic Monthly: "Alice Munro is the living author, currently writing, most likely to be read in 100 years."
Well, 52 years after that quote, I concur wholeheartedly.
It was originally printed in 1968.
I can’t even imagine the shock of picking up this collection of short stories and being blindsided by this sheer genius for the first time. To not know it was coming, and then just getting to sink down into her expertly imagined worlds.
She can tell you more in two paragraphs than some authors can in a whole lifetime of writing.
She writes about ordinary people in ordinary small towns in ordinary Canada. In my opinion, this is the hardest kind of fiction to write; to make interesting; to make propulsive. And she just breathes it out of her being.
You will recognize yourself and everyone you know in these stories. Although they were all written over 50 years ago. Change a few descriptions here and there, and these could be stories about today.
I read 2/day, so I could savour them. I’m now committed to reading all of her work, and I’m giddy, like I’m going to DisneyWorld giddy, about getting my hands on her next collection.
There is a blurb on the back from Atlantic Monthly: "Alice Munro is the living author, currently writing, most likely to be read in 100 years."
Well, 52 years after that quote, I concur wholeheartedly.
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes