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h0m3r's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
willowbiblio's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"But wasn't the real fault hers? Her conviction that anyone who could fall in love with her must be hopelessly lacking, must finally be revealed as a fool?
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This book was a set of interconnected short stories presented as a novel. Rose grows up in extreme poverty and, as a child and teen, is in constant battle/discord with Flo, her stepmother. Her desire to shed the history and gain a sense of security and belonging leads her to seek safety in men. Rose overlays a personality and savior fantasy onto them that is entirely divorced from reality, and in this Munro captures that longing for others to fix or make us somehow good enough or less ourselves.
Rose consistently adapts to who the people around her want most, and so never develops a strong sense of self or direction. Munro is phenomenal at writing female characters who are aware of the dilemma of being smart and capable, but female. She also addressed the privilege that comes with whiteness and financial stability well.
I found the Franny story to be extremely uncomfortable to read, as well as Rose's assault on the train. It was interesting how Munro made Patrick and and Clifford foils of one another. Neither saw Rose for herself, both hurt her, and she used them to hurt herself as well. Rose was constantly seeking the right man to fill the void in herself, and intentionally drove healthy ones away because of her need to continue the narrative of undeserving (captured by the quote I chose above).
I liked that we circled back to Flo's later years to see how their relationship matured and became about Rose returning some of the care Flo had shown her, albeit each in her own convoluted way.
--------------
This book was a set of interconnected short stories presented as a novel. Rose grows up in extreme poverty and, as a child and teen, is in constant battle/discord with Flo, her stepmother. Her desire to shed the history and gain a sense of security and belonging leads her to seek safety in men. Rose overlays a personality and savior fantasy onto them that is entirely divorced from reality, and in this Munro captures that longing for others to fix or make us somehow good enough or less ourselves.
Rose consistently adapts to who the people around her want most, and so never develops a strong sense of self or direction. Munro is phenomenal at writing female characters who are aware of the dilemma of being smart and capable, but female. She also addressed the privilege that comes with whiteness and financial stability well.
I found the Franny story to be extremely uncomfortable to read, as well as Rose's assault on the train. It was interesting how Munro made Patrick and and Clifford foils of one another. Neither saw Rose for herself, both hurt her, and she used them to hurt herself as well. Rose was constantly seeking the right man to fill the void in herself, and intentionally drove healthy ones away because of her need to continue the narrative of undeserving (captured by the quote I chose above).
I liked that we circled back to Flo's later years to see how their relationship matured and became about Rose returning some of the care Flo had shown her, albeit each in her own convoluted way.
wandererzarina's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
krobart's review against another edition
4.0
See my review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/day-1047-the-beggar-maid/
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/day-1047-the-beggar-maid/
__arby's review against another edition
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
susanbrooks's review against another edition
2.0
Munro is a skillful writer, but I found Rose and her observations strangely detached and clinical.
kategci's review against another edition
4.0
This is a selection for one of my book groups and initially, I was not happy as I am not a short story fan. I have several volumes on my shelves and have read pieces from each, but I really struggle to enjoy them. When I first started The Beggar Maid, I was struggling with Alice Munro's style which included a lot of reminiscing and details. I was looking for more action. By the third story, I was hooked on the story of Flo and her step-daughter Rose who are from a small town. This series of interconnected stories follows Rose from childhood through her placing Flo in the town nursing home. Alice Munro writes beautifully and captures the nuances of this very fraught relationship with spare phrases of dialogue while saving words for descriptions. It is all the unsaid which made this book for me. All the characters assume things about each other, for to say them out in the open would be showy or rude which leads to many misunderstandings and hurt feelings as well as opportunities missed. These stories start soon after World War II and it is very much of its time when feelings were not discussed and dissected.I am looking forward to very interesting discussion later this week.
giovydsb's review against another edition
5.0
Rose è, “pirandellianamente” parlando, una che si guarda vivere. È consapevole del suo sforzo per interpretare dei ruoli, per nascondersi dietro a un atteggiamento studiato o a delle parole ben meditate. Nei suoi racconti ha sempre “il ruolo di una testimone distaccata e superiore”. Mai compromettersi. Mai svelarsi. Non a caso, di mestiere fa l'attrice. È un'attrice fin da bambina, quando cerca di imitare i modi di fare di una ragazza molto popolare nella sua scuola, o si atteggia a donna vissuta nel parlare della malattia del padre. Se da una parte Rose si compiace dei ruoli che interpreta, dall'altra soffre perché non riesce ad essere liberamente quello che è, perché è sempre attenta a non lasciarsi andare e a non aspettarsi niente. Anche nella relazione con Patrick non è in grado di essere completamente se stessa, e continua ad aver paura che tutto si riveli una delusione:
Ma la vera colpa non era sua? Della sua convinzione che se un ragazzo si innamorava di lei doveva per forza essere senza speranza, e rivelarsi alla fine un cretino?
La vocazione di Rose, dunque, non è quella alla verità, ma al racconto. Inizierà a uscire dal suo congegno di nascondimento solo con la vicenda che chiude il libro, quando finalmente mantiene il silenzio, “soddisfatta dell'esistenza di almeno una cosa che non avrebbe guastato raccontandola, benché sapesse che a farla tacere era stata la penuria di materiale almeno quanto il dignitoso riserbo”.
È impossibile non affezionarsi alla fragile (ma a suo modo combattiva) Rose, e al mondo in cui vive, popolato da personaggi indimenticabili, come Patrick, nel quale “arroganza e modestia risultano stranamente esagerate”, e Flo, scorbutica donna di provincia, che rappresenta un mondo da cui Rose vuole allontanarsi, ma a cui è indissolubilmente legata.
Ma la vera colpa non era sua? Della sua convinzione che se un ragazzo si innamorava di lei doveva per forza essere senza speranza, e rivelarsi alla fine un cretino?
La vocazione di Rose, dunque, non è quella alla verità, ma al racconto. Inizierà a uscire dal suo congegno di nascondimento solo con la vicenda che chiude il libro, quando finalmente mantiene il silenzio, “soddisfatta dell'esistenza di almeno una cosa che non avrebbe guastato raccontandola, benché sapesse che a farla tacere era stata la penuria di materiale almeno quanto il dignitoso riserbo”.
È impossibile non affezionarsi alla fragile (ma a suo modo combattiva) Rose, e al mondo in cui vive, popolato da personaggi indimenticabili, come Patrick, nel quale “arroganza e modestia risultano stranamente esagerate”, e Flo, scorbutica donna di provincia, che rappresenta un mondo da cui Rose vuole allontanarsi, ma a cui è indissolubilmente legata.
jenmcmaynes's review against another edition
3.0
In this collection of connected short stories, roughly following Rose’s life in chronological order with her stepmother, Flo, bracketing each end, Munro sets the two women in contrast to each other. Flo with her rough, practical air and dislike for people “taking on airs and being something than they are”, and Rose, an actor who acts her way through relationships and events, constantly reinventing herself. As Rose struggles out of poverty and “makes it” in the wider world, she constantly doubts herself, perhaps rightly, because of Flo’s influence. It was interesting and a bit disconcerting to read characters so flawed, so close to self knowledge, so close to happiness, but who rarely actually achieve it. Munro also has the mid-20th century American obsession with marriage, divorce, and freedom that I had thus far only encountered in male authors. I know Munro is described as a master of the shorty story. I’m not sure if I see that, but I am impressed with the compassion with with she treats her flawed and in many ways unlikeable characters.
haniah's review against another edition
4.5
Ms. Munro, the woman that you are. khala gifted me this book last summer when i was living in ottawa. i saw the cover and thought "damn that's ugly" and never gravitated towards reading it. well lo and behold a year later, two of the short stories are assigned in my class and the book is sitting on my shelf in my apartment.
AND WHAT A SHAME IT WAS THAT I NEVER READ IT BEFORE. you know those books of genius that sit on your shelf that you regret not giving a chance to, because a brilliant piece of writing was under your nose the whole time?? just waiting to be discovered?? that was this. there is this one passage in one of her short stories that read me like a book. it described my whole life. i was in shock. in shambles. I sent a video to three of my friends raving about how insightful of a writer she is. I think this is the perfect book to read in your 20s, as you try to figure out who you think you are. absolutely brilliant. I will read again.
AND WHAT A SHAME IT WAS THAT I NEVER READ IT BEFORE. you know those books of genius that sit on your shelf that you regret not giving a chance to, because a brilliant piece of writing was under your nose the whole time?? just waiting to be discovered?? that was this. there is this one passage in one of her short stories that read me like a book. it described my whole life. i was in shock. in shambles. I sent a video to three of my friends raving about how insightful of a writer she is. I think this is the perfect book to read in your 20s, as you try to figure out who you think you are. absolutely brilliant. I will read again.