A review by ryancahill
The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose by Alice Munro

I am a full-fledged stan for Alice Munro, and I am slowly working my way through her entire collected works; this is one of the first collections I’ve read of her earlier works, and while I think her mid-to-late career collections are her finest (I am a big defender of Too Much Happiness), I have yet to read a single Munro story that has left me entirely dry. One in this collection — “Providence” — came close, tracking the aimlessness of protagonist Rose’s mid-adulthood, and feeling rather aimless itself, but otherwise I found here all of the same qualities I love about her writing: the natural progressions from memory to memory, the mid-story shifts into new and startling territory, the perfect closing lines that often give me chills (“Who Do You Think You Are?” and “Simon’s Luck” did it for me in this collection). This collection, much like some of the stories in Runaway, has the added benefit of centering around one protagonist, but these nonetheless feel like contained units, even when some of the pay-off is a result of compounded depth. I am incredibly grateful that Munro, throughout her career, wed herself exclusively to the short story form. It has been said plenty of times, but she is a master.